Growth Capital

Equity finance provided by the Maven VCTs can help ambitious, earlier stage companies to accelerate growth and fulfil their future potential. Maven is a generalist investor and can support businesses active across a wide range of sectors including software, telecoms, manufacturing, technology, life sciences and healthcare. 

Our investment criteria

Helping ambitious and innovative businesses to grow

Are you looking to accelerate the growth of your business with a supportive and experienced partner? Maven can provide capital to younger, fast growing companies from £1 million to £6 million.

As long term investors in growth companies, you will have the confidence knowing that you are working with an established private equity firm with a long term track record of supporting growth in the UK SME sector.

How we support your business

Active and ongoing support

Taking the decision to invest in your business is only the start of our journey of working together. Every one of our portfolio companies benefit from being able to call on our support and guidance as and when they require it.

Strategic Expertise

Many younger companies face similar challenges, such as how to scale their sales and marketing, optimise recruitment, raise further finance or enter new geographies and markets. Our investment and portfolio executives have first-hand experience in supporting and guiding our investee companies through these familiar challenges.

Long term outlook

We support growth and value creation in entrepreneurial companies, and we also understand that it can take time and several rounds of finance to optimise shareholder value. We can invest from late Seed stage to Series A and Series B and can continue to invest further capital as your business grows.

Flexible finance

We manage a diverse range of funds and can use a combination of these alongside bank debt and also we also have the ability to work with other investors. This comprehensive offering and degree of flexibility gives us the ability to structure a financial package that can maximise growth within your business.

Some of our growth investments

Bright Network
Recruitment Services
Guru Systems
Energy Tech
Manufacture 2030
Climate Technology
Cardinality
Data analytics
eSafe
Education Safeguarding Software
Symphonic Software
Security Software

View all

Growth Capital criteria

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Funding Requirement

We can invest from £1 million to £6 million in dynamic and innovative growth focused smaller UK companies.

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Stage of development

We support companies with annual revenues of at least £1 million and which are growing quickly. Typically each portfolio company will be under 10 years of age and will meet the eligibility criteria for VCT investment.

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Management

We back strong and ambitious management teams with a clear growth strategy and aspirations to grow shareholder value.

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Location

We prefer to invest in UK domiciled businesses.

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Momentum

We target investment in companies which can demonstrate revenue traction in their market, evidenced by key growth metrics such as an expanding client base, progression in recurring revenues and new product development.

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Sectors

We support businesses across many varied sectors, including software, telecoms, specialist manufacturing, technology, life sciences and healthcare.

Frequently asked questions

What is growth capital?
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Growth capital is quite simply used to accelerate growth. It sits at the intersection of seed / earlier stage finance and private equity, providing an equity based funding solution for high potential businesses that want to accelerate their growth without giving up control.

Which type of company is growth capital suitable for?
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It is principally aimed at businesses that are growing quickly but may not yet be profitable or able to attract conventional bank debt.

What is the finance used for?
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Growth capital can be used to expand operations, hire new senior people, develop proprietary technology, accelerate operational improvements, or help access new markets.

How does growth capital differ from earlier rounds of funding?
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Many fledgling or emerging businesses follow a similar route when fundraising, relying at the outset on friends and family for initial financial support before progressing to high net worth individuals or angel investors for seed funding. The process of fundraising changes markedly once a business reaches Series A financing and looks to secure its first institutional investment from an investor such as Maven.

What does an investor look for in a business seeking growth capital?
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There are a number of characteristics any potential funder will look for when assessing a growth capital investment opportunity. These include:

  • A strong management team
    Growth can seem like both a marathon and a sprint at times, and any business was growing rapidly is likely to face various challenges or growing pains. Investors will seek to back people that display hunger, drive, innovation and resilience under pressure.
  • Differentiated Product
    If you have a product or service already in the marketplace and have been able to attract a core group of early customers on limited start-up capital that is a key positive indicator for an investor. Alternatively, if you’re looking to develop a new product or strategy you need to demonstrate how it does things better than the competition, and that you understand any barriers to entry and how you will displace existing market players and create a defensible source of revenues.
  • Market opportunity
    To be attractive to investors your business will usually operate in/or target a very large addressable market with high potential for sales growth, and where a product or service based competitive advantage can be developed. 
  • Strong Business and Revenue Models
    An investor will want to get a good understanding that a company can demonstrate revenue traction in their market, evidenced by key growth metrics. They may not always expect the business to be the finished article, but rather that it has the potential for high growth through a clear and credible business strategy.
  • Realistic growth plan and funding requirement
    A credible plan which demonstrates an understanding of the market and how growth will be achieved. Investors will scrutinise pipeline information, key metrics and analyse the company’s competitive positioning to determine the likelihood of the plan being delivered.
  • Exit opportunity
    At the outset of a new partnership an investor will want reasonable visibility that there will be exit options for all stakeholders when a decision is taken to sell. That means understanding whether the business will have strategic value to an acquirer and offer continuing growth potential beyond our investment horizon.
Why partner with Maven
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As entrepreneurs ourselves, having developed and grown our own business, we understand what it takes to increase and ultimately realise shareholder value. We have backed hundreds of management teams, helping them achieve positive outcomes.

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