Bregal's Big Bet on the AI-Powered Enterprise Ecosystem

LONDON, UK – December 10, 2025 – On the surface, the announcement of Bregal Milestone’s majority growth investment in Beyond Now is another headline in a bustling season for European private equity. A leading software PE firm backs a fast-growing, AI-focused software provider. Yet, to dismiss this as just another transaction is to miss the tectonic shift it represents. This partnership is not merely about scaling a successful company; it’s a high-stakes endorsement of a future where the world’s largest enterprises, particularly in telecommunications, no longer operate as siloed giants but as nimble orchestrators of vast, interconnected digital ecosystems.

Beyond Now, a cloud-native software provider founded in 2018, has quietly become the engine for this transformation, boasting over 40% annual recurring revenue growth and a client roster that includes titans like Verizon, AT&T, and Deutsche Telekom. The investment from Bregal Milestone, a firm with c.€1.7 billion in capital and a sharp eye for mission-critical software, signals that the era of ecosystem orchestration has officially arrived. It’s a move that validates a fundamental change in digital commerce, moving away from rigid, monolithic systems toward a more fluid, intelligent, and collaborative model.

“Many large enterprises with complex supply chains are going through a transformative shift,” noted Sebastian Charpentier, Principal at Bregal Milestone, in the official announcement. His comment pinpoints the core of this trend: the painful but necessary migration to “cloud-native, modular, and AI-enabled solutions.” This investment is a bet that Beyond Now holds the keys to unlocking that future.

A Calculated Bet on Growth and Disruption

Private equity firms like Bregal Milestone don’t place majority-stake bets on whims. Their decision is rooted in a deep analysis of market trajectory and financial performance. Beyond Now’s profitable growth and impressive revenue metrics are a clear draw, but the real story is its strategic position in a rapidly evolving market. Bregal Milestone, recognized by GrowthCap as a top-tier PE firm, has built its reputation on identifying and scaling European software companies poised for market leadership. Its portfolio, which includes firms specializing in everything from cybersecurity to intelligent information management, reveals a clear thesis: invest in the critical infrastructure of the digital economy.

Beyond Now fits this mold perfectly. It operates in the complex world of Business Support Systems (BSS) and digital marketplaces, a sector historically dominated by legacy systems that are ill-equipped for the demands of 5G, IoT, and complex B2B2X (business-to-business-to-anything) models. Where old systems see rigid processes, Beyond Now provides a dynamic platform for partners to collaborate, bundle services, and create new revenue streams on the fly. This isn't just an upgrade; it's a complete rethinking of how a Communications Service Provider (CSP) or large enterprise goes to market.

The partnership will inject significant capital to accelerate this vision. The funds are earmarked for product innovation, enhanced customer support, and a more aggressive go-to-market strategy. It's a classic growth equity play: take a company with proven technology and market fit, and provide the resources to capture the global opportunity.

The Engine Room: Ecosystems and Agentic AI

To understand the significance of this deal, one must look past the balance sheets and into the technology itself. At the heart of Beyond Now’s platform is a concept that is rapidly moving from theoretical to essential: Agentic AI. This is not the reactive AI of chatbots or recommendation engines. Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems that can proactively plan, set goals, and execute complex, multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention.

In the context of a digital supply chain, the implications are profound. Instead of a human manager manually responding to a disruption, an AI agent can predict the issue, simulate solutions, and autonomously coordinate with suppliers to reroute shipments or adjust inventory levels. Industry research suggests that organizations deploying this level of AI can see dramatic results, including up to an 80% reduction in stockouts and a 30% decrease in delivery delays. It moves AI from an analytical tool that provides insights to an operational one that executes decisions.

This is the technological leap that Bregal Milestone is investing in. Beyond Now is embedding this intelligence into its Digital Business Platform and Digital Marketplace solutions, enabling its clients to manage intricate webs of partners and services with unprecedented efficiency. As Beyond Now CEO Angus Ward stated, “Beyond Now was founded on the belief that the future of digital commerce lies in ecosystems - a broader mix of partners and greater opportunities.” Agentic AI is the catalyst that makes managing the complexity of those ecosystems not just possible, but profitable.

From Telco to Tech Orchestrator

The most tangible impact of this technology is seen in how it is reshaping the telecommunications industry. For decades, the business model for CSPs was straightforward: provide connectivity. Today, that is no longer enough. To grow, telcos must become digital service hubs, offering a curated marketplace of solutions from cloud services and IoT to cybersecurity and AI.

A prime example is Deutsche Telekom, which uses Beyond Now’s Infonova platform to power its “Magenta B2B2X” digital marketplace. This platform allows the German telecom giant to offer integrated technology solutions from a wide array of partners directly to its enterprise customers. It transforms Deutsche Telekom from a simple utility provider into a central orchestrator of digital innovation, simplifying access to complex services and accelerating time-to-market for everyone involved.

This story is repeating itself across the globe. In Japan, NTT DOCOMO leverages Beyond Now to power a marketplace for its small and medium-sized business customers. In Canada, TELUS uses the platform to unlock new efficiencies in its IoT offerings. These are not isolated case studies; they are evidence of a sector-wide pivot. The investment by Bregal Milestone will empower Beyond Now to deepen these relationships and replicate this success across more industries, helping enterprises of all stripes make a similar transition.

While the transaction awaits customary regulatory approval, with completion expected in the first quarter of 2026, its strategic direction is clear. The move positions Beyond Now to capitalize on a massive wave of enterprise AI adoption. Gartner analysts predict that by 2028, a third of all enterprise software applications will incorporate Agentic AI, up from less than 1% today. This investment is not just about the future of one company, but about the architecture of our future digital economy—one built not on isolated products, but on intelligent, interconnected, and autonomously managed platforms.