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New Horizons

UK and : creating public value New Horizons //// 2 About this report

This report has been produced by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association to highlight the ways in which the industry contributes public value to the and how in 2021 it can help address a range of policy challenges and opportunities.

The industry has a significant presence in the UK developed over the past 30 years. Private equity and venture capital provide UK companies with the finance and know-how to deliver sustainable business growth. Active ownership over the medium to long term delivers economic and social value to those involved in the businesses (from employees, management and owners on the one hand to customers and suppliers on the other) and a wide group of stakeholders (the local communities in which they are based and policymakers).

Both parts of the industry are focused on delivering sustainable growth for the companies in which they invest: venture capital firms typically support early stage and younger companies, holding minority stakes in the businesses, while private equity firms typically acquire controlling stakes in more established businesses.

Part one of the report highlights the key policy themes and how the industry is aligned to support policymakers’ objectives; part two provides further background and detail on how the industry operates; and part three offers further insights into the contributions made by private equity and venture capital.

bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 3 Private equity and venture capital at a glance

Employment Footprint Focus Sector expertise 972,000 4,290 90% + people are employed in the UK companies are currently backed of industry backing was directed Technology and healthcare by companies backed by private by private equity and venture at small and medium sized have been among the leading equity and venture capital capital in all nations and regions businesses in 2019 sectors for recent investment of the UK by the industry

Investment scale Global funding Global hub Returns £43 billion £48 billion 14.2% has been invested in 3,230 total funds raised in 2019. The Outside the USA, the UK hosts returns have been generated for companies in the past 5 years number of funds raising new the world’s most significantprivate pension funds and other investors capital was 118 equity and venture capital hub, by the UK industry over the past reinforcing the UK’s financial 10 years, out-performing other services leadership asset classes

These statistics are taken from BVCA RIA data from 2015-2019 – this reflects the totals of BVCA members.

bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 4 Contents

Creating public value

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Part one Contributing to UK public policy priorities

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Part two A guide to the private equity and venture capital industry

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Part three Case studies: creating public value

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Contacts

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bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 5 Creating public value

1. COVID – delivering economic people employed in businesses in the competitiveness of the UK’s investment recovery as the health UK backed by our members, who in climate which will in turn ensure the emergency recedes recent years have invested in small and ability of private equity and venture medium sized businesses in all parts capital in the UK to support the 2. Cohesion – addressing of the UK and have continued to do so public policy objectives which are disparities in economic and throughout the current COVID crisis. the priorities for 2021 and beyond. social opportunities in the Looking ahead the industry is well nations and regions of the UK positioned to support the UK in a 3. Competitiveness – developing growth-led recovery. Substantial The past year has been unlike the UK economy’s position in funding is available to support the economic recovery through immediate anything we have experienced the world after Brexit investment and ongoing active portfolio before. In a rapidly changing world, 4. Climate and sustainability – management of those businesses. the COVID pandemic has joined setting course for Net Zero Opportunities are being explored Michael Moore climate change, technological in the context of wider throughout the country, developing new Director General, BVCA disruption and social change in environmental, social and tech sectors and growing established fundamentally challenging and governance objectives parts of the economy alike. The industry February 2021 altering the way we live. The has embraced the need to invest resulting health emergency has This agenda is ambitious, but has and act responsibly, recognising the cost over two million lives and support across the political spectrum pressing timescales to adapt the caused unprecedented economic and elsewhere. Everyone has a part economy and society to changing damage in all parts of the world. to play, not least in the business environmental and other realities. community. Responsible businesses To deliver this public value, private equity For policymakers in the United Kingdom, recognise that in addition to and venture capital attract significant as elsewhere, the demands have been generating economic value for the flows of international capital into the acute and the responses on a scale rarely country they must also produce social UK, along with talented individuals from seen in peacetime. This reality will continue value, bringing the two elements across the globe. This underpins the UK’s for some time. But alongside the ongoing together to create public value. position as the world’s largest hub of management of the COVID crisis, attention in The private equity and venture capital capital and expertise for venture capital 2021 is also focused on other critical policy industry certainly understands these and private equity outside the USA. priorities. In four areas of policy in particular imperatives. There are nearly a million We therefore welcome commitments there is clear intent to make progress: to maintain the attractiveness and

bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 6

Part one UK public policy

Challenges and opportunities: how venture capital and private equity can and will contribute to UK public policy priorities New Horizons //// 7 Four public policy priorities

1 2 COVID Competitiveness Supporting the economic Driving technology, innovation, recovery growth and productivity

3 4 Cohesion Climate Providing opportunities Delivering ESG objectives and across the UK working towards Net Zero

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 8

Supporting the COVID recovery Creating public value

$14.8bn $15.0bn COVID-19 continues to have an Conditions may remain challenging in the Venture capital investment unparalleled impact on people’s lives immediate future, but the industry is in the UK and jobs. The responses from government continuing to invest, which will deliver $9.8bn $9.2bn have been on a scale never seen before economic growth and job creation to and have been essential to support the underpin the recovery. After a pause $5.9bn economy through the crisis. For its part, in the spring of 2020, investment activity $5.4bn UK tech the private equity and venture capital has increased again, providing immediate industry is invested in all significant benefits to the economy –Q3 and Q4 sectors of the economy and in all parts both registered 200+ deals and around of the UK. Throughout this period, £37.4bn of aggregate deal value1. Technation / Dealroom – / Dealroom Technation Ecosystem update – end of year 2020 BVCA members have worked closely Given the right economic conditions, 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 with the businesses in which they have and with an attractive investment climate invested, providing additional finance, maintained, the industry will be able to Total UK private equity quarterly strategic guidance and operational support significant further investment into deal volume and value (£bn) expertise. This intense engagement is new opportunities, utilising the record 334 a key part of the business model of 309 amounts of capital raised in 2019. As it the industry. has done before it will invest across all 298 236 stages of a company’s development – from 284 283 207 start-ups in deeptech, fintech, medtech Stabilisation to recovery and life sciences supported by venture While great uncertainty remains, the capital, to and the 137 optimism generated by the rollout of the of more mature businesses, which is the COVID vaccines means that during 2021 focus of private equity. the country can look forward to a shift £19.8 £22.2 £27.6 £38.2 £34.5 £15.3 £17.9 19.5 in the economy, from stabilisation to KPMG UK Mid-market Private Equity Review: FY 2020 (page10) recovery. Private equity and venture capital Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 will support both of these phases. While 2019 2020 the industry’s initial focus during the crisis has been to support its existing portfolio of investments, capital has continued to 2020 in review be raised by BVCA members to invest in Job vacancies in tech have the development of new opportunities. 1 https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/uk/pdf/2021/01/ + uk-mid-market-pe-review.pdf (page 10 - overall UK PE activity) 50% climbed 50% since July 2020 Nation – Tech

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 9

Developing UK competitiveness Creating public value

Technology and innovation, Sustained productivity increases involve the Productivity change under 4.1% 3.7% growth and productivity adoption of new technology and EY’s report private equity ownership shows a 3.3% annual increase, over 12 2.9% years, in the level of capital expenditure on 2.2% Academic research has demonstrated 1.9% 2.1% numerous times that private equity backed tangible assets by these businesses. Private companies are more productive than other equity is actively looking for investments businesses in their economies. They are in technology-enabled companies across also, on average, more innovative, filing all sectors and this will continue to drive EY Annual report on the performance EY Annual report of portfolio companies XIII 2 more patents . productivity in the future. 2017 2018 2019 This is reinforced by BVCA-commissioned Many new venture-backed technology Portfolio companies ONS benchmark - UK private sector research. EY have analysed the performance companies are creating innovative software, of 53 companies representing many of the among other products, which will increase largest in the UK. This report3 the productivity of whole sectors of the shows that labour and capital productivity UK economy, like banking, and £36.5bn £19.7bn increase under private equity ownership, healthcare. Specific case studies can be Combined turnover generated by Collectively contributed to UK by 1.5%–3.3% and 12.2% per annum found in part three of this report. venture capital and angel investment Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

backed businesses in 2018 BVCA Fuel for the Innovation Nation 2020 respectively, while Gross Value Added The UK has created, over several per employee across most of the last decades, the largest hub of private equity 12 years has increased by more than and venture capital expertise in Europe. the UK private sector. The country is therefore well placed to London is the only European top ten destination benefit from the attractive private equity and for VC investment (2016-2020) venture capital ecosystem it has created. However, in order to benefit long-term, the Beijing $131.0bn “Productivity isn’t everything, UK has to remain an attractive destination San Francisco $108.0bn but in the long run, it’s for international capital flows, and a magnet New York $76.5bn almost everything.” for global talent, to build on the country’s Shanghai $59.8bn highly regarded legal and financial systems London $36.7bn Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist and dynamic and skilled workforce. Bengaluru $23.5bn Boston $19.8bn Singapore $19.7bn

2 The Impact of Private Equity Buyouts on Productivity and Jobs by Cambridge, US $18.0bn John Gulliver, Wei Jiang :: SSRN Los Angeles $15.6bn 3 EY Annual report on the performance of portfolio companies XIII global tech city (dealroom) London – europe’s Note: VC funds data for 2020 until 14/12

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 10

Supporting UK cohesion Creating public value

The COVID crisis has brought additional north of England5. Some of the most attention to the long-standing gaps in exciting new developments in particular economic performance between the sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, 35% different nations of the United Kingdom medtech and AI6, each supported The UK is home to 35% and the regions within them. The by venture capital, are having a

of Europe’s unicorns UKTech.News cohesion challenges facing the UK, positive impact across the UK - and as characterised by the ‘north-south this is expected to continue: Bristol7, divide’ or the need for ‘levelling up’, Manchester8 and Edinburgh9 received 43% are a priority for government. substantial venture capital investment to fund university spinouts in 2020. Private equity and venture capital firms have created an investment footprint in all parts of the UK, supporting Six of the UK’s 14 unicorns Holistic view a wide range of communities and are in the North West business sectors and are well placed The case studies in this report further to help address this challenge. illustrate our member’s investment UKTech.News activities and show that the UK is a prime destination for investment. Geographic spread Covering the length and breadth of the 56% country, these businesses clearly The geographic spread of the industry’s demonstrate the willingness of our investment has been notable since member firms to invest wherever they its inception: 56% of the industry’s find diverse talent pools, strong investment in the past 5 years lies management teams and innovative ideas. beyond London and the south east of All private equity and venture BVCA Report on Investment Activity 2019 England. To give a further illustration of capital – Investments by region this, the north west of England saw close over the past 5 years (%) 4 https://www.bvca.co.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Research/Industry to 10% of all private equity and venture %20Activity/BVCA-RIA-2019.pdf 2015-2019 capital investment in the UK in 20194. 5 BVCA RIA data – 2015-2019 6 https://www.beauhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Spotlight- Of the £43bn invested by BVCA members on-Spinouts-RAEng.pdf (page 5) 7 https://octopusventures.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/ into 3,230 UK businesses from 2015- 11/Octopus-Ventures-Entrepreneurial-Impact-Ranking-2020-1.pdf 44% (page 11) 2019, £2.3bn of this was in Scotland, 8 https://www.businessupnorth.co.uk/university-spin-out-fund-makes- Northern Ireland and Wales, £4.5bn half-a-million-pound-first-investments/ 9 https://www.beauhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Spotlight- into the Midlands and £6.6bn in the on-Spinouts-RAEng.pdf

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 11

Tackling climate and ESG Creating public value

Investing in Net Zero was launched in June 2020, bringing together investors and fund managers The UK was the first major economy to totalling over £180 billion in funds under of PE firms nowtake ESG principles commit to Net Zero by 2050 and will host management. The network focusses on 63% into account when making investments Financier Worldwide the UN COP26 climate conference in reducing carbon emissions of private November. The UK’s green technology equity-backed companies and securing and green finance ambitions will require sustainable investment performance. By investment in early stage technology and Four of the 10 largest deals raised by European pooling knowledge, opportunities and entrepreneurs. Case studies in this report purpose driven tech in 2020 were in the UK best practice, the network can help drive show companies rethinking how we investment in companies which will in shop, to reduce packaging; to companies Company Description City Country Round size Deal date turn drive the green recovery. September pioneering low carbon electricity and 1 Northvolt Lithium-ion batteries Stockholm Sweden $600m 2020 services; to companies revolutionising Octopus textiles manufacturing to reduce our 2 B2C sustainable energy supplier London UK $396m April 2020 Sharing values Energy reliance on high carbon materials. Fully electric vertical take-off 3 Lilium Weißling $240m March 2020 Private equity and venture capital and landing (VTOL) jet Private equity and venture capital backed companies are shining a light on 4 EcoVadis Sustainability ratings software Paris $200m January 2020 investments build the foundations of environmental, social and governance a greener future. The UK Government 5 Kry Telemedicine platform Stockholm Sweden $154m January 2020 (ESG) by increasing the quantity and aims to mobilise £12 billion in government Refurbished electronics quality of reporting, which helps 6 Back Market Paris France $121m May 2020 investments and up to £36 billion from marketplace drive behavioural changes. UK private the private sector to deliver a ‘Green 7 Arrival Electric buses and vans London UK $113m January 2020 10 equity signatories to the UN Principles Industrial Revolution’ . In 2019, venture September for Responsible Investment increased 8 Connexin Smart city infrastructure Hull UK $106m capital invested £336 million in Net Zero 2020 by 127% between 2015 and 2020. This Tokamak Fusion power research companies in the UK, 55% more than 9 Abingdon UK $87m January 2020 Energy company 11 transparency helps investors to select France and 18% more than Germany . February private equity and venture capital firms 10 Volocopter Fully electric helicopter Bruchsal Germany $87m 2020 which share their values. Joining the dots for a The State of European Tech 2020 – Atomico green recovery

In an industry built on connections and sharing good ideas, the UK branch of 10 The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution (publishing. of UK private equity firms now report to service.gov.uk), 2020 the Initiative Climat International (iCI) 11 Technation – net zero report, 2020 48% investors, in detail, on ESG impact Financier Worldwide

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 12

Keeping the UK competitive: the investment environment

Public value is at the heart of This has in no small part been achieved Private equity and venture capital firms impact of the pandemic on the health and what private equity and venture by the UK’s longstanding approach to in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and economy of the UK means that everyone can deliver for the UK. enterprise, summarised over 20 years ago other cities across the country are an will need to take a role in the recovery. The by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown: important part of a broader financial industry acknowledges that this will include Consequently, senior political figures in services ecosystem which makes Britain fair contributions to tackle the fiscal gap, the UK have for many years recognised a globally significant financial services as well as its role in funding entrepreneurs the importance of ensuring that the centre. This status is founded on the and innovators to assist the recovery. attractiveness of Britain’s investment “[the] capital taxation ease of doing business in the UK and In addressing any wider tax issues, the environment and its international system should better… the country’s regulatory, legal and tax international context will remain important. frameworks which set and maintain The current approach in the UK echoes competitiveness are maintained. reward risk taking and promote enterprise.” world-class standards. international practice, by recognising As the Prime Minister Boris Johnson gains made by private equity and venture However, the competitiveness of the has stated: Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown capital, in the main, as capital - this UK’s investment environment is not successfully incentivises entrepreneurial unchallenged and other jurisdictions investment, risk-taking and value creation in Europe and elsewhere have been over an extended period. making inroads in recent years, eroding “We are number one in Europe This international competitiveness has the country’s competitive standing. It is Alongside the wider business environment for the emerging technologies underpinned the growth of the UK’s important that no further ground should in the UK, an appropriate tax, legal and that will transform the lives of private equity and venture capital industry in recent years. Funds managed by the be lost, so the ambition expressed by regulatory environment will support the every single human being. Tech UK-based industry attracted nearly senior policymakers to see UK financial continued attractiveness of the UK as an companies are increasingly £50bn of investment capital in 2019, services grow, based on continued investment and employment location for striving not solely to maximise approximately 90% of which was international openness, technological private equity and venture capital. This will profits but to achieve a wider raised from international investors. This innovation and by embracing green enable the industry to continue to create purpose, deploying the arsenal significant pool of capital is managed by a finance, is welcome. the public value highlighted in this report. of technology against the specialist investment community based in As we transition to new arrangements, giant evils of hunger, the UK, but drawn from across the world, the debate over the future of taxation of poverty and disease.” meaning that the UK hosts the largest businesses and individuals is of great hub of private equity and venture capital Prime Minister Boris Johnson importance. The private equity and venture expertise in Europe – as highlighted capital industry understands that the elsewhere, it is the most significant anywhere outside the USA.

Part one bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 13

Part two Venture capital and private equity in the UK

How the industry makes and delivers its contributions to public value New Horizons //// 14

Understanding private equity and venture capital

Funding the future the interests of the private equity firms and their investee companies are Private equity and venture capital are closely aligned. types of investment for companies with high-growth potential. Private equity Venture capital funds work with founders and venture capital funding is part of of high-risk, early-stage companies with Differences between venture capital the growth journey for many small and significant potential for growth. In turn and private equity medium sized companies. Venture capital for injecting capital, venture capital funds backs founders while private equity often receive an ownership stake, giving funds allows entrepreneurs and parent companies a direct interest in the success of the company. Venture capital has an outsized to pass ownership onto their management Venture capital Private equity teams. In addition private equity and venture influence on the economy and society; a capital funding allows the company to relatively small venture investment early Invests in emerging/high growth Invest in more mature/established in a company’s life can help to create a expand its reach, take risks, scale, and/ industries businesses or weather the bumps on the road to transformational, global company. becoming a mature, larger business. Management team takes over the business and founders/investors Founders stay in the business – the sell shares. In a secondary buyout And onto the next stage… VC fund invests cash for new shares investors usually back the same A long term view In venture capital this will be the next management team funding round; and in private equity The duration of the investment varies Mainly private but can be Always private companies but generally it is between three and the next private equity investor in a public/quoted companies seven years. secondary buyout, until the business Majority/controlling stake in is listed on the stock market or sold to Minority stake in more companies large corporate investors. fewer companies per portfolio Actively growing the Investment VC invests in early stage PE can invest in public companies companies alongside other Private equity firms will work alongside and takes them private investors (e.g. angel investors) management teams to support the growth and development of their portfolio Mixed funding structure – Equity only companies. To generate investment equity and debt returns they must sell at a higher price which means the company needs to increase revenues and profits; therefore,

Part two bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 15

Company life cycle and investment requirements

Global Private Equity Mid Market Private Equity

Growth Capital/ Private Equity

Venture Capital

Startup Funds

Growth/financing requirements Growth/financing Business Angels

Family Capital

Pre-startup Startup Growth Development Maturity & sale

This chart is illustrative only – firms in different parts of the industry may operate in more than one part of this investment spectrum, depending on their fund strategies.

Part two bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 16

Part three Venture capital and private equity in action

Case studies and further information New Horizons //// 17

Case studies

In this part of the report we highlight case studies which highlight the way the industry operates and how individual businesses create public value. These growth case studies offer insights on how the industry can deliver for each of the public policy priorities.

COVID recovery Competitiveness Cohesion Climate

• CMR Surgical • ATG • Bollington Wilson Group (Cheshire) • ELeather Supported by CIC Supported by ECI Partners Supported by Inflexion Supported by ETF Partners • Curve OS Limited • Concirrus • British Engineering Services • Smarter Grid Solutions Supported by Outward VC Supported by IQ Capital (Manchester) Supported by Scottish Equity Partners Supported by Inflexion • Fishawack Health • Dr. Martens • The Modern Milkman Supported by Bridgepoint Supported by Permira • Glide (Clevedon) Supported by ETF Partners Supported by Inflexion • Gammadelta Therapeutics • HEG (Host Europe Group) • UK Power Reserve Supported by Abingworth Supported by Cinven • Merlin Entertainments (Poole) Supported by Inflexion and Equistone Supported by Blackstone • Huboo • Purplebricks • Vital Energi Supported by Episode 1 Supported by DN Capital • Moneypenny (Wrexham) Supported by Scottish Equity Partners Supported by ECI Partners • Lovecrafts Group • Revolut • Willerby Supported by Highland Europe Supported by Seedcamp • Neurovalens (Belfast) Supported by Equistone Supported by IQ Capital • Modulr • Riverlane Supported by Frog Capital Supported by CIC • Radius Payment Solutions (Crewe) Supported by Inflexion • Onfido • Shazam Supported by TempoCap Supported by DN Capital • SHE Software (East Kilbride) Supported by Frog • Phlexglobal • Thought Machine Supported by Bridgepoint Supported by IQ Capital • Skyscanner (Edinburgh) Supported by Scottish Equity Partners • PragmatIC • TransferWise Supported by CIC Supported by Seedcamp • WEALTH at work (Liverpool) Supported by Equistone • Random42 • Winterbotham Darby Supported by Vespa Capital Supported by Equistone • WHP Engineering (Gateshead) Supported by Endless • Verona Pharma • Wireless Logic Supported by Abingworth Supported by ECI Partners

Part three bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 18

Growth case study CMR Surgical

CMR Surgical is on a mission to What lasting value did Future growth plans transform surgery for patients around the PE/VC investment bring? CMR’s ambition is to make the benefits world, with innovative technology and Sector CIC invested in CMR in their Series A and of keyhole surgery available to everyone Healthcare and Life Sciences data that can improve surgical care. In supported the company through investments who needs it by building the world’s only six years, CMR has gone from initial Supported by in the Series A+, Series B and Series C at best medical robotic system and making Cambridge Innovation Capital concept to Versius, its next-generation which point it achieved unicorn status. It has it available at an affordable price. surgical robotic system which has been Location achieved regulatory approval in multiple Cambridge used to perform over 1,000 procedures territories and has commercial operations in 6 globally, including in the NHS; the globally countries with over 1,000 clinical procedures Initial investment date July 2016 accepted benchmark for value-based conducted with its Versius robotic system to healthcare. Versius brings all the benefits date. The excellence of its system through its Impact of PE/VC investment of keyhole surgery to the patient while versatility and cost-effectiveness, is delivering providing surgeons with greater dexterity, on the company’s ambition to bring the Number of employees Pre-investment: 49 precision, and better visualisation than benefits of keyhole surgery to a much wider patient population. Latest: 594 manual keyhole surgery, allowing them to perform more complex procedures. The credit for the progress they have made falls entirely with the founders, management, and dedicated staff. What CIC sought to What did the business need? do alongside its co-investors was bring in a corporate structure that allowed the CIC invested in CMR at the first Series A “Our success is in no small company to thrive and grow. CIC wanted to part thanks to CIC, who has which was the first institutional round. The create an environment where strategy could always had the long-term company had a great management team, be constructively discussed, consensus an incredibly strong technology base and reached, and decisions implemented without vision to support CMR. huge ambition. The entrepreneurial spirit impeding the entrepreneurial spirit that was Since its initial investment, of the founders had created a dynamic, fundamental to the success of the company. CIC has continued to support fast-growing company with a strong internal CIC brought on a former surgeon with our growth and has shared culture. The company needed additional experience in laparoscopic surgery, who was in our mission to transform capital to expand the capabilities in-house able to provide informed challenges to the surgery, for good.” and to develop their system prototype. team as they developed their clinical strategy. Per Vegard Nerseth, CEO

Part three bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 19

Growth case study Curve OS Limited

Curve consolidates all your banking Future growth plans and loyalty cards into one through Going into 2021, Curve’s main areas its mobile application, providing Sector of focus with regards to growth are Consumer Retail automated rewards, credit, no FX fees to increase the number of product and seamless expense management. Supported by features within its app and to roll out Outward VC its offering into the United States. Location What did the business need? Bristol Initial investment date Curve needed capital to scale growth in June 2017 new markets, including North America, and “Using [Outward VC’s] deep to accelerate the development and roll out Amount invested knowledge of how to support £1.2m of new product capabilities (i.e. Curve early-stage founders, they took Credit), while increasing conversion a chance on us when others Impact of PE/VC investment from its current customer base. were more sceptical, giving us Turnover full and warm access to their Pre-investment: £0-1m Latest: £5-10m (2020) What lasting value did network and material advice at PE/VC investment bring? cross sections of our journey. Number of employees Pre-investment: 35 It was a potent combination, Over the three years since Outward VC’s Latest: 285 (2020) initial investment into Curve, the fund which helped us shape our introduced the management team to new vision into reality.” partners (such as Alipay and Facebook) Shachar Bialick, CEO and new investors (such as Vulcan and Tazlina Global). Additionally, Outward VC promptly reacted to Curve’s migration from Wirecard, providing safeguarding and settlement accounts, alongside other payment solutions, through Investec Bank.

Part three bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 20

Growth case study Fishawack Health

Fishawack helps pharmaceutical Bridgepoint also kicked off a project groups bring new products to market to improve Management Information through the provision of specialised through the rollout of IT systems, which Sector Healthcare and Life Sciences and value-added services. The business will provide more readily available serves more than 100 clients globally utilisation data to control costs. Supported by Bridgepoint and helps to commercialise more Bridgepoint is enhancing Fishawack’s M&A than 300 drug compounds. strategy to become more proactive. Under Location Bridgepoint’s ownership, the company Knutsford Founded in 2001, the business has has completed two add-on acquisitions: Initial investment date been built up organically and through StoneArch, a Minneapolis-based creative March 2020 small add-on acquisitions to become agency with a strong reputation in the a global player. Today it operates medical device and health technology Impact of PE/VC investment from 14 offices in the US, Europe sector, and The Hive Health Group, a Number of employees and India. Fishawack has three strategically led healthcare marketing Pre-investment: 840 principal service lines: Medical Affairs, and scientific communications business Latest: 850 (Jan 2021) Commercial Services, and Consulting. based in London and New York.

What did the business need? Future growth plans

Fishawack would benefit from further Bridgepoint’s business plan envisages professionalisation and has significant continuing to drive organic growth, operational improvement potential. margin enhancement, and M&A to add complementary services, broaden Fishawack’s customer base, What lasting value did and consolidate the sector. “In partnering with PE/VC investment bring? Fishawack is a robust platform that will Bridgepoint, we have be used as the base for a buy and build made a step-change Bridgepoint has held the asset for less strategy in the attractive but fragmented than 12 months. During this short period, pharmaceutical commercialisation in our ambition.” Bridgepoint has already created a clean services sector. Bridgepoint has identified Oliver Dennis, CEO and simplified organisational structure and more than 75 potential targets, from successfully recruited a new Chairman. smaller in-fill acquisitions to potentially transformational opportunities, which will help to rapidly build scale.

Part three bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 21

Growth case study Gammadelta Therapeutics

Gammadelta Therapeutics is developing three major institutions, put the board treatment of cancers and as the data the potential of gamma delta T cells in place, including representation on the is generated, the company will look to to create improved immunotherapy board by Abingworth, and helped recruit its future either as a stand-alone public Sector Healthcare and Life Sciences of cancer and other serious diseases. the management team including Paolo company or as a UK based entity for Based on the pioneering research of Paoletti, the former head of Oncology at a large pharmaceutical company. Supported by GSK. Abingworth was also instrumental Abingworth Professor Adrian Hayday at King’s College in bringing Takeda into the collaboration. London and the Francis Crick Institute, Location London the company plans to exploit unique properties of tissue resident gamma Initial investment date August 2016 delta T cells for effective immunotherapy. “The significant advances we Takeda Pharmaceuticals has formed a strategic collaboration with GammaDelta have made would not have and, together with Abingworth, has been possible without access to “Abingworth’s decision to provide committed up to $100 million in funding the company-building expertise the seed finance and operational and has an exclusive option to acquire and continued financial support support needed to create the company for an undisclosed sum. of Abingworth. We look GammaDelta highlights the key forward to continuing this highly role VCs can play in bringing productive relationship as we cutting-edge technology from the What did the business need? work to realise the transformative laboratory into mainstream drug Abingworth helped create the company, potential of the world-leading development. We are making working with leading academic and world science of Professor Adrian significant progress in our mission to deliver highly effective expert, Professor Adrian Hayday, at Hayday and Dr Oliver allogeneic immunotherapies Kings College. This included negotiating Nussbaumer that underpins licenses with three institutions and based on the unique properties GammaDelta.” then bringing in Takeda as a key funder of Vδ1+ T cells, which could and supporter of the company. Paolo Paoletti, CEO provide important patient survival benefits in the treatment of cancers.” What lasting value did Paolo Paoletti, CEO PE/VC investment bring? Future growth plans

Abingworth provided the initial seed The company has the potential to capital, negotiated the licences from have an enormous impact on the

Part three bvca.co.uk //// @bvca New Horizons //// 22

Growth case study Huboo

Huboo are a tech-driven multichannel model. The Product Development team has ecommerce fulfilment company. Huboo increased significantly in size, as have the integrates with online marketplaces such front-line Sales & Marketing teams so that Sector Technology as Ebay, and many more for the company can continue to scale at pace. free, and securely store, reliably pick and Funding from investors has played a central Supported by role in their journey so far and our expansion Episode 1 package, and smoothly deliver orders. into new territories is testament to that. Their unique software driven approach Location Bristol to fulfillment means that they can serve clients of all shapes and sizes, from the Initial investment date What lasting value did April 2019 smallest eBay seller to multi-million-pound PE/VC investment bring? brands, and their service is far cheaper Amount invested than any known like-for-like competitor. The continued support from investors £18.5m has supercharged the company scaling, Huboo offers two months free storage creating a huge volume of new jobs Impact of PE/VC investment for each new shipment and has grown in what has been a challenging and Annual turnover substantially since inception. Their unprecedented employment environment. Pre-investment: £0.24m expansion roadmap outlines plans to This positive impact for the local job Latest: £12m take the company in to mainland Europe market will be replicated as the company Number of employees and North America by the end of 2021. grows across the UK, and throughout Pre-investment: 2 Europe and North America. Latest: 250

The company has delivered cutting edge, What did the business need? innovative award-winning technology which “This investment played a crucial has fuelled our consistent and significant Investor funding was needed for the role in propelling our growth. It has growth. Due to their success, Huboo have company to accelerate expansive growth enabled us to build and continue made their first acquisition – an online plans, starting nationally in the UK and to build teams of exceptional talent, marketplace – as they focus on diversifying expanding into mainland Europe and North and curate award-winning technology their product and service range. America later in 2021, creating hundreds of to disrupt the fulfilment market, jobs in the process. resulting in rapid and continued expansion.” The company has been investing in software and people to provide the best Martin Bysh, CEO customer experience in the industry and challenging the perceptions of fulfillment with their unique human-centric Hub

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Growth case study Lovecrafts Group

Lovecrafts Group is a leading online the largest online player in the USA, crafts community, which lets creative increasing the business scale by over minds find inspiration from leading 50%. Secondly, the investment allowed Sector Consumer Retail experts and designers, learn new the business operationally to grow: moving techniques, connect with like-minded into larger warehouse facilities, developing Supported by more robust operational warehouse Highland Europe people all over the world, and shop craft management, and continuing to develop supplies. Essentially, it is a mix of content, Location the online presence of the business. London community, and commerce, and is a Thirdly, they were able to recruit a world Initial investment date complete ecosystem for makers. class independent Chairperson, Peter July 2015 Bazalgette and a seasoned CFO who has IPO experience, Marcus Jennings. What did the business need? Impact of PE/VC investment Number of employees Highland Europe have invested in five Future growth plans Pre-investment: 50 rounds at LoveCrafts, from Series B round Latest: 160 to Series C rounds, and co-led three internal LoveCrafts are looking to list on the London rounds alongside Scottish Equity Partners AIM market during 2021 and plan to use the and Balderton Capital. The investment was proceeds of the IPO to continue to make essential to complete several acquisitions, strategic acquisitions and fuel their growth. improve operations, recruit new team As investors, Highland Europe are not members, and fuel growth. expecting to exit at IPO but see it as another funding round. “The investment in Lovecrafts by our What lasting value did syndicate has been PE/VC investment bring? essential to grow the The investment was key to bring about business, internationalise several significant changes to the business. Firstly, it has enabled the acquisitions and recruit great of Debbie Bliss, Sew & Sew and most people.” recently Webbs Inc. by December 2020. Excluding the Webbs deal, these Edward Griffith, CEO acquisitions represent over 20% of total sales. The Webbs transaction is more transformational and makes LoveCrafts

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Growth case study Modulr

Modulr are an API driven B2B Payments- business across the UK and Europe. Frog as-a-Service platform and Electronic provided support across sales & marketing Money Institution (EMI) delivering a and talent & organisation functions to Sector Technology new type of payment account. Modulr drive product development and achieve enables businesses to segregate strong operational growth across the UK. Supported by Frog Capital client funds, automate and receive Frog Capital helped Modulr complete payment flows more efficiently and successful investment from key corporate Location London cheaply than traditional banking. partners and deliver a healthy growth plan across 2020 and into 2021, while winning Initial investment date One of Europe’s fastest growing payment £10m grant through the ‘RBS Alternative February 2019 platforms, Modulr are working with 100+ Remedies Package’ and securing cash clients across multiple channels enabling headroom through debt facilities, and Impact of PE/VC investment the growth of some of Europe’s most receiving investment from Highland Number of employees successful businesses including Revolut, Europe, PayPal and FIS World-pay. Pre-investment: 109 (Mar 2019) Latest: 201 (Dec 2020) Liberis, Paxport and Wagestream. Modulr has continued to expand and grow their business across the UK and Europe, they have grown >85% and enjoyed 120% What did the business need? revenue growth (2018-20). “The Frog Capital Modulr needed a Scale-Up partner with team have had a very both fintech experience and operational expertise to help scale the business Future growth plans constructive impact. Their across the UK and Europe. The business Modulr continue to expand its products team of operating experts would benefit from investors who could and services to existing clients, as well have been particularly provide operational expertise across sales as secure new clients and expand across & marketing, leadership & talent, and the Europe. Recent investment from PayPal useful in the areas of sales finance function, particularly regarding and FIS Wolrdpay, two of the largest & marketing and helping corporate partnership and investment. global payment companies, is a strong us attract further top endorsement of Modulr’s continued success and will further support their tier investors.” What lasting value did growth ambitions across product Myles Stephenson, CEO PE/VC investment bring? development, business development and expansion across Europe. Since Frog Capital’s investment in February 2019, Modulr has expanded and grown its

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Growth case study Onfido

Onfido are setting the new standard for growth strategy and valuable customer digital access. The company digitally introductions, both in the U.K. and proves a user’s identity using artificial North America. Sector Technology intelligence, and facial biometrics. TempoCap’s investment allowed the Supported by Onfido gives companies the assurance company to expand its operations across TempoCap needed to onboard customers remotely Europe, through key hires and more and securely. established presence in France, as well Location as build a foothold in Asian markets such London Recognised as a global leader in AI for as Singapore. Initial investment date identity verification and authentication, 2017 Onfido have approximately 400 team members across seven countries, and is Future growth plans Impact of PE/VC investment enabling digital access for some of the Turnover Onfido maintain a growth strategy focused largest companies around the world. Pre-investment: £3.6m (2016) on accelerating their international presence, Latest: £27.6m (2019) expecting their future revenue growth to be Number of employees driven by the US and EU. The company What did the business need? Pre-investment: 150 (2017) plans to expand the current product, which Latest: 400 (2021) In their series C round, Onfido needed is aimed at onboarding new customers for additional support to implement a growth fintechs and banks, to include services strategy and accelerate its international focused on ‘identity’ across the client life presence, with a particular focus on US cycle. The goal is to manage end-to-end “TempoCap’s investment and customer growth. The company also digital identity through services centred on support has been critical to funding needed funding to facilitate product onboarding, reauthentication, password our business plan, including our development, to aid the expansion of the recovery, and fraud mitigation. accelerated expansion in the US. company’s machine learning technology, Additionally, the team has provided while maintaining its market-leading substantial value-add in the form of position in speed and accuracy. large customer introductions and strategic advice to support plans for continued growth.” What lasting value did David Clarke, CFO PE/VC investment bring?

TempoCap have provided Onfido with strategic advice regarding the company’s

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Growth case study Phlexglobal

Phlexglobal are a specialist provider What lasting value did What did the investment achieve? of Trial Master File (“TMF”) software PE/VC investment bring? Bridgepoint bought Phlexglobal for £42m and services to global pharmaceutical Sector Under Bridgepoint ownership, Phlexglobal at an EV/EBITDA multiple of 9.1x in 2014, Healthcare and Life Sciences companies and clinical research implemented greater strategic focus on and 2.5 years later, sold the business organisations. A TMF is a collection of Supported by the development and implementation of for £116m at 13.5x EV/EBITDA. The Bridgepoint essential documents created during technology, and significantly enhanced significant valuation multiple re-rating a clinical trial for regulatory purposes. is evidence of the transformation of the Location its software development capability with Amersham Phlexglobal offer an end to end solution a 45% increase in R&D investment and company from a project-led TMF services to cater for all potential TMF needs of its the launch of an upgraded eTMF product, provider to a fully outsourced provider Initial investment date July 2014 clients, from fully outsourced electronic which led to client wins in the clinical of electronic TMF (eTMF) solutions. eTMF software provision with associated research outsourcing sector. Phlexglobal Amount invested document processing services, as well transitioned from being a services led €28.2m as a range of project related services. TMF business to having a more balanced software and services offering. Impact of PE/VC investment Turnover Phlexglobal strengthened its business Pre-investment: £15.4m What did the business need? development function and significantly Post-investment: £23.9m (Dec 2016) expanded its international presence. Phlexglobal needed support in the evolving As a result, the US accounted for repositioning of the business from a 59% of revenue at exit vs. 34% at service led hybrid offering to a technology entry. Bridgepoint helped Phlexglobal led hybrid offering. It also needed to to enter the Japanese market (3rd preserve the continued growth in overseas “We have enjoyed significant largest globally at the time). territories with a focus on the USA, the growth under Bridgepoint world’s largest pharmaceuticals market. Bridgepoint also achieved significant Development Capital’s operational improvements: EBITDA It was recognised that the business ownership, extended our margins increased by 660bps through the would benefit from expanding customer and operational roll-out of a new document processing existing relationships with Japanese base and relaunched technology and the creation of a low- pharmaceutical customers. Investment in PhlexEview, our eTMF cost centre in Poland (with Bridgepoint’s the company’s software platform would platform.” Warsaw office playing an important role enable Phlexglobal to take advantage of in choosing an appropriate location). the opportunity to replicate its service Rick Riegel, former CEO eminence in the eTMF software market.

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Growth case study PragmatIC

PragmatIC is a world leader in ultra- based radio frequency identification makes innovative electronic solutions low-cost flexible electronics. Their (RFID). This would extend the Internet of readily accessible to businesses of flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) Things to the Internet of Everything. all sizes across a diverse range of Sector Technology are thinner than a human hair and industries. The company plans to expand can be invisibly embedded in objects, and deploy a global network of 100 Supported by FlexLogIC lines, geographically placed Cambridge Innovation Capital enabling innovators to create novel What lasting value did for efficient manufacturing and delivery. solutions to everyday problems that PE/VC investment bring? Location Cambridge are not practical with conventional Cambridge Innovation Capital’s FlexIC-based RFID is already being electronics. FlexICs are manufactured on understanding, strategic input, and adopted in multiple market segments Initial investment date December 2014 a revolutionary FlexLogIC® production continued investment support throughout addressing worldwide challenges, including system, a scalable manufacturing the evolution of the business has made healthcare (NHS), pharma (Schreiner MediPharm), waste management (UK Impact of PE/VC investment model for cost-effective high-volume them a reliable partner for PragmatIC for Government) and sustainability. production. FlexIC Foundry™ service more than six years. Under the guidance Number of employees Pre-investment: 12 is a service, is a less time intensive, of CIC, the potential for PragmatIC’s Latest: 85 and cheaper service for developing technology in RFID, attracted investment from Avery Dennison, the world’s application-specific flexible devices. largest RFID inlay manufacturer, which led to the complete installation and commissioning of the first FlexLogIC What did the business need? production system in 2018. “CIC has been a vital partner for our business during the PragmatIC needed funding to support its In 2019, PragmatIC formally launched its transition from Research & Development to development, installation and ConnectIC® RFID product line, securing commissioning of our first pilot production. The company had already orders for over 20M units from global demonstrated a viable fabrication process companies eager to add connectivity FlexLogIC system and launch of for their FlexICs, but the business needed and intelligence to their everyday our first commercial products. investment to support their development items. Later that year the company Their understanding of deep tech of FlexLogIC®, a scalable, self-contained announced their FlexIC Foundry™. companies has allowed them to and fully automated production system. support us effectively on PragmatIC also needed support to this journey.” expand their product development Future growth plans Scott White, CEO and commercial activities, to prove the PragmatIC’s vision is to embed their technical achievability and strong demand technology in a trillion smart objects for the ability to give everyday items a over the coming decade. FlexLogIC, unique electronic identity, through FlexIC-

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Growth case study Random42

Random42 are the global market leader model, helped recruiting a new finance in the creation of scientifically accurate director and upgrading the financial medical animations. These animations, reporting functions. Sector Healthcare and Life Sciences and other digital marketing services, are Vespa Capital supported ongoing investment Supported by primarily used as educational and/or in technology to ensure Random42 used Vespa Capital marketing tools by premium healthcare the best digital technologies in the market clients. and helped penetrate adjacent markets Location including biotech, nutraceuticals, over-the- London The company’s multimedia visualisations counter medicines and medical devices. Initial investment date serve as both a promotional and March 2015 educational tool by delivering highly Random42 maintains a strong recruitment process and company culture by recruiting Amount invested engaging and sophisticated digital imagery £8.7m high calibre candidates and retaining to demonstrate the ways in which drugs valuable employees. mediate their effects within the body. Impact of PE/VC investment Turnover What did the investment achieve? Pre-investment: £4.2m What did the business need? Post-investment: £7.5m (2017) Random42 has continued to grow its Random42 needed support in in transitioning Number of employees presence internationally and is still Pre-investment: 27 from a proprietorial ownership structure recognised as a leader in its field. In 2018, Post-investment: 75 This included developing the appropriate members of the Random42 team travelled governance frameworks, managing the to as part of a 50-strong trade “Vespa Capital have been founder’s transition, CEO mentorship, and delegation to showcase the UK’s excellence very supportive partners and developing key management functions like in health science. finance and sales. have encouraged us to make significant investment during the last 2 and half years. We What lasting value did are grateful for all their help PE/VC investment bring? and guidance and thank them for their support.” As the first , Vespa Capital provided support in developing Ben Ramsbottom, CEO key management functions including reorganising the sales and marketing function into a coherent product-oriented

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Growth case study Verona Pharma

Verona Pharma is developing a first-in-class outreach to potential strategic and therapeutic to treat respiratory diseases. financial partners. It has also been The inhaled dual phosphodiesterase PDE3/ actively involved in financing events Sector PDE4 inhibitor with both bronchodilator and and through its board representation, Healthcare and Life Sciences anti-inflammatory properties is in clinical trials as well as the extensive change in the Supported by for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management team (new CEO, CFO, Abingworth

(COPD). Verona Pharma is a VIPE (Venture CMO and multiple support hires). Location Investment in Public Equity) and is listed on London the NASDAQ exchange. Initial investment date July 2016 “Abingworth’s support has What did the business need? been critical to Verona’s successful Abingworth invested when the company development over the last five was in preliminary Phase 2 studies and years. They were early to spot listed on Alternative Investment Market the unique characteristics of (AIM). Since their investment, the company ensifentrine and its potential to “We’d like to thank has completed multiple Phase 2 clinical Abingworth for their trials, extensively upgraded its management transform the treatment of patients team, listed on NASDAQ, delisted from AIM, with COPD. They have backed continued support as completed additional rounds of financing, this unwavering belief in Verona we work to generate the and commenced its Phase 3 pivotal clinical financially and with the expertise trial programme. clinical data needed to we have needed to become a gain regulatory approval The company has now met it’s funding needs successful biotech company for ensifentrine, so that following a recent $200m capital raise on listed on Nasdaq.” NASDAQ. It is now is in Phase 3 study in COPD COPD patients can and we would expect considerable value to be David Zaccardelli, CEO benefit from this new created on the release of positive Phase 3 data. and potentially improved treatment option.” What lasting value did Future growth plans David Zaccardelli, CEO PE/VC investment bring? Verona Pharma is in Phase 3 study Abingworth has been active in strategic in COPD and we would expect positioning of the company including considerable value to be created on the release of positive Phase 3 data.

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Competitiveness case study ATG

ATG is a global pioneer of webcast What lasting value did What did the investment achieve? and timed online auction platforms. PE/VC investment bring? The operational improvements driven It operates the-saleroom.com, Sector ECI instigated the sale of ATG’s declining by ECI resulted in the business being Technology i-bidder.com, BidSpotter.co.uk and print management division early on, and sold to TA Associates in February 2020, BidSpotter.com websites, as well Supported by supported both the international growth generating a 3.7x money multiple. ECI Partners as publishing the antiques industry and the development of ATG’s technology, bible, the Antiques Trade Gazette. Location including modularising the architecture, London implementing the latest generation real ATG’s platforms allows bidders from time video streaming, and upgrading Initial investment date 2014 around the world to browse fully illustrated several user experiences. ECI also drove sales catalogues and place bids over the the international expansion of the Impact of PE/VC investment internet in real time, with live audio and business by making two acquisitions – video feeds delivering the auction room European leadership in the arts & Number of employees Pre-investment: 97 atmosphere. Bidders are also able to Antiques vertical. Post-investment: 140 participate in timed, online only auctions. Employment figures grew as the business scaled globally, but the company focused on hiring tech roles as the business What did the business need? transitioned. Fewer than 10% of the workforce were in tech at entry, with 1/3 “We’ve had a really good relationship When ECI Partners invested in ATG it was a of staff working in tech by exit. ECI drove with ECI over these years, both in publishing driven organisation predominantly the transition to tech, introducing new, terms of thought partnership and focused on the UK arts and antiques tech native leadership in the form of John- execution. When you’re a small market. ECI supported the repositioning of Paul Savant (formerly of Paypal) and then business, you sometimes can’t hire ATG to a leading global digital marketplace. supporting him in finding, selecting and in all the expertise you’d like, and Today it provides online auction platforms onboarding senior leaders with pedigree ECI provided a lot of real, raw to more than 1,600 auctioneers globally from businesses such as Vodafone and horsepower into the business at across multiple verticals (Art & Antiques, Matches Fashion. ECI also instituted different points in time that was Industrial & Commercial, and Consumer a rebranding to Auction Technology incredibly valuable to what we Retail Returns). ATG now has international Group to aid with this repositioning. were doing.” offices in Hamburg, Seattle and Omaha with over 140 employees. ATG’s technology John-Paul Savant, CEO platform powers live and timed auctions bringing the online buying community over seven million lots each year.

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Competitiveness case study Concirrus

Concirrus is a leading Insurtech and Asia, and helped grow the client base specialising in transforming the future to more than 20 leading industry names. of risk selection, pricing, and claims “We’ve established Concirrus Sector Andy Yeoman was named the second Technology using the latest developments in data most influential person in marine as the category leader and Supported by analytics, AI, machine learning, and insurance in 2019 by Lloyd’s List. The created nearly 100-jobs requiring IQ Capital digitalisation. Concirrus’ intelligence first time an Insurtech leader has made it contemporary skills such as data Location platform Quest, helps organisations onto the list. Concirrus was recognised analytics, machine learning and AI. as one of the top 10 global Insurtech London improve loss ratios, reduce operational Additionally, our tools and products expense, and access increased deal firms of 2020 by Insurance Post. Initial investment date serve to re-skill what’s been a very September 2018 sizes and new trading relationships. By traditional insurance market.” capturing and understanding customer Impact of PE/VC investment behaviour and delivering data-rich Future growth plans Andy Yeoman, CEO Number of employees insights at scale, underwriting teams Concirrus’ future expansion plans are Pre-investment: 25 are empowered to make rapid data- to further develop the core platform Latest: 100 (2021) driven decisions. Over 20 market-leading capabilities to ensure existing clients can companies trust Concirrus’ technology unlock ongoing value through commercial to power their risk making decisions. and operational excellence. This will also build on the existing client base within marine, cargo and automotive.

What lasting value did They will also expand into new commercial “We’ve established Concirrus PE/VC investment bring? specialty insurance business lines. as the category leader and Concirrus launched its Quest Marine Cargo created nearly 100-jobs requiring The investment has enabled Concirrus platform in 2020 and will be focusing on to develop their innovative Quest contemporary skills such as building out third-party datasets to drive Marine platform, building out the data analytics, machine learning new insights into risk, and developing functionality to deliver increased value and AI. Additionally, our tools increased functionality to transform the to the insurance market. They have also and products serve to re-skill cargo insurance market in 2021. launched Quest Automotive to support what’s been a very traditional risk management and mitigation for the Concirrus will also be expanding insurance market.” automotive fleet insurance market. internationally, Quest is now available in Europe, Asia and America. Concirrus Andy Yeoman, CEO This has helped to scale the business announced the expansion of its commercial effectively to more than 100 employees, offering into Asia in January 2021. driven international expansion into Europe

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Competitiveness case study Dr. Martens

Dr. Martens is an iconic global brand leverage the robust backbone the firm and one of the most recognised now has to drive continued growth. footwear brands in the world, selling in Sector Consumer Retail excess of 11 million pairs of footwear annually in more than 60 countries. Future growth plans Supported by Permira The brand has empowered rebellious The future is bright for Dr. Martens Location self-expression for over 60 years. and Permira sees many years of Wollaston growth ahead as the business continues to reach its full potential. Initial investment date What did the business need? 2014 Amount invested In simple terms Dr. Martens needed £177m professionalising at the same time as “The successful transformation introducing a consumer-first brand-oriented Impact of PE/VC investment mindset and culture to the business. In of Dr. Martens was only practical terms, this meant hiring managers Turnover possible because of the great Pre-investment: £209m (FY2013) from big global brands, investing in systems partnership we had with Permira Latest: £672m (FY2020) and processes, introducing rigorous financial controls. Many areas required a strategic who supported and guided the Number of employees refresh, including greater investment strategy over the past seven Pre-investment: 759 (FY2013) Latest: 2,228 (FY2020) in digital talent and capability, strategic years. I’m very grateful to them management of key wholesale channels, for their continued support as greater focus on the core brand and retail we grow the brand further execution, supply chain diversification, around the world.” and improved internal oversight. Kenny Wilson, CEO

What lasting value did PE/VC investment bring?

Throughout the investment Permira adopted a custodian mindset, ensuring financial discipline and a strategic culture across the firm. They hired world- class talent in the company who can

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Competitiveness case study HEG (Host Europe Group)

HEG was a leading European provider What lasting value did of hosting and domain services to PE/VC investment bring? consumers and small and medium Sector Cinven implemented a successful buy and Technology enterprises. It offered an end-to-end build strategy including four significant product suite including domain services, Supported by acquisitions – Telefonica Online Services, Cinven application hosting, cloud hosting and Domainfactory, Intergenia and Paragon managed hosting. It also had an emerging Location – and a number of additional smaller London software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. acquisitions including eight in the first half of 2016. It also helped consolidate the Initial investment date HEG had a strong market presence in the 2013 HEG businesses to six primary brands UK and Germany, with a smaller presence from more than 20 deals completed Impact of PE/VC investment in Austria, Switzerland and Spain. Its since the company was founded. well-recognised brands included 123-reg, Turnover From a personnel perspective, they Pre-investment: c. €136m (FY2013) Heart Internet and Host Europe. Post-investment: €321m (FY2016) invested in HEG’s management team including the promotion of Patrick Number of employees Pre-investment: c. 700 (2013) What did the business need? Pulvermüller from COO to CEO and the appointment of new divisional CEOs. This Post-investment: 1,225 (2016) Cinven acquired the core business within helped HEG’s organisational structure to HEG in August 2013 for an original function as an integrated group with clear consideration of £438 million. The focus on its two core business divisions. transaction marked the first platform “It has been a pleasure working acquisition of an overall consolidation with Cinven – across its Investment, strategy, originated by Cinven’s TMT team What did the investment achieve? Portfolio and Capital Markets teams. who had identified web services as an They have helped reshape our attractive and fragmented market. HEG was In December 2016, Cinven sold HEG to organisation for significant growth well positioned within the segment given GoDaddy, the world’s largest cloud platform and worked closely with our its brand name, technical infrastructure dedicated to small, independent ventures. management team on evaluating and management. In terms of lasting value, add-on acquisition targets as part Cinven also invested significantly in the IT of our buy and build strategy.” systems of the business. Patrick Pulvermüller, Group CEO

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Competitiveness case study Purplebricks

Purplebricks is a leading online UK real estate portal. The company revolutionised the real estate space “DN Capital was a valuable Sector Real Estate by combining local knowledge with partner and shared in that convenient online technology. early vision to invest in scaling Supported by DN Capital our disruptive business model Location across the UK. The team were What lasting value did Solihull anxious to give help and support PE/VC investment bring? Initial investment date where appropriate whilst March 2014 DN Capital provided support and guidance promoting and complementing through the seed round, bringing in early the strategic vision of those in Impact of PE/VC investment seed investors and supporting the product whom they invested.” Turnover development by making introductions to Post-investment: €122m (Oct 2020) key strategic partners with experience in Michael Bruce, Founder property portals and real estate information. Number of employees Pre-investment: 5 DN Capital oversaw and supported the Post-investment: 233 (Oct 2020) company through various changes including the appointment of a new Chairman, Nick Discombe, and the IPO process.

What did the investment achieve?

In 2014, DN Capital led the seed round as the sole Venture Capital on the capital table. Two years later, Purplebricks went public and became the UK market leader in online estate agency achieving a £1.0 billion market cap. DN Capital sold its position via IPO and achieved a 6x multiple overall and 18x their initial investment.

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Competitiveness case study Revolut

Revolut is a British Fintech company financial services under one umbrella for offering both personal and business their customers. Banking services. In 2015, Revolut Sector Technology launched in the UK offering money transfer and exchange. Today, their Supported by Seedcamp customers around the world use dozens “Seedcamp was an instrumental of Revolut’s innovative products to make player in helping Revolut grow Location London more than 100 million transactions a from a small-time startup into a month. Across personal and business global banking alternative. Two Initial investment date April 2015 accounts, they help customers improve short years later, and we’re one their financial health, give them more Amount invested of the fastest growing fintech €0.3m control, and connect people seamlessly firms in Europe, have three across the world. international offices and a team Impact of PE/VC investment of over 150 people. Hungry Turnover What did the business need? founders with ambitious plans Latest: £162.7m (2020) should begin their journey Number of employees Revolut needed funding to support early- with Seedcamp.” Pre-investment: 5 stage product development and marketing Latest: 2,000 (2020) tools to attract future investment. Nikolay Storonsky, Founder & CEO

What lasting value did PE/VC investment bring?

Seedcamp provided marketing and product development support and arranged introductions their lead investors, Venrex and some high-profile Angel investors.

Future growth plans

Revolut’s ambitious growth plans include a vision to be a financial platform of all

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Competitiveness case study Riverlane

Riverlane builds ground-breaking Riverlane has developed Deltaflow, the software to unleash the power of operating system for quantum, and quantum computers. Their operating released an MVP in November 2020. CIC’s Sector Technology system, Deltaflow, supports a range of venture capital investment progressed quantum hardware platforms, including the development, which helped position Supported by Riverlane as a leader in Europe in quantum Cambridge Innovation Capital superconducting and trapped ion qubits. software. They led and won a flagship Location UK quantum computing £7.4M project Cambridge to install Deltaflow on every UK quantum Initial investment date What did the business need? computer, and built a strong base with April 2019 Riverlane is building the operating system UK quantum hardware companies and enterprise customers, providing the for quantum computers. (This is about as Impact of PE/VC investment deep tech as it gets.) Riverlane needed an foundation for global expansion. investor who could understand what they Number of employees Pre-investment: 4 wanted to achieve and its significance at a Latest: 23 time when quantum computing was not on Future growth plans the radar of many investors. The business Recently, Riverlane closed a £15m Series needed an investor with experience in A round, including £3.70m from CIC, building deep tech companies who could allowing the company to continue its advise them in the early formative years, rapid growth plan. This includes, doubling “The next year is all about increasing and they needed capital to build the their size in the next year, further growing the footprint of Deltaflow to capitalise engineering team and hire key executives. their engineering and product teams, and on our first mover advantage. We are expanding business development and in this strong position today because marketing functions. Deltaflow means CIC invested at the right time. Every What lasting value did the quantum ecosystem can thrive, and quantum computer needs an operating PE/VC investment bring? the possibility of global expansion. system – it makes the technology useful. As the quantum computing Cambridge Innovation Capital’s (CIC) market takes off, we’ve built a decisive investment allowed the company to product and have the firepower accelerate their mission and grow their to bring it to the world.” team from four to 23 people. Riverlane attracted talent from all over the world, Steve Brierley, Founder and CEO increasing the size of their engineering team and appointing the COO and Chief Product Officer positions.

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Competitiveness case study Shazam

Shazam is a Global leader in audio What did the investment achieve? discovery (music + TV) with over 100 Shazam has become an iconic company. million monthly active users. Shazam Sector DN Capital invested into a restructuring Technology identifies songs based on an audio round in 2004, and quickly became very fingerprint on a time-frequency graph Supported by involved in building the team, as well as the DN Capital called a spectrogram. It uses a go‐to-market strategy of the company. It is smartphone or computer’s built-in important to note that the first 5‐10 years, Location London microphone to gather a brief sample more than half the senior management of audio being played. Shazam stores team came from direct DN introductions Initial investment date 2004 a catalogue of audio fingerprints in a as well as many of its clients, including database. The user tags a song for 10 Apple. DN Capital’s return on this deal Impact of PE/VC investment seconds and the application creates was 20x on their first investment. an audio fingerprint. Shazam works Number of employees Pre-investment: 5 by analysing the captured sound and Post-investment: 250 (2018) seeking a match based on an acoustic fingerprint in a database of millions “The Team at DN Capital have of songs. If it finds a match, it sends added significant value in many information such as the artist, song aspects of the business, whether title, and album back to the user. that be assisting in building the Senior Management Team by sourcing candidates through their What lasting value did extensive network or validating PE/VC investment bring? strategy and supporting corporate Through its own network, DN Capital development initiatives through helped build the management team and their industry knowledge Board including the CEO, VPs, CFO, and expertise.” CPO and CMO. DN initiated Shazam’s expansion to the US and introduced the Andrew Fisher, company to key customers including Executive Chairman Verizon, AT&T and, most importantly, Apple, which changed the company’s evolution. Shazam was acquired by Apple in 2018 for $350m.

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Competitiveness case study Thought Machine

Thought Machine was founded in the kickstart it needed as the company 2014 to enable banks to deploy modern started to enter the market. Advice from systems and move away from legacy investors was critical in shaping the Sector Technology IT platforms that plague the banking product, pricing, and go-to-market strategy. Supported by industry. Thought Machine does this Thought Machine refined the way it IQ Capital through its cloud native core banking positioned Vault, actively targeting the platform, Vault. This engine has been biggest banks in the world and the Location London written from scratch entirely for the cloud. largest addressable market. The company dropped plans to take Vault Initial investment date in different directions – which would May 2016 What did the business need? have distracted it from this end goal. Impact of PE/VC investment In 2016, Thought Machine was Thought Machine incorporated investors’ Number of employees building out its core banking engine, advice on optimising hiring strategy, ensuring that it was selecting the best Pre-investment: 40 Vault. Thought Machine drew on its Latest: 500 experience working at leading technology possible candidates to build Vault. companies and applied those engineering principles to the way Vault was built. Ambitious businesses, like ours, Future growth plans require sizeable and early cash Initial cash investment served as validation investment. Engineering talent, a key that Thought Machine were on the right The vision for Thought Machine remains asset for Thought Machine, comes track. The company hired more engineers the same from its earliest days – Vault will at a premium in London, and banking and further refined the product. be the core banking engine which powers the biggest, most capitalised banks around sales cycles are famously long. These This series A round, with investment the world. costs were duly covered by our first from the UK’s biggest bank, was the rounds of funding – helping us build catalyst for growing the team even This means significant efforts have been the momentum to stand Thought further, and beginning the process taken to make Vault operational for tier one Machine up on its own feet. Our to secure the next set of clients. banks. Thought Machine is committed to initial investors gave us the breathing refining the product, and shaping its internal space to build and sell Vault processes in accordance with the strict with relative freedom. What lasting value did requirements of multinational banks. This Paul Taylor, Founder and CEO PE/VC investment bring? has led to Standard Chartered selecting Vault for its digital bank in Hong Kong – and Early investors, board members and for Lloyds Banking Group to go live on Vault. capital injection gave Thought Machine

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Competitiveness case study TransferWise (now ‘Wise’)

TransferWise enables international What did the investment achieve? money transfers – allowing private Seedcamp sold majority of its interest. individuals and businesses to send Sector The sale of its TransferWise assets Technology money abroad without hidden charges. has returned 500% of capital back to Supported by its Angels and Funds. Seedcamp also Seedcamp invested heavily in Transferwise staff who What did the business need? left and started their own businesses. Location London The business was pre-product launch and Initial investment date in its earliest days had a founding team August 2011 that was in development across UK and Europe, with either location becoming a HQ. “Seedcamp was an invaluable Amount invested $0.2m Additionally, the big banks were still learning stepping stone for TransferWise how to work with startups and disruptors, and provided us with the Impact of PE/VC investment like Transferwise, so it was important to foundations to build the company Turnover understand building on their platforms. we are today. From a team of Pre-investment: 0 two, we’re now 650+ people in Post-investment: £302m (2020) nine offices across the world - Number of employees What lasting value did and we’re just getting started. Pre-investment: 4 PE/VC investment bring? Post-investment: 2,200 (2020) For any startup looking to build Seedcamp worked very closely with the something truly awesome, founders during the critical first days Seedcamp is the place to help with team development and connecting into the UK ecosystem to to start.” make the UK the clear choice to set Kristo Käärmann, up the HQ. Transferwise is one of the Founder & CEO biggest banner stories for UK tech.

Seedcamp significantly assisted with further rounds after the companies pre- seed round, and particularly bridge building with the US trip, where the Company met with a16z (its first US institutional VC) and other VCs.

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Competitiveness case study Winterbotham Darby

Winterbotham Darby is a leading What lasting value did operationally independent. The decision supplier of chilled foods to UK PE/VC investment bring? taken by PAI to retain Steven Higginson as supermarket chains and one of the CEO, alongside the rest of the management Sector Equistone supported Winterbotham Darby’s Food and Agriculture UK’s most dynamic chilled food team, reflected the significant investment transformation into a dynamic market leader. businesses, with a leading position that Equistone had placed in creating a Supported by Consistent investment in improving supplier highly effective management structure Equistone in continental foods (including olives, networks, product ranges, and manufacturing and the long-term focus which defined antipasti and charcuterie) and a fast- Location facilities provided a strong platform from the firm’s ownership of the company. Redhill growing plant-based operation. The which to expand, while the bolt-on Winterbotham Darby supply chain acquisitions of Alatoni and Vadasz added Equistone ultimately helped create a Initial investment date December 2012 is underpinned by a sustainable scale to sustain further growth. robust, modern business, well equipped business approach that includes a to deal with the challenges posed by From the outset, Equistone pursued a a famously ruthless sector. Impact of PE/VC investment commitment to high environmental, highly flexible business model, placing Number of employees ethical and technical standards. emphasis on innovation and speed to Pre-investment: 255 market. The company identified the Post-investment: 450 vast potential of the meat-free sector, What did the business need? and, with Equistone’s support, quickly developed a market-leading product range Winterbotham Darby needed significant in the fermented foods and plant-based and sustained investment to both drive segments. Equistone also supported efficiencies and achieve the consistent growth investment focussed on driving ESG in a required for success in the highly competitive number of areas. chilled foods sector. Winterbotham Darby “We enjoyed a very successful investing in partnerships and achieving scale partnership with Equistone, who quickly was of paramount importance. supported us to significantly Future growth plans The business also needed to keep pace enhance our presence within the with the ever-shifting consumer trends The sale of the business to PAI in November UK grocery market and establish that define the sector. The company’s 2020 generated a successful 2x return, a Winterbotham Darby within a long-standing background of growth in result which reflected Equistone’s success in number of new, fast-growing supplying provenance-rich continental food, turning Winterbotham Darby into a dynamic chilled food segments.” and in particular meat, appeared to face player within the chilled foods sector. Steve Higginson, CEO long term questions given an increasingly Following the completion of the sale, environmentally and health-conscious Winterbotham Darby will form part of a consumer base, focussed on managing meat new UK chilled food platform, alongside consumption. A renewed focus on product Addo Food Group, while remaining development and innovation was needed.

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Competitiveness case study Wireless Logic

Wireless Logic is Europe’s leading IoT What lasting value did connectivity platform provider, working PE/VC investment bring? with application providers, systems Sector ECI supported Wireless Logic to develop Technology integrators, and enterprises to connect, and deliver a European organic expansion control and secure the Internet of Things. Supported by strategy, and the management team opened ECI Partners Wireless Logic has pioneered the IoT offices in France, Germany and Spain connectivity market since 2000 and Location during its investment, becoming the leading Maidenhead is now leading its future as a global independent operator in the European solution provider and market leader in market. ECI’s investment enabled the Initial investment date August 2011 the ever-changing world of connectivity. entrepreneurial management team to flourish in a challenging but supportive environment. Management’s ongoing investment and Impact of PE/VC investment What did the business need? ownership of the business gave the Number of employees founders and the wider management team Pre-investment: 19 (2011) ECI Partners invested to enable the significant and incremental motivation Post-investment: 230 (2020) founding management team to buy the to grow the business. This focus and business back from Phones International drive has led to the creation of a world Group, and to create a scalable platform for leading, £1bn international technology organic growth. ECI’s investment allowed business, headquartered in the UK. Wireless Logic to invest in its people, “Our goal was to expand recruiting a Chairman, CFO and CTO, and outside the UK and under more than doubling headcount during its Future growth plans investment. ECI also supported investment their help and guidance in partnerships, infrastructure, and software Wireless Logic was sold in 2015 at multiple we moved into Germany, development, deepening its position as the of 6.1x ECI’s original investment and a 68% leading platform provider, with significantly IRR. The business has now gone through two France and Spain which improved data and management information further private equity investments, which has resulted in us tripling our to support growth. It also funded the cemented its position as the major European subscriber base in business’ entry into 3 European markets player in IoT connectivity. It has gone on which were loss making for a number of to complete 10 strategic and international three years.” years. Wireless Logic developed a highly acquisitions, enabling other private Oliver Tucker, Founder & CEO scalable platform, becoming the leading vendors to generate capital which would European provider during investment. have otherwise been unlikely. ECI’s backed CEO and Founder, Oliver Tucker, is still the CEO of the business.

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Cohesion case study Bollington Wilson Group

The Bollington Wilson Group is one of M&A and the alignment of the two cultures. the UK’s leading independent insurance The company moved into a new flagship brokers, successfully operating from six head office, bringing additional gravitas Sector Business Services offices and employing in excess of 400 and status to the new Group and further people. The Group now places in excess cementing its position as a leading Supported by northern broker. Inflexion of £190m annual gross written premium across the UK and operating over 40 The Group provides its clients with a holistic Location Cheshire delegated authority schemes and product offering complemented by several boasting 160,000 clients. niche market specialisms and operates Initial investment date across a range of distribution channels, October 2017 leveraging a nationwide team of specialist What did the business need? account managers and a leading digital Impact of PE/VC investment proposition. During Inflexion’s investment Number of employees Inflexion supported the business with the Group grew organically and via strategic Pre-investment: 400 the initial merger and integration of acquisition and is now the largest Latest: 455 (2020) Bollington Insurance Brokers and independent broker in the North of F Wilson Insurance Brokers in October England, operating across seven offices 2017, to create Bollington Wilson Group. and employing more than 400 people. The insurance market is fragmented Bollington Wilson made five strategic and and management from both businesses value accretive acquisitions during the saw an opportunity to create a northern investment period, which expanded its powerhouse broker, however needed product offering and strengthened its “We didn’t have a huge an investor with experience integrating regional presence. amount of experience of businesses, but also with the capital integrating two large companies and ambition to fund further M&A. so Inflexion were very helpful in providing resource to What lasting value did integrate people, to integrate PE/VC investment bring? revenue streams and to integrate IT.” At the outset, Inflexion’s Digital team helped with integration of the IT systems, Paul Moors, CEO the value acceleration team helped with implementing a 100 day plan, and the investment team provided support with

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Cohesion case study British Engineering Services

British Engineering Services British the company with the initial transition to Engineering Services is a provider of being a stand-alone company. With its premium quality engineering testing, understanding of the fragmented TIC “We have recently opened a Sector Business Services inspection and consultancy services services market, Inflexion is supporting standalone training centre to British Engineering Services accelerate whose customers benefit from state-of- ensure we can always train our Supported by growth through consolidation opportunities. Inflexion the-art technology and excellent online new starters and upskill our reporting systems. It carries out thorough The Inflexion team also helped with Location existing Engineer Surveyors.” Manchester examination and testing on plant strengthening the BES management team with machinery across the UK and Ireland a number of valuable senior recruits. Talent Stewart Kay, CEO Initial investment date October 2015 and works with c.30,000 customers. is one of Inflexion’s value acceleration levers and its Talent Director’s strong network helps to find candidates which fit an organisation’s Impact of PE/VC investment What did the business need? culture. The individuals that Inflexion put into Number of employees BES have been invaluable for the team. Pre-investment: 500 British Engineering Services was bought from Latest: 650 Today the company has over 450 highly RSA Plc, the multi-billion pound listed insurer. trained Engineer Surveyors and Consultant The non-core subsidiary had been suffering Engineers, strong customer support systems from a lack of investment. Inflexion worked and a wealth of technical expertise. with the management team for a year prior to the deal to identify operational improvements and areas for strategic investment. Inflexion “Our partnership with Future growth plans helped to improve IT systems, financial Inflexion is really delivering systems and the sales function. In addition, the BES has performed very strongly throughout for the British Engineering TIC (Testing, Inspection & Certification) market COVID-19, and has successfully won new Services Group. We’re able was highly fragmented and the company customers and deepened relationships with to make quick decisions could benefit from the additional capital that existing clients. It has continued to recruit and an investor could provide to accelerate growth and have adopted an has recently opened a new training centre. innovative and industry through add-on acquisitions. Together with the company, Inflexion are assessing further M&A opportunities and are leading approach to confident that the company will see more servicing our customers.” What lasting value did organic and acquisitive growth. Stewart Kay, CEO PE/VC investment bring?

Inflexion’s experience in carve-outs was invaluable in executing the deal and helped

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Cohesion case study Glide

Glide is the UK’s leading provider of WarwickNet, which expanded the customer managed internet and digital media base into the business sector and provided services to high-density accommodation. access to a fibre network installation Sector Technology The company designs, installs, and capability. Following the acquisitions, manages fibre networks required the business was renamed Glide. Supported by Inflexion to deliver broadband connectivity Under Inflexion’s ownership there was together with other critical products and significant investment into Glide’s national Location Clevedon services to student accommodation, infrastructure, building a resilient UK the private rental sector, and small wide network covering over 250,000km, Initial investment date October 2013 and medium sized enterprises. passing 94,000 premises and benefitting from 250+ fibre points of presence. This allowed Glide to benefit from exponential Impact of PE/VC investment growth in broadband usage, driving What did the business need? Number of employees significant economies of scale. Pre-investment: 80 In October 2013, management of Glide Post-investment: 300 By the time Inflexion sold the business, it (then CableCom) were looking for an was providing high quality services to three investor to help expand capacity and independent sectors; students, business improve services. It was looking for a parks, and emerging private rental sector. It Under Inflexion’s ownership, partner with experience in the technology was sold with a world class infrastructure. EBITDA grew over 160%. and telecoms sectors, but also with M&A Organic growth primarily came experience in these markets. Inflexion appointed a highly experienced Chairman from the core UK market, which from its network to work with the strong What did the investment achieve? was driven by a combination management team, and the partnership A well planned and highly competitive exit of new customer wins and saw Glide develop into a unique national process was run during the coronavirus extensions to existing contracts. asset with a leading market position. crisis. The strong growth of the business, The business also expanded driven by the ongoing capital investment into Europe and focused on programme, the high level of recurring the new growth markets of What lasting value did revenues, and resilient nature of the national high-density housing and the PE/VC investment bring? infrastructure meant that despite the market build to rent segment for uncertainty, a number of potential acquirers young professionals. Inflexion supported the expansion of the put forward bids at attractive valuations. business through two strategic high-growth acquisitions (i) Glide, which expanded the range of services provided and (ii)

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Cohesion case study Merlin Entertainments

Merlin Entertainments is the second What lasting value did largest operator of visitor attractions and PE/VC investment bring? theme parks globally and the largest in Sector Merlin underwent a massive transformation Leisure Europe with 67m annual visitors across during Blackstone’s initial eight-year 130 attractions around the world. Supported by ownership via organic and inorganic growth, Blackstone Merlin has a unique portfolio of family including the acquisitions of The Tussauds entertainment brands and iconic assets, Location Group (Madame Tussauds, London Eye, Poole diversified by geography, customer 5 theme parks incl. Alton Towers) and demographic and attraction types. Gardaland. The company grew revenue and Initial investment date 2005 The company operates across three EBITDA by over 20x to become the second operating groups: LEGOLAND Parks (8 largest operator of visitor attractions and Impact of PE/VC investment LEGOLAND theme parks in 7 countries), theme parks globally after Disney, and the Resort Theme Parks (6 theme parks in 3 partner of choice for the world’s leading Turnover Pre-investment: £44.9m countries, e.g. Alton Towers, Gardaland) brands to deliver immersive experiences to guests. On 8 November 2013, Merlin Post-investment: £1,249m (2014) and Midway Attractions (116 attractions successfully completed an IPO on the Number of employees in 22 countries, mainly indoor attractions London Stock Exchange. Pre-investment: 2,790 in city centres, e.g. London Eye, Sea Life, Post-investment: 26,000 (2014) Madame Tussauds). Future growth plans In November 2013, Merlin What did the business need? In November 2019, Blackstone re-acquired Merlin, taking it private using its long-term successfully completed an In 2005, Blackstone partnered with a strong Core Private Equity strategy, together with IPO on the London Stock management team and the family founders CPP Investments and long- Exchange, giving an implied and owners of the iconic LEGO brand, term shareholder and KIRKBI. enterprise value of £4.9bn. KIRKBI, to combine Merlin Entertainments It has committed to further significant, long- Blackstone fully exited the with LEGOLAND. At the time, Merlin was term investment to ensure the longevity of business in 2015 and returned effectively a UK-only business consisting of the existing assets and to drive continued in excess of 6x invested capital aquariums and dungeon attractions. growth for Merlin and its stakeholders. Merlin’s core values and family orientation to investors, predominately The future growth plans include, amongst pension funds. fit well with the LEGO brand, and Blackstone others, opening of new LEGOLAND had the vision, capital, and expertise to Resorts, evolution of day trip theme parks support management in building a much into destination resorts and opportunistic larger company. acquisitions.

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Cohesion case study Moneypenny

Moneypenny is a world-leading Origination Team mapped the US market Processing capabilities will help customers provider of outsourced customer for Moneypenny, leading to the off-market get better insights from their conversational communications. Since its creation acquisitions of US-based VoiceNation and data and help Moneypenny to develop Sector Business services in 2000, the business has delivered NinjaNumber. Following those acquisitions, cutting-edge solutions to deliver automated seamless customer engagement by over a quarter of Moneypenny’s revenue journeys and increase efficiency. Supported by now comes from the US market. ECI Partners blending brilliant people with leading Moneypenny is looking to become the edge technology solutions. As a The introduction of CTO Pete Hanlon, number one US provider for outsourced Location Wrexham trusted partner to both small and strengthened Moneypenny’s senior communications, with ECI supporting large businesses, Moneypenny’s team, and helped the business make the management team with both their Initial investment date November 2018 People as a Service offer handles significant progress in leveraging Natural organic growth and M&A strategy. thousands of calls, live chats and Language Processing technology, to ensure the business is front and centre Impact of PE/VC investment digital communications on behalf of in new developments in communication businesses across the UK and the US. Turnover tech including applications that allow Pre-investment: £33m customers to manage their clients 24/7 Latest: £50m such as Live Chat and AI enabled services. What did the business need? Number of employees Moneypenny has grown into one of Pre-investment: 700 Latest: 1,000 Moneypenny was looking to significantly the largest employers in Wrexham, with expand across its core markets in the UK around 1,000 staff, where c. 86% of “With ECI’s support we have progressed and the US to become a global leader. It group employees are women. It is able needed to develop the team and platform significantly in our aim to be the number to offer flexible roles for its workforce and one global provider of outsourced required to maximise on the growth has an 81% internal promotion rate. trend in outsourced communications. communications, supporting businesses Moneypenny also needed to innovate of all sizes to deliver exceptional service with every interaction across our and offer market leading technology, Future growth plans utilising data, AI and automation to channels. We have been able to invest help clients improve the efficiency and Moneypenny operates in a rapidly growing further across our business to ensure quality of their service offerings. market which is set to benefit from the we deliver a world class experience increased focus on flexible working for both our people and for solutions and the importance of high-quality our clients.” What lasting value did customer engagement. Moneypenny has an Joanna Swash, CEO PE/VC investment bring? impressive technology roadmap to pioneer new ways of generating value through AI/ ECI’s Origination Team supported Voice technology and data insights. Using Moneypenny’s expansion’ and ‘ECI’s state-of-the-art AI and Natural Language

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Cohesion case study Neurovalens

Neurovalens is a medical device Future growth plans company with the vision to create Neurovalens has a primary focus on multiple technology designed to tackle the Sector US FDA approvals and aims to have their Healthcare and Life Sciences rapidly increasing global epidemics of technology available on prescription later metabolic and neurological disease. Supported by in 2021, addressing four global epidemics IQ Capital Current projects include non-invasive including obesity, insomnia, anxiety, and technology designed to treat a wide Type 2 diabetes. Location Belfast range of diseases by delivering electrical stimulation to deep parts of the brain. Initial investment date January 2019

“IQ Capital realised this Impact of PE/VC investment What did the business need? potential and, by providing Number of employees Neurovalens needed funding in early-stage investment, Pre-investment: 10 order to develop the technology and allowed Neurovalens to Latest: 15 scale the business. The early-stage rapidly move into the areas investment and guidance would support of Phase 3 trials and Neurovalens to through medical trials and navigate regulatory approvals. Regulatory Approvals.” Jason McKeown, CEO

What lasting value did “Without IQ Capital’s PE/VC investment bring? support, Neurovalens

IQ Capital’s investment helped would not have been able Neurovalens scale the business and to scale so quickly into advance technology to the next stage the globally-recognised of trials. The non-invasive technology, created in collaboration with the University medical device company of California, San Diego, is currently at a that it is today.” Phase 3 stage in the treatment areas for Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity. Jason McKeown, CEO

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Cohesion case study Radius Payment Solutions

Radius Payment Solutions is a In 2020, Radius completed four acquisitions leading fleet payment processing and including expanding services into electric telematics provider to small and medium vehicles. Previous acquisitions completed Sector Technology sized fleets across Europe, North by Radius include Adam Phones, which America and Asia. It has over 250,000 expanded the Group’s operations into Supported by the telecoms sector in October 2018. Inflexion vehicles on its own telematics platform ensuring it is one of the world’s fastest Location Crewe growing companies in this sector. Future growth plans Founded in 1990, the business has Initial investment date January 2018 grown rapidly and today has over Radius’ sales team will continue to be 1,000 employees in 23 offices with an investment priority, as it has proved Amount invested operations that span over 15 countries. to be a key vehicle for growth across all £150m markets. Together, with Inflexion it will work on integrating the recent acquisitions Impact of PE/VC investment and continue to assess further M&A What did the business need? Number of employees opportunities in new and existing markets. Pre-investment: 1,000 Radius Payment Solutions needed a Latest: 1,500 partner to help them achieve long term growth, while allowing the founders to keep majority control, to create interim liquidity and return some cash to shareholders. “We felt that David and Edd [Inflexion team] What lasting value did definitely thought in a bit PE/VC investment bring? of a different way so it felt Inflexion supports Radius’ continued more natural, like existing organic growth, particularly seeking out partners we’d had in cross-selling for telematics and insurance products, whilst helping to accelerate sales the business.” across the globe. Inflexion has supported Bill Holmes, CEO Radius’ M&A ambitions both in the UK and internationally, including the recent acquisitions of Amelix Telecom Total Communications and Chargepoint BV.

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Cohesion case study SHE Software

SHE Software aims to radically reduce What lasting value did workplace fatalities & accidents and PE/VC investment bring? improve well-being, mental health and Sector Frog’s involvement has reaffirmed that the Technology productivity within working environments. team’s ambitious plans are achievable. Using mobile first, AI assisted software, Supported by Frog’s Scale-Up Methodology and Frog Capital SHE has enabled hundreds of UK, US Operating Partner team has helped and ANZ companies across the transport, Location onboard the team’s first CFO, taken the East Kilbride logistics, housing, food, retail, education effectiveness of the senior leadership and construction industries to make a team to the next level through executive Initial investment date February 2020 step change in how they manage the coaching, raised the profile of the health and wellbeing of their employees. business with potential partners, and sharpened the corporate messaging. Impact of PE/VC investment Turnover What did the business need? Latest: £7m (2020) Future growth plans Number of employees Given its priority on scaling in the US Pre-investment: 85 and delivering major product innovation, SHE Software is aggressively driving Latest: 110 SHE Software was looking for a funding towards becoming global software partner with specialist expertise in scaling leader in mid-market health, safety, from c. 75 people to over 500 within and environmental risk. Key priorities a high growth, software, international are North American growth, major environment. The resource and capacity extensions to SHE’s technology and AI to provide impactful advice and contacts and the building of a world class team. across sales, marketing, finance, “Frog is an exceptional team, talent and operations was vital. expert in the scaling of high SHE Software now has over 300 clients, growth businesses. Their has achieved 40% annual growth insights & network have been and is scaling up its Scottish HQ. invaluable in helping SHE scale rapidly.”

Matthew Elson, CEO

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Cohesion case study Skyscanner

Skyscanner is an online travel What lasting value did technology established in 2002 and PE/VC investment bring? headquartered in Edinburgh. It has Sector Technology a metasearch engine which enables Scottish Equity Partners helped the company professionalise its business structure and consumers to research and book Supported by put in place the foundations for accelerated Scottish Equity Partners travel, including flights, hotels and growth and global expansion. Taking a car hire. Initially, it focused on budget Location long-term view, Scottish Equity Partners Edinburgh carriers and chartered airlines in provided hands-on and practical support Initial investment date Europe. Scottish Equity Partners first to the founders, helping them to develop a November 2016 invested in Skyscanner in 2007 to strong executive team and high performance help the company extend its reach board. Scottish Equity Partners encouraged Amount invested £9m (from Scottish Equity Partners) across all airlines globally, and to the company to take a long-term view of diversify into other travel verticals. value creation, which ensured the company Impact of PE/VC investment achieved real scale and an excellent outcome for its shareholders and stakeholders. Turnover What did the business need? Skyscanner is one of the best known travel Pre-investment: £1m Post-investment: £175m technology companies in the world. Scottish Equity Partners was the company’s Number of employees largest shareholder and lead investor, and Pre-investment: 30 worked closely with the founders to develop Post-investment: 800 the senior team, including the appointment of a CTO, CFO and COO. Scottish Equity “Skyscanner’s position as a Partners supported the company’s world leading travel search internationalisation through M&A activity business would not have been and the opening of 10 global offices across possible without the great support the US, Europe and Asia. Scottish Equity we have had from Scottish Partners also helped the company with Equity Partners. They have been its strategic development and growth and led a number of financing events, including a consistently engaged, informed investment from Sequoia and Baillie Gifford. and astute partner throughout Scottish Equity Partners played a lead our journey.” role in the company’s exit to NASDAQ-listed Gareth Williams, Co Founder Trip.com. Skyscanner continues to operate and former CEO independently within the Trip.com group.

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Cohesion case study WEALTH at work

WEALTH at work (WAW) offers financial company also needed a renewed strategic WAW develop into a fintech business, able education, regulated advice and direction which would identify clear areas of to efficiently provide a high-quality service at wealth management services designed opportunity and place an increasing focus increasing scale. Sector on consolidation. Business services specifically for the workplace and The business is launching a new, technology- Supported by delivered nationally by a team of based online guide. This has been developed Equistone specialists, who have educated over over the past two years and is designed to 80,000 employees across the UK. What lasting value did provide an even greater degree of support Location PE/VC investment bring? for employees in the “accumulation” phase of Liverpool The company was founded in 2004 and Upon investing in WAW, Equistone retirement. Ongoing investment in technology Initial investment date has gone on to build a comprehensive August 2015 immediately set about changing the is allowing the company to further develop offering, which includes interactive company’s approach to consolidation. and build its offering. As a result of the financial wellbeing websites, workplace Impact of PE/VC investment Equistone oversaw the acquisition of Affinity above, they expect the business to continue seminars, and a dedicated wealth Financial Planning, enabling WAW to quickly its strong growth trajectory. Number of employees management service. WAW has won achieve the scale it needed. Pre-investment: 120 contracts with blue-chip corporations Latest: 300 including BT, Marks & Spencer, United Equistone’s investment also allowed the firm to bolster its technology offering and increase Utilities and British Gas. recruitment. In doing so, WAW was able to secure mandates with some of the country’s largest employers and best-known brands, What did the business need? “People often say that private and quickly built a reputation as a quality equity is both impatient and As a business that was set up to advise supplier of “Financial Wellbeing” services. short term in its views when retiring workers looking to take a more active During Equistone’s tenure, the business has investing capital – that is very role in the management of their pension grown from 125 employees and £500m definitely not the case in our pots, WAW appeared perfectly positioned to to 300 employees experience with Equistone, who enable and cater to the “pensions freedoms” and £1.75B assets under management. have been exactly the opposite. policy announced by the government in the Compound growth has been in excess of 2014 budget. They have been supportive and 30% pa since 2016 and the business is now patient throughout the course Despite strong growth and rising AUM, very profitable. of our partnership.” which had grown 40% p.a to reach £598m, the business had been loss-making and David Cassidy, CEO and Founder only turned its first monthly profit in February Future growth plans 2015. Wealth at Work’s most pressing Significant and constant investment in need was fresh equity investment. But the technology, as well as people, has seen

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Cohesion case study WHP Engineering

WHP Engineering specialises in the sector and identify the right balance provision of cleanrooms and laboratories of the projects they undertook. “In 2020, the company was for the pharmaceutical, biotech and Sector awarded the BSC’s Sword of Engineering industrial sectors, both in the UK and honour, which recognises our What lasting value did Supported by internationally. It offers end-to-end exemplary management of health, PE/VC investment bring? Endless project management, including design, safety and environmental risks, construction, validation, commissioning, Location As of 2020, the business has 82 permanent and we continue to do outstanding Gateshead servicing and maintenance with a staff members, but individual projects can work in the local community. The safety-first approach – in September employ a larger team (often up to 200) Initial investment date company has a bright future.” September 2016 2019 it achieved a five-star rating of planners, designers, programmers, The British Safety Council’s (BSC’s) engineers, and highly-skilled technical Ian Lichfield, CEO Impact of PE/VC investment Occupational Health and Safety Audit. experts. The business takes on around 10 projects a year which can range from 200k Turnover The company has worked with some to £35m in size, and has completed around Pre-investment: £9.4m Latest: £35m (2020) of the world’s leading brands, including 50 projects under Enact’s ownership. the likes of BASF Pharma, Fujifilm Number of employees In February 2020, WHP completed Diosynth Biotechnologies, GSK and Pre-investment: 74 the design and build of a new viral Latest: 82 Rolls Royce Marine Power Operations. vector manufacturing centre for Oxford Biomedica. The new GMP facility is suitable for manufacturing viral vectored What did the business need? “Enact helped transform the vaccines and gene therapy vectors up company through a difficult WHP required commercial leadership to help to 1,000 litre scale and will be used phase to help stabilise and grow the founders (one of whom is still a director) for the large-scale manufacture of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine. the business. Their experience put the company on a sound financial and wider network helped WHP footing. Enact brought in Ian Lichfield identify how to take the business as CEO as he had the right commercial to the next level, and they background to take the company forward. Future growth plans The three operating areas of the business provided invaluable financial WHP is very profitable and has a strong were located separately, so were brought and business expertise.” pipeline of future projects. Enact are in in to one location so that there was better the first stage of exit planning and hope Ian Lichfield, CEO oversight of projects and operations. to push turnover to £45m and hope to go In terms of strategy, the leadership team to market in the second half of 2021. decided to focus on the life sciences

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Climate case study ELeather

ELeather is the pioneer of sustainable, What lasting value did engineered leather. Its revolutionary PE/VC investment bring? process transforms leather into “As a leader in the sustainability Sector The funding was critical for the company Manufacturing advanced materials while achieving space, ETF Partners has provided to meet their ambitious growth plans a significantly lower environmental valuable support as we continue Supported by through increasing manufacturing ETF Partners footprint. ELeather reduces waste, capacity and entering new markets. to expand our market-leading Location increases performance, and enables environmentally friendly products In 2018, ELeather entered a long-term Peterborough brands to create extraordinary products to new markets. We are proud to and memorable customer experiences, strategic innovation partnership with Nike Initial investment date to introduce a new performance material, have them on board as strategic 2017 while improving sustainability. Nike Flyleather. Flyleather is a performance, investors and advisors.” ELeather has grown to supply engineered leather made from recycled John Kennedy, CEO industries ranging from transport leather fibres and is lighter and more durable to footwear, exporting over 90% of (based on abrasion testing) than full-grain sales to more than 50 countries. leather. It is manufactured from unused leather diverted from landfills and constructed with high-performance materials to create Nike’s most sustainable leather product. What did the business need?

£6m initial investment was required to scale up manufacturing in first facility, followed Future growth plans “ETF Partner’s financial support has by £65m of funding to create a new, state been vital in the growth and expansion of the art technology and manufacturing ELeather are planning further expansion of the business. Their support, facility, greatly increasing capacity and into consumer and lifestyle markets, as alongside other investors, was a allowing expansion into new markets. well as the automotive sector, where critical milestone in enabling the they can introduce the benefits of a company to move to a much larger ELeather required patient scale-up funding high-performance, sustainable material scale and add consumer products from a seasoned investor with liked-minded that addresses consumer demands. and automotive customers to our values to existing family office shareholders. impressive list of transportation The investment enabled a new, state of and footwear brands.” the art technology and manufacturing facility increasing capacity by 4x and to John Kennedy, CEO expand the business into new markets to fuel the next phase of growth.

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Climate case study Smarter Grid Solutions

Smarter Grid Solutions’ technology What lasting value did increases the capacity and resilience PE/VC investment bring? of electricity grid infrastructure, helping Sector Investment has helped build the senior Energy and Utilities utility clients avoid or defer significant leadership team, named Scottish Venture- network upgrade costs and facilitating Supported by backed Management Team of the Year at Scottish Equity Partners the connection of renewables and the 2019 BVCA Management Team Awards. storage. Using real-time management of Location Investment also supported international Glasgow the electricity network, SGS’ innovative expansion and fuelling revenue growth software allows network operators from just over £1 million when Scottish Initial investment date December 2011 to run closer to the limits on existing Equity Partners invested to £10 million in grids, while reducing waiting times for 2020. SGS is now a global operator active Impact of PE/VC investment renewable developers to connect new across the UK, European, and US utility generation technologies. Operating markets, having built an impressive blue Turnover Pre-investment: £1m globally from bases in the UK and chip customer base and secured live-grid deployments in each territory. North America Latest: £10m USA, its enterprise software platform, now accounts for almost 50% of revenue. Number of employees ANM Strata, is being deployed by Pre-investment: 25 world leading utility companies. Latest: 66 Future growth plans What did the business need? To increase deployment of active management software to move both The company needed support to transition the electricity grid and market towards from a consulting led sales model to a more net zero carbon emissions. SGS is now lucrative software licence model. The utility supplying its Distributed Energy Resource market was undergoing significant change Management Systems software to all six due to a rise in distributed generation via of the UK’s Distributed Network Operators renewables and battery storage and an and further growth will come from increase in electric vehicles. The business international ground-breaking clean energy needed investment to strengthen the projects in the US, Australia, Canada, technical and sales team in order to Germany and, most recently, India. capitalise on a growing demand for active electricity network management technology.

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Climate case study The Modern Milkman

The Modern Milkman (TMM) is a sustainable environmental, economic, and fast-growth UK startup committed social structures surrounding food delivery. to building a more convenient and Sector We have full confidence that The Modern Food and Agriculture sustainable approach to grocery Milkman will play an essential role in Supported by shopping. The Manchester-based changing how we consume food, and we ETF Partners business delivers convenient groceries continue to be impressed by the founders from independent and local suppliers and their commitment to sustainability.” Location Colne directly to customers’ doorsteps in returnable and reusable packaging. Future growth plans Sustainability is in the DNA of the TMM offering - through its innovative In 2021, TMM aims to expand across returnable and reusable packaging the UK, fulfilling its target of helping model, the company has saved 9 consumers shift away from single-use plastic and lead a more sustainable lifestyle tons of plastic to date to be exact. without giving up on convenience. The company takes tens of thousands of deliveries each week across Greater “ETF Partners’ insight, Manchester, Leeds and Lancashire, skill and experience in the allowing customers to place orders sustainability space will until 9pm to ensure deliveries by help us deliver the positive 7.30am the following day. impact we strive to have on the environment at What lasting value did pace, as we move forward PE/VC investment bring? with our expansion plans Tomer Strikovsky, an investment across the UK over the manager at ETF Partners: course of 2021.” “In today’s world, many of us are looking to reduce our environmental impact on Simon Mellin, Founder & CEO the planet, but convenience remains key to daily life. Consumers do not need to forego convenience when prioritising the

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Climate case study UK Power Reserve

UK Power Reserve (UKPR) is a long-term, 15-year capacity market the business has the bandwidth leading provider of secure, flexible, low contracts to build out new power stations. to achieve what we want to Sector carbon electricity and services to the This provided UKPR with fixed revenues achieve. They were supporting and allowed them to access new markets Energy and Utilities UK power market. Headquartered in rather than obstructing us Solihull and established in 2010, it has with highly responsive new assets, which Supported by is what really drove the growth during in our plans.” Inflexion and Equistone developed, built or acquired generation the period Inflexion were invested. capacity to grow from a start-up to a Tim Emrich, Co-Founder Location and former CEO Solihull substantial independent operator. Initial investment date What did the investment achieve? 2015 What did the business need? Since the investment, staff headcount increased from 70 to 150 by the time the Impact of PE/VC investment In December 2014, the company secured business was acquired by Singapore- Turnover a significant number of 15-year Capacity headquartered energy group, Sembcorp, Pre-investment: £20m Market (CM) generation contracts to nearly in May 2018. Capacity more than trebled Post-investment: £80m triple its existing capacity, and a year later to over 500MW delivered from 32 power Number of employees Inflexion Private Equity and Equistone stations across England and Wales. Pre-investment: 70 Partners Europe invested in the business to Post-investment: 150 support the management team in optimising Revenues also increased significantly, from performance from existing operations and around £20 million to over £80 million. building new sites to achieve this growth. “Inflexion knew where to be What lasting value did “Inflexion is one of four private supportive – and they knew where to step out of the way and PE/VC investment bring? equity firms I’ve worked with, let us get on with it. They have During their time together, a massive capex and they were the perfect an appreciation for what it takes programme saw UKPR treble capacity to partner. Inflexion as a business to grow a business significantly over 500MW from 32 rapidresponse power isn’t very old, and I could see and successfully.” stations across England and Wales. To put parallels of how they were it in perspective, that is enough to power growing their business in how Tim Emrich, Co-Founder 375,000 homes in local communities. and former CEO we were growing ours. They, like The National Grid needed more generation us, are big believers in resource and new assets coming onto the energy and investing in people to ensure system in the UK. To this end, they issued

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Climate case study Vital Energi

Vital Energi designs, installs and What lasting value did operates clean energy centres for the PE/VC investment bring? commercial, residential and public Sector Vital Energi has grown into the UK market Energy and Utilities sectors, helping to provide cost effective leader with an impressive track record. heating, cooling and power, while also Supported by Turnover has trebled since 2015 and the Scottish Equity Partners reducing carbon emissions and improving company is projecting further growth as air quality. The company provides Location market demand for heat de-carbonisation Blackburn total solutions, from initial design to continues to build. Scottish Equity project implementation, operation, and Partners has contributed to the ongoing Initial investment date December 2011 maintenance, comprising combined strengthening of the company’s board and heat and power (CHP) sources, storage, management, with a focus on growing Impact of PE/VC investment controls and associated clean energy business development resource and to equipment. It has a strong track record of maximising shareholder value. Turnover Pre-investment: £30m providing innovative and market leading Latest: £150m solutions, with key deployments including Future growth plans Number of employees the Natural History Museum, Terminal Pre-investment: 146 5 Heathrow, Glasgow Commonwealth Vital Energi is developing its expertise and Latest: 493 Games and the King’s Cross Central presence across the clean energy and energy centre. heat sectors, and is now ideally placed to contribute to the UK’s decarbonisation ambitions. The company plans to continue “Scottish Equity Partners has What did the business need? to expand its client base across the UK, worked closely with our leadership delivering innovative solutions across towns, team to support business growth. The business was led by a strong and cities, NHS hospitals, and to industrial Their clean energy sector knowledge, experienced management team and required clients and housebuilders. It is committed industry network and ambition to investment to scale to meet the increasing to investing in and developing its people to grow long term value for stakeholders demand for distributed energy across the UK. ensure it has the key industry skills needed has helped shape our strategy It was already an established player in the UK to help the UK achieve its ‘net zero’ targets. and ensure we retain our market heat sector and was seeking to accelerate leading position”. the implementation of the latest technologies and diversify into high value adjacent Ian Whitelock, CEO energy sectors, including the installation of proprietary heat interface units and the development of energy from waste systems.

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Climate case study Willerby

Willerby is the UK’s largest manufacturer they provide materials for the local prison as the sales cycle is much longer. The of caravan holiday homes and lodges. to make beehives for local schools. other growth area is modular housing,

which is evolving and will accelerate to Sector With a rich 75-year history that can be They recently installed two biomass help fill the housing gap in the UK. This Manufacturing traced back to the origins of caravan incinerators to burn left-over wood, which is part of their plan for future growth. Supported by manufacture, the company has turns into heat for the factory and to make Equistone constantly kept ahead of market trends the production process more circular, and adapted to the changing leisure saving 1,000 tonne of CO2 in gas reduction Location Hull lifestyle requirements of the consumer. alone. The investment exceeded the normal capital expenditure budget and had a Initial investment date longer payback period but the investors June 2017 What did the business need? were very supportive of the process. Amount invested £50m As market leader Willerby was well placed to capitalise on the attractive Future growth plans Impact of PE/VC investment fundamentals of the UK holiday home sector – namely a strengthening grey pound Willerby continues to focus on developing Turnover Pre-investment: £155m and increasing propensity for staycations. caravan holiday homes and lodges for Latest: £170m the consumer, whose desire for domestic The business was looking for a supportive staycations has increased significantly Number of employees shareholder to work with Management as a result of the COVID pandemic. Pre-investment: 900 to continue to invest in manufacturing Latest: 1,000 improvements, new product development, The business intends to continue building build a consumer-facing proposition and a relationship with the end-consumer and explore growth into adjacent markets. helping them find the right holiday home and park for them. This has required different “The partnership with Equistone has skill sets and substantial investment. The been fantastic. They pressure test investors helped the company undertake our plans and use their experience What lasting value did to challenge and provide feedback. PE/VC investment bring? a well-executed consumer-facing strategy to take the business forward. But once we have a plan, they

ESG is central to the company’s ethos. leave it to us to execute and are An adjacent market is bespoke building Willerby is closely involved with its local very supportive.” of residential park homes; with an ageing community in Hull, supporting many population there will be demand for many Peter Munk, CEO charity events, and have a very strong more single-floor dwellings. Willerby apprenticeship programme. The founder have dedicated one of their factories of Willerby originally made beehives, so to this and it requires heavy investment

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Contacts

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