Scaleup programmes
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Livingbridge [2022]
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
20
UK companies backed
13%
Follow-on investments
60%
Investments outside of London
14
Growth-stage investments
Key sectors
Livingbridge is a 25-year-old private equity firm that has been investing in four sectors – healthcare and education, services, consumer and TMT – and has made more than 150 investments.
It typically makes investments between £5m to £100m, taking a flexible approach – it will provide growth capital, as well as funding management buy-outs and secondary buy-outs and replacement capital deals. It will invest in high-growth, entrepreneurial businesses with enterprise values of up to £300m.
The average size of its investment round into UK companies since 2015 is £12.4m. In the period between 2015 to June 2022, the firm invested a total of £211m in 23 UK companies in 27 fundraising rounds. The average turnover of those companies was £26.5m and their average number of employees was 151.
Scaleups in its portfolio include social media publisher Jungle Creations, telecoms services provider FluidOne, and circular economy pioneer World of Books.
The firm has offices in London, Birmingham and Manchester and an Australian office in Melbourne to make primary investments in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It has an office in Boston and a US industry advisory board to support expansion and M&A in the US.
To support the growth strategies of its portfolio companies, Livingbridge has developed its “growth accelerators,” which it describes as “core value creation capabilities designed to unlock a business’s potential.” Its in-house growth acceleration team is made up of market experts principally covering international growth, corporate development, customer acquisition and retention, talent and technology. Its managing partner, Wol Kolade, is a founder of The 10,000 Black Interns programme, which will offer paid work experience across a wide range of sectors, providing training and development opportunities and creating a sustainable cycle of mentorship and sponsorship for the black community.
