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.

We are delighted to see in the press that one of our recent clients have raised a £50 million fund from private investors.  Hestia PLC’s foray into hospitality has garnered considerable attention within the press in the past few weeks. This significant play is backed by Justin King (former boss of Sainsburys) who alongside Andrew Fishwick & his team are seeking to acquire and consolidate premium dining & high end experiences in the UK.

No credit for this one for us, nevertheless we are genuinely happy they secured funding and wish them well.

Click on the following link to read more: New investment vehicle secures £50 million to fund premium hospitality acquisitions – Hospitality & Catering News (hospitalityandcateringnews.com)

We are delighted to work on so many varied assignments here at BYC. It’s always a pleasure to be able to help business owners take forward steps, whether small or significant. We’ve recently closed off and completed two long-term assignments & have completed an equity raise for an established business in the hospitality sector.

As we close out 2023, firstly we wish you all the best for the season. We are looking forward to 2024, there is a level of quiet business confidence that has settled – long may that continue.

Current activity at BYC

We are currently active in raising funds for clients in multiple different sectors, some examples in our tech space include a travel management platform, a carbon credit platform and an innovative drones & air taxis installation company that has been shortlisted as part of a government program to determine what types of systems to use for volume landing sites.

In more traditional business sectors, clients include a metal bashing manufacturer, and award winning restaurant and various property related projects.

We’re seeking one or two associates to grow our team at BYC! 

We are looking to take on Associates in the next couple of months and would be pleased to hear from anyone you recommend who you feel may be suitable. Most colleagues tend to be at the latter part of their career and like the idea of a self-employed role with an opportunity to turn the flow of work off and on, depending on their lifestyle and other work patterns. We see the years ahead offering a rich opportunity for key people who fit into our culture.

Browsing through the business pages last week, I was interested to learn of the volume of capital being placed into UK start-ups. We’ve always been ahead of our European cousins and this continues to be the case. What’s interesting in this year’s figures is how much capital is now coming in from overseas.

 The Times commented: Britain leads Europe in attracting venture capital investments with over $15 billion in investment to young, high growth British start-ups this year. This puts Britain behind only the United States and China. UK investors accounted for 31% of the investment, so the international community is overwhelming investing into British start-ups, this shows that the British market is attractive despite the current domestic economic struggles. 

 What is less clear is how much private investment capital is going into trading SME’s. And I’m not talking about Series A rounds where the business is technically trading but still in early stage. I’m referring to businesses with a track record looking to develop/acquire/buy-out shareholders/have a need.

 This is where our investors are most active. If you have clients who seek capital that can’t be sourced from traditional banks and ABL’s, please get in touch.

As one of our clients is currently in legals for a £500k investment, I am compelled to write about another client who recently closed their doors and called in the Administrators.

This business failure is particularly sad for several reasons: it was a husband & wife owned company, grown from nothing to deliver a number of very successful years, suffered from several factors outside of their control which impacted on margins and the ability to make profits, but most of all it is sad because the failure of this business was completely avoidable.

We were approached over a year ago to help deliver new equity into the business. The reality of the situation was that investors were being asked to pay down supplier balances, deal with an HMRC Time To Pay arrangement totalling close to £1m and back a business not forecasting to make profits for another 2 years.  And yes, we can deliver investment solutions to situations like this, especially when the history has been so good, the balance sheet positive and top line sales holding up. But investors are business people and clearly would have wanted both a significant stake and level of influence on how the business was to be run. The owners weren’t able to get their heads around this and thus any equity solution fell away.

That old “which would you prefer” phrase – some shares in a larger successful business or 100% of nothing, comes to mind.

The final point to make here is a simple maths one: any Time to Pay arrangement agreed over one year, means you have to make that much net profit in said year, otherwise you will fail to make all payments, and keep up with current liabilities as & when they fall due. If you know you won’t make that level of profit, then you need an additional solution in the form of new money. Otherwise you will run out of cash some way through the period. Selling equity at this point may not be ideal – we all get that. But if it’s a choice of an equity partner or failure…..

Onwards and upwards…..

I was delighted to have a meeting with a senior MP and ex Govt Minister yesterday at Portculis House. It’s refreshing to be able to have a positive and open discussion, based on inward investment and regeneration schemes within the UK. My colleague and I are looking forward to helping bring parties together for the common good of UK plc. More on this in the weeks and months ahead.