Amdaris is a nearshore software development business with offices in the UK, Moldova, Romania, and Dubai employing over 260 people. Established in Bristol in 2009, it’s run by Co-CEOs Vlad Nanu and Andy Rogers.
It has grown more than 40% year on year for the last four years and recently saw investment by Bristol-based BGF (worth £6m) to fund its organic growth and its acquisition strategy. Its clients span finance, legal, HR, real estate, energy, technology, travel and logistic sectors.
On the strengths of the West of England region, Vlad Nanu, Co-CEO, states:
“Bristol and Bath offer a combination of elements which make the area a compelling location for Amdaris. The region attracts technology inspired businesses and people which means we can find skilled colleagues and great clients. There are groups for every business sector, every stage of business, and every topic you could be interested in.
Invest Bristol & Bath were a great support as they helped us find the best networking events and using their local knowledge were able to direct us to useful contacts and similar tech businesses who were thriving in the region. Some of our best people and clients have been found by simply talking to people at events. We found them so positive we started hosting events at our own office and we hope to do so again in the future.
The transport links to the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond are excellent and we find Bristol offers everything London can but with a better quality of life – that’s important to us and our people.”
Like other regional businesses, Amdaris have had to adapt to new ways of working for both colleagues and clients.
Vlad mentions: “We already had a disaster recovery plan in place – we’d modelled it on the SARS virus outbreak and we’d even rehearsed a scenario where a virus shut down parts of the world – we hadn’t imagined the scale of his pandemic – but thankfully we were pretty well prepared.
Our people were all capable of working from home and our clients have had continuity in our software development or application support managed services. We introduced a daily update for all staff on our plans and we asked them what they wanted to know from us. This combination and making sure our clients were regularly updated has been crucial, communication is key to good business.
We had to recruit staff too during the lockdown, which meant a rather peculiar induction to Amdaris so we worked hard to make them feel part of the team through video conferences, online events and other creative solutions.”
Thanks to their prior disaster planning, Amdaris have been in a good position to manage the disruption to the business and capitalise on the rapid changes in technology.
“In terms of growth during this period we already had a great pipeline of prospective clients and we worked hard to help them to deliver the software they needed to grow – their success means our success” said Vlad.
“Our clients were investing in technology to help them emerge more productive on the other side Covid-19 and so we continue to help them emerge as stronger businesses. As a result, we had our best-ever first half of the year in terms of revenue, new clients and new employees, doubling our staff in the Bristol office.”
Amdaris have recently accepted investment in the business which will fund expansion plans. The management team has been strengthened as well as bringing a Chairman onto their board.
Vlad added: “We expect that in the next four years we will quadruple the size of the business in terms of revenue, staff, and clients so our focus is now on building the systems and processes that will cope with that scale of operations. We are also considering several acquisitions which will offer a wider range of services to our clients.”
Whilst this is new territory for all businesses, adapting and changing is key to a brighter future and Amdaris continues to do so enabling numerous other businesses to carry on doing the same.
"Invest Bristol & Bath were a great support as they helped us find the best networking events and using their local knowledge were able to direct us to useful contacts and similar tech businesses who were thriving in the region."
