Colin and Sara met whilst in the early stages of their recruitment careers, working for a small agency in Richmond. Despite having no previous recruitment experience, Sara became the top biller in her first year, winning several new accounts on her own and carving out an excellent reputation in the market.

After three years at this business, Colin moved on to a top city agency to develop his new business, billing, leadership and management skills. Even though Sara and Colin didn’t work together anymore, they always kept in touch and never forgot their vision of starting a recruitment business together; one which would serve candidates and clients differently to other companies, as well as creating an inspiring, and secure environment for employees.

In 2016, Sara and Colin reunited to create Amberes – a business that would value relationships over revenue and that is about people rather than profit. Their first RPO Project was for a Pre-IPO SaaS business for an initial 3-month onsite contract to consolidate the hiring process, reduce costs and "time to fill", and rapidly build the GTM in London.

Due to immense success, this RPO Project (set to last 3 months), rolled on for over 2 years. In this time, Amberes placed over 300+ people globally across North America, EMEA and the APAC regions, across GTM, Pro-Services, Engineering and Ops.

Even though Autotask merged with Datto in this year, Amberes remained onsite, and in October 2018, the RPO project was successfully executed. They saved Autotask both time and money (in the millions), while also eliminating the need to use multiple recruitment agencies.

Amberes moved away from an onsite RPO model and became a multi-partner agency. Amberes got their first post-stamp sized office in Richmond, London, and established partnerships with many ITMSP’s, and PE-backed SaaS, Cybersecurity, ERP, FinTech, MarTech companies!

Amberes moved offices to another post-stamp sized office in Chelsea, London. Sara not only had her first baby, but also navigated the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Their established name on the market meant they secured several core retained projects with several ITMSP’S and PE-backed Cyber, ERP, MarTech and PropTech leaders...placing over 100+ executives with one client alone.

Amberes moved offices again, this time, to the top floor, with 10 times more space, windows, sunlight and a view of the Harbour. Amberes continued to soar, with internal growth, more exclusive partnerships and placed people all over the globe, from Tampa to Tokyo!

With another year of continued success, Amberes won more partnerships, while also maintaining and developing key relationships with existing partners from  2020 (one of which they placed over 250 people with).

The year of a downturn market post Covid-19, and statistically the year Start-Up's were set to fail...but this was not the case for Amberes. They pushed on, breaking into new markets, winning new partnerships and brought on new Recruitment Director, Dane Carter.

To 2024 and beyond...expect to see Colin, Dane and Sara driving Amberes to new heights never seen before!