Carbon Group continues growth with Rise Business Solutions
Carbon Group, a mid-sized accounting and advisory firm, has completed its 18th acquisition over the past five years. The bolt-on of Rise Business Solutions takes the firm’s total partner count to twenty one.
The deal between Carbon Group and Rise Business Solutions is one of familiar faces. Before launching Carbon Group together with co-founder Jamie Davison, Nathan Hood was a partner at Sterling, a local accounting firm in Perth. He joined the firm at the age of 22 and, in a highly uncommon move in partner-led professional services firms, became a partner one year later.
“One of the partners was retiring, and his share in the business was up for sale. This was a massive step for me, and wasn’t the norm in the industry to become a partner at such a young age. I took the risk, as owning a business was a long term goal of mine,” Hood reflected.
In 2013, Hood and the other partners of Sterling decided to part ways: “I wanted to be at the top of the game in the industry, grow the business, and offer something that our competitors weren’t. This would include offering more than just accounting.”
Hood teamed up with Davison to launch Carbon Group, starting the firm with a team of 14 staff. Fast forward five years, and following a massive 18 mergers, and Carbon Group has grown into a full-service accountancy and consultancy with over 100 employees working from offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. “Today, we offer a full suite of business services: accounting, advisory, R&D, bookkeeping, payroll, business systems, insurance, finance and financial planning.”
The latest merger sees five-strong Rise Business Solutions join the group, a company founded by former Sterling partner Dominic Papaluca. A logical move, according to the duo. Hood kicked-off: “After going into different ventures after Sterling, Dom and I have kept in regular contact. It made perfect sense to bring our expertise together again by merging our firms into one powerful business.”
Papaluca added, “It was an easy decision to merge with Carbon. I have watched the company grow over the years and have been impressed with the ever-extending suite of services that Carbon offer their clients. I knew this would be a huge bonus for our clients to have access to these services without going to another provider. It’s great to be working with Nathan and the team again.”
“To be able to offer Carbon’s additional suite of services to our clients will really cement our relationship and help our clients achieve ultimate success,” Papaluca said.
Growth ambitions
Hood said that Carbon Group has no intentions of slowing down, with more acquisitions planned for the coming months as the firm seeks to “shake-up somewhat traditional ways of accounting” and “have hubs in every state” across Australia.
“Our growth story over the past few years is one to be proud of, and we’re looking forward to our continued growth,” concluded Hood.
