Our Midlands based client is the UK leader in travel demand management for venues, events, and destinations. With an ESG focus on reducing the disproportionate carbon footprint caused by visitor travel, their super smart software and customer facing App is rapidly becoming the accepted partner for many of the UK’s major sporting and cultural events.
Funds were needed for continued growth, particularly to roll out the offering to the thousands of smaller events that happen daily across the UK.
Our client’s business model is B2B SaaS which on the face of it ticks the box of many private equity funds.
However, size matters when it comes to being taken seriously and our client’s ARR was below the magic £1m mark. Positive conversations were being had with various funds but no-one was going to jump in. At this point we were referred to bring about a solution.
The business needed a serious high net worth individual, who could bring sector experience as well as capital to our client. This would unlock matched funding from a well-known regional fund.
We delivered such a person from within our network who, not only has serious global c-suite experience in this sector but has first-hand knowledge/experience with many of our client’s customer base. He has taken the role of Chairman and invested over £400,000 of his own capital. Connected parties contributed enough to enable the PE fund to match fund, thus resulting in £1.2 million total investment.
All parties are delighted with the outcome – in a few years’ time our client’s App will be used by all of us who attend shows and sporting & cultural events both large and small.
A Note from Chris, CEO & Founder of ‘You. Smart. Thing.’…
“Sincere thanks to Nigel & Nick for persevering with us and going the extra mile to help secure our investment and of course introducing us to Giles Fearnley who will bring great value to our company. We are most grateful; we fully recognise that bringing Giles & his capital to the table was the key that unlocked the rest of the investment.”
B Y Consulting Associate Nigel Wright comments…
“We are so pleased to have led the way in raising £1.2 million for our client, it was a pleasure to work with Chris & his team & we wish them the best for the future.
At BYC we really do deliver high quality investors to our clients. Our speciality is to bring more than money to the table and this project is a classic example.”