Titans Freelancers, Slovak leader in IT specialists outsourcing, purchases majority share in successful Czech company Bridgewater

Slovak leader in IT specialists outsourcing, Titans Freelancers, confirmed the purchase of 75% share in the Czech company Bridgewater. Jakub Konečný, the CEO and Founder, will keep the remaining shares and will continue to manage the business in Czechia. The companies decided not to disclose the transaction price.

The combined revenues of both companies in 2021 will be more than 20 million Euro. The signing of the transaction documentation took place earlier this week.

Next step towards expansion

This is another step towards the previously announced plans of Titans Freelancers to become a major player in the European IT specialists outsourcing market. This initiative is also widely supported by their partner, Slovak private equity company Sandberg Capital.

According to the joint press release, the partnership with Bridgewater “creates a major player in the Czech-Slovak market in the field of IT specialists outsourcing, which will together lead the expansion into Central and Western Europe.”

“Our common vision is to build a leader in IT outsourcing in the Central European region. The activities, position and operation of Bridgewater fit just perfectly into our portfolio, “said Róbert Dusík, co-founder of Titans freelancers. He added that Bridgewater is a fast-growing and client-respected company that has managed to build its position as one of the most stable IT outsourcing companies on the Czech market in less than four years.

“We believe that our partnership with Jakub, and the entire Bridgewater team, will lead to strengthening of our position and to further desired growth. The lack of IT experts is already hampering development of companies on the Slovak and Czech markets, and the demand for them will grow in the range of 10-20 percent every year,” added Róbert Dusík.

Harmony since the first meeting

“Bridgewater was the number one priority in planning the expansion. Both companies have similar culture and vision, we identified many synergies together. I strongly believe that after their implementation, we will be able to provide even better services,” assessed Matej Klenovský, investment manager of Sandberg Capital.

The possibility that the founder of Bridgewater would leave the company was not on the table at all, quite the opposite. “I remember my first conversation with Jakub about our partnership as if it was today. Jakub was full of enthusiasm, determination, and positive energy. He left a perfect first impression. We´re on the same page, both from the human and business perspective, and it was clear from the first moment. Right after our first interview, we wanted to cooperate with each other, because we were very close to each other, value-like,” Titans Freelancers co-founder Marek Greško told Forbes.sk.

“It doesn’t happen often and it’s not even a rule that you can find such harmony. Jakub is a great person and experienced leader, who managed to build a successful company from the scratch and put his heart in it. I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be part of our team and that he would leave the company. That´s why we have never even considered this option. On the contrary, one of our main requirements was that Jakub stays in the company and continues to manage it,” added Marek Greško.

Connecting with the Titans Freelancers was also an ideal choice for Jakub Konečný. “Titans are far ahead of Bridgewater in many ways. We have been looking for inspiration from the best in the world since the start of the company, we try to learn from their mistakes and duplicate what works for them so that we can provide our clients with the highest quality services,” he told Forbes.sk.

According to him, the partnership with Titans will utilize the best of both companies, while he believes that Bridgewater can also move Titans forward in many ways. “Connection of internal databases will bring more candidates for projects in both countries, the use of joint business contacts will catapult us to the best companies in Europe and unification of technologies, internal processes, joint training and brand building will bring both companies much more efficient operation in order to fulfil a common vision – to become Central European leader in the field of IT outsourcing,” concludes Jakub Konečný.

Ambitious plans

Jakub Konečný founded Bridgewater at the end of 2017. He built the company together with Milan Procházek from Topelex, from which Titans Freelancers buys a stake. The company founded its business model on the open corporate culture, investment in development and considerable knowledge of the IT market. The company thus quickly became the preferred supplier of IT specialists not only on the Czech market. It currently employs 30 people.

Titans Freelancers was founded in 2013 and currently has a database of more than 11,000 IT specialists. In an effort to accelerate growth, the market leader joined forces with an investor, the Slovak private equity company Sandberg Capital, that acquired a minority stake in the company in April this year.

It was Sandberg Capital that delivered the spark to the growth plan of the Titans Freelancers´ founders. This is confirmed not only by the merger with Bridgewater, but also by other ongoing projects and initiatives in this area. 

As Matej Klenovský from Sandberg Capital said for Forbes.sk, they are already considering several other options not only in the Czech Republic but also in other Central European countries. “We would also like to enter new markets and one of the strategies is to enter into a similar type of partnership as we have with Jakub and Bridgewater. We have several debates open at the moment, but I would not like to specify them, “concludes Matej Klenovský.