MSP Blue Mantis Grabs Funding, Promises ‘Very Aggressive’ Growth

Managed service provider Blue Mantis, which changed its name and CEO in the past 15 months, on Monday received funding with plans to spur revenue growth.

Private equity firm Recognize Partners led the funding round. Recognize focuses on funding digital services companies. Blue Mantis’ previous lead investor, Abry Partners, will continue as a minority investor. Blue Mantis made the Channel Futures 2024 Next Generation MSP list.

Blue Mantis chief revenue officer Terry Richardson called the funding “quite an inflection point.” He said Blue Mantis under Abry was more focused on profits while Recognize is looking to grow revenue and expand the business.

“We were in phase with Abry that it was really focused on value creation, which probably had more bottom-line focus than top-line,” he said. “And with the new investment, it's really centered around growth. Recognize spotted in us an entity to let them participate in very significant growth over the over the coming years.”

Blue Mantis' Terry Richardson

Blue Mantis changed its name from GreenPages in July 2023, and promoted Josh Dinneen to CEO in January 2004.

Blue Mantis Chases More M&A

Richardson said Blue Mantis will use the investment to fund a “very aggressive” five-year growth target.  He said that growth will be inorganic through acquisitions and organic through adding headcount and possibly new services. Blue Mantis last month acquired cybersecurity MSP HighTechnique, and Richardson hinted that more M&A will follow. Blue Mantis has already grown from about 150 employees to more than 400 in the last three years.

Related:Blue Mantis Boosts Cybersecurity, Public Sector Practices with Acquisition

“We have some acquisitions that were in process before this [funding] happened,” Richardson said. “And we're really looking forward to be even more aggressive in acquisitions.”

Artificial intelligence is an area where Blue Mantis will look to expand its services.

“As companies prepare for AI and recognize the importance of data, you know, we'd like to be able to beef up our capabilities in some of those areas,” Richardson said. “Data enrichment, data enablement, data analytics … anything that has to do with data.”

Recognize will receive two seats on the Blue Mantis board. Recognize partner Mike Grady will fill one of those.

Recognize's Mike Grady

"Blue Mantis is a next-gen IT solutions and services provider that is helping customers navigate a highly dynamic technology landscape," Grady said. "We believe we can build on the company’s existing foundation to drive a powerful go-to-market strategy. Combined with several near- and longer-term acquisitions that can add immediate impact, Blue Mantis will be better positioned for strong momentum with existing and new clients.”

Related:GreenPages' New Name, Blue Mantis, Matches MSP's Evolution

“We are excited to continue as investors alongside Recognize Partners," said Abry Partners partner Rob Nicewicz. "We look forward to the company’s continued success.”

Recognize began in 2022 with a $1.3 billion fund. Its founders include Cognizant Technology Solutions founder Francisco D’Souza, former Cognizant president Rajeev "Raj" Mehta, former Oracle president Charles Phillips and private equity veteran David Wasserman.