CloserStill was formed by the management team who sold Ithaca Business Media for £14m in 2007. NVM backed the Ithaca management buy-out back in 2005, so were delighted to be supporting Andy Center and his team again with their new initiative.

The CloserStill team identified an appetite amongst major media groups to acquire mid-sized exhibition businesses: exhibitions and events are seen as an effective face-to-face counterpoint to online marketing media. At the time of the launch of CloserStill there was a dearth of target companies of this nature following recent consolidation within the exhibition and B2B events industry.

Since the original investment in 2008, CloserStill has acquired healthcare trade exhibitions organiser, Pioneer Global Media; B2B e-learning exhibitions and conference company Principal Media and First City Events, organiser of media, marketing and digital communications event MediaPro.

All the events have grown strongly based on the team’s ability to build clear, well-structured propositions which they then support with very high quality content. Under CloserStill’s management many of their shows have become leaders within their vertical markets and continue to go from strength to strength.

In 2011, NVM backed Andy and the team again with £3m investment to launch Closer2. The new company was created to seek out small businesses, launches and partnerships with entrepreneurs that can grow quickly. In the two months post-inception, Closer2 acquired Biofuels Media, which operates the annual European Bioenergy Expo and Conference, and Red Publishing, the cloud computing Expo business.