ONE of Southend’s largest independent firms has received £9million worth of investment as it creates 150 new jobs.

Ventrica, in Tylers Avenue, Southend, has attracted the investment from Mobeus Equity Partners.

Ventrica, a customer service business, has grown rapidly since being founded in 2010 by Dino Forte, and has doubled in size in the last two years.

Mr Forte, Ventrica’s chief executive officer, said: “Mobeus stood out as the right partner because of the team’s immediate enthusiasm for, and deep understanding of, our offering at Ventrica.

“We have a significant market opportunity and are winning new customer contracts at an increasing rate and of an increasing scale.

“With Mobeus as a partner, we are well positioned to strengthen our team to support our significant growth whilst also allowing us to better focus on our existing clients which will be our key priority moving forward.”

Ventrica is a key employer in Southend and in 2017, the company launched a second site in the town.

Employing more than 450 staff, and growing to 600 by the end of this year, it is one of the town’s major private employers.

With support from Mobeus, the company plans further investment to expand in both the UK and Europe so it can serve customers across the world.

Danielle Garland, Mobeus investment manager, said: “Ventrica is right in the sweet spot for the growing outsourcing contact centre market – it is large enough to deliver multilingual and leading-edge technology solutions to its blue-chip clients, but small enough to be dynamic and innovative and to provide the personalised service its clients require.

“As more clients onshore back to the UK, Ventrica is very well placed to continue to deliver very strong growth.”

Last year, Ventrica announced the opening of its second contact centre at Maitland House in Chichester Road, near to Warrior Square.

The new office created 180 jobs.

The firm has been called a “great story for the area” due to its success and the number of people it employs.

Mobeus provides money for growth and buyouts to UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises across all sectors.