EF News
Maven is one of the UK’s most active private equity investors and has a track record of identifying and supporting high-growth businesses. In the North East, Maven manages three regional funds and also invests on behalf of the Maven Venture Capital Trusts. Here, Maven showcase three of their latest collaborations with great North East entrepreneurs.
The job of a Venture Capitalist is to seek out ambitious entrepreneurs and help them realise their goals. Done correctly, this will deliver substantial returns for our investors and generate material wealth for founders and management teams. The opportunity to work with the Forum provides us with an excellent opportunity to meet with entrepreneurs and potentially work together.
Over the last few months we’ve completed exciting deals with some great North East entrepreneurs:
Fintech software
The North East has one of the fastest growing technology hubs in the UK, with notable success and expertise in FinTech. We recently backed Kani Payments with a multi-million-pound Series A investment to further develop its software and to grow sales in the UK and US markets. Kani is led by CEO Aaron Holmes and is a specialist in automated payment reconciliation. The platform is already highly developed and has reconciled over €24billion in processed payments across 5 continents. Increasing regulations, complexity of transactions and the ongoing growth in digital banking and financial solutions are all driving substantial growth for the Newcastle based company.
Challenger food brand
Tiba Tempeh is a fast growing challenger food brand. The business was founded by Alexandra and Ross Longton, with a mission to create a healthier world by inspiring people to eat more naturally healthy and sustainable plant based foods. Tiba has a growing range of natural, high-protein, tempeh-derived products with listings in Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Ocado, Aldi, Carrefour and LeClerc. The investment has got off to a fantastic start with Tiba Tempeh recently recognised by Nielsen as the fastest growing brand in the UK chilled meat-free category, growing 736% year on year.
Renewable energy
In October, we invested £3.5million into solar energy specialist Power Roll as part of our wider strategy to support the transition to Net Zero through direct investment into innovative companies in the renewables sector. The Durham-based business is led by CEO Neil Spann and has developed a unique, flexible, lightweight solar film capable of producing ultra-low-cost green electricity that is up to ten times cheaper to make than existing flexible solar photovoltaic technologies. The new funding will allow Power Roll to accelerate the development of its pilot plant, enabling small-scale manufacture of its solar products for installation at test sites across the region later this year.
Funding for entrepreneurs
Locally, Maven manages the Finance Durham Fund, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II Equity Fund, and North East Development Capital Fund. We also invest on behalf of the Maven Venture Capital Trusts and Maven’s Private Equity funds. We provide funding from £100,000 to £10 million to early-stage and established businesses and offer both growth capital and funding for MBOs and M&A.
