Building a modern consumer healthcare portfolio through buy-and-build

Maven investee Covestus was established with a clear ambition: to build a modern consumer healthcare platform by acquiring and scaling specialist brands operating across niche healthcare categories.

The Cheltenham based business is undertaking an ambitious buy-and-build strategy, targeting clinically proven products that are addressing chronic or recurring consumer conditions.  Covestus sees enormous potential in what they believe is a fragmented industry where consumer demand remains strong in these specialist categories, but brands may lack corporate strategic focus, investment, digital capability or operational infrastructure required to scale effectively.

At the centre of the strategy is a belief that many specialist healthcare brands already possess the hardest element to build. Products which make a difference and have earned consumer trust.

“What we really look for is a brand or product range that absolutely works and has some form of clinical validation,” says Quentin Higham, CEO of Covestus. “If the formula is proven and consumers trust it, then we can add the polish around it, whether that’s digital, ecommerce, packaging, route to market or international expansion.” 

Rather than developing products from scratch, Covestus focuses on identifying brands with established consumer demand and clear opportunities for commercial acceleration. Drawing on Quentin’s background of building challenger consumer health and beauty brands, the business is repositioning specialist healthcare categories that have historically seen limited investment in consumer engagement and digital growth.

“We saw an opportunity to build a portfolio of specialist healthcare brands that genuinely improve people’s lives, while applying modern brand building, ecommerce and digital expertise to unlock growth,” Quentin explains. 

Covestus operates in a highly fragmented area of consumer healthcare, where many specialist brands remain founder-led, subscale or non-core assets within larger organisations. For Quentin and his senior management team, this creates an attractive environment for a buy-and-build strategy, allowing the business to acquire clinically credible brands and accelerate growth through operational integration, digital investment and expanded route-to-market capability.

“The thesis is really about putting together a compatible portfolio of brands that address chronic conditions,” says Quentin. “Large healthcare groups naturally focus on their biggest categories, which can leave specialist brands underinvested despite strong consumer demand.” 

In December 2025, Maven funded the acquisitions of the Dentyl and UltraDex oralcare brands from Venture Life Group Plc, which, together with Probio7, one of the UK’s most trusted live bacteria supplement brands, that supports digestive and immune health  and Sweatguard, a highly efficacious antiperspirant that addresses hyperhidrosis symptoms, now form the central platform from which the business can expand through further acquisitions.

Many of these brands possess strong clinical credibility but limited commercial scale, creating opportunities for operational and digital acceleration post-acquisition.

“The more niche the category, often the more attractive it becomes to us,” Quentin explains. “If you’re operating in a highly targeted category with strong consumer demand, you’re not competing for attention in the same way as mass market healthcare brands.” 

Importantly, Covestus sees buy-and-build as a long term value creation strategy rather than a series of standalone acquisitions. As the platform expands, the team believes the business benefits from increasing operational leverage, shared digital infrastructure and broader commercial reach across both ecommerce and retail channels.

“If you want to build scale quickly in this market, you need to look at M&A and can’t just rely on organic growth.”

Beyond providing growth capital, Maven has played an active role in supporting the development of the platform as Covestus executes its acquisition strategy.

The partnership has provided access to specialist expertise across transaction execution, legal and financial diligence, strategic planning and wider operational support as the business continues to scale through acquisition.

“Maven understood the rhythm of acquisition, relaunch and rebuild from the outset,” says Quentin. “In a buy-and-build strategy, there are periods where you are integrating, relaunching and investing ahead of growth. Having a partner that understands long term value creation rather than short term optics is incredibly important.” 

For management, having an investment partner with experience supporting acquisitive growth businesses has been particularly valuable given the pace and complexity of the strategy being executed.

“Maven have been highly supportive as we continue to build the platform,” Quentin adds. “Their experience across acquisitions, scaling businesses and long term value creation has been important as we move through the next phase of growth.” 

For Maven, successful buy-and-build strategies are built around more than simply completing acquisitions. The focus is on supporting management teams to combine complementary businesses, strengthen operational infrastructure and create a platform with broader market reach and greater long term strategic value than the individual brands could achieve independently.