Lyon Tech

Since being founded in 2017, Amin Fard has quickly built Lyon Tech into a healthy, growing IT support business, serving London and the South East’s burgeoning creative services sector. It has a strong client base of architecture, engineering, construction, media and entertainment firms, particularly focusing on those businesses large enough to have complex needs, but that are not big enough to have their own in-house IT team.

"Predominantly we focus on the creative sector. In other words, clients that work with Adobe or Autodesk stack software, for example,” Amin explained. While Operations Director Joss Maynard added, “We’ve built a deep level of skillset within our engineering team specific to those industries that allow us to provide a very proactive approach to our client support.”

In December 2021, Amin agreed with the owners of Nitty Gritty, a competitor in the creative space, to acquire their business. The opportunity meant Amin could grow his business far quicker than he would organically, instantly increasing Lyon’s headcount from 15 to 30, and doubling the size of its client base.

“We had already built a fair amount of cash reserves in the business over the years,” Lyon Tech founder Amin Fard explained, “and to complete this acquisition we needed a little bit more.”

That’s where Tim O’Donovan and Allica Bank came in.

With the support of the government’s Recovery Loan Scheme, Allica Bank was able to offer Amin the finance he needed to complete the acquisition of Nitty Gritty. In what is usually a complex a time-consuming process, Allica put human relationships first to get the deal done.

“There were two aspects to this. Financially, it was a good deal. But the most important thing was that we were listened to and that Allica built a relationship with us from day one,” Amin said. “The decision-making was never just based on numbers.”

Tim, Lyon Tech’s relationship manager at Allica Bank, said, “Lyon Tech are an ideal customer for Allica to support. As an established SME, they fit perfectly into our sweet spot. By working closely together, Allica was able to provide a simple and attractive facility for Amin and Lyon Tech that has given him the space to focus on what he’s good at – continuing to grow his business."

Talking about the relationship, Amin said, “Lyon Tech have been working with Allica and Tim now for a good two years, which has been seamless. Tim’s one of those individuals who, the more you get to know him, the more he shines through. He’s been excellent.”

“Apart from the loan, we’ve since been able to engage with various other services with Allica, as well. It wasn’t something our existing banks were so proactive in offering to us.”