Former Northamber director makes ‘significant’ investment in cloud telephony firm

Henry Matthews, who previously worked at distributor Northamber for 30 years, has come out of retirement to back Cloud Telephones.

The industry veteran has invested funds into the hosted VoIP firm, which describes itself as a virtual distributor, and as chairman he will own a ‘significant’ part of the company. He left Northamber back in early 2012.

Cloud Telephones is a brand owned by DMSL – which has been a BT partner for 14 years – and has previously spoken about the huge opportunities for IT resellers in the hosted VoIP space.

Matthews has identified telephony as the next big opportunity in the tech channel. 

"I see a great opportunity – I call it the new world," he told PCR at the Synaxon 2015 conference. "So basically things are changing from analogue to digital, and that’s really where we’re at.

"Look at computers. Alan Sugar came along, he replaced the typewriter with a computer and created a new world. And this is exactly what’s happening here. If you think about it you used to have the old dial-up telephone, and then we’ve got digital, it’s now got a certain ID type technology. That’s where it’s going to go.

"Technology is changing. Five years ago we didn’t have smartphones on this scale – look at where we are today. It’s no different with what’s happening with telephony."

Paul Gibson, sales director at Cloud Telephones, added: "Henry has made the decision to get involved with us and the market because of his experience in distribution and the channel business, and sees this market as a great opportunity.

"Henry will own part of the business. He is investing and will own a significant part of the company. What he’s looking to do is grow our business and move it from being the business as it is to becoming a multi-million pound leading player. He’s spent two years out of the market looking at opportunities. What Henry can bring to our business is massive – the advice, the skills, the knowledge."

"Northamber made dealing with distribution easy. And that’s what we’re trying to do in Cloud Telephones. Our job is to simplify it."

John Carter, MD of Cloud Telephones, commented: "We’re all self-financed, Henry is coming in and investing in the business."

BT expects 2018 to be the tipping point when the traditional on-premise telephone system will be taken over by hosted VoIP and unified communications, led by fibre optic broadband and better connectivity.