London based Venture Capital firms

London Based Private Equity Firms

What is an equity firm?

Equity Firms, otherwise known as private equity firms is a term that is used to refer to investment companies. They are companies that make use of their own capital or funds from other investors for startup projects and its own expansion

Equity firms are typically not listed publicly which explains the alternative name, private equity firms. Due to the nature of their company, the shares from equity firms are usually not traded in the stock market. Hence, private equity firms are usually not subject to the series of regulations obligated by public companies to follow. They do not need to comply with a lot of these mandates since they are different from public companies.

Equity firms are often referred to as financial sponsors. They typically raise capital to invest going along with a line of investment strategies.

London is the centre of the UK for Venture Capital and not just the Countries capital. If you are looking for venture capital providers then you really need to spend time reaching out to the firms which operate here. There are firms which have offices around the UK, and outfits based outside of London, but currently, the greatest numbers are based here.

Venture capital is a form of private equity investment, where a business receives unsecured funding in exchange for a percentage share of its equity. The aim of venture capital as a field is to make investments in early and mid-stage companies with an aim of profitably exiting and realising their investment at a later stage typically within 5-10 years.

A startup ecosystem
London meets the needs of startups in almost every way. There are offices available on a very short basis, and increasing numbers of hotdesking options.

Business Accelerators
These are firms which offer investment to facilitate a rapid expansion of a business. Examples include Seedcamp and EC1ventures.

London Based Equity Firms

Equity firms serve plenty of functions which ranges from raising capital to sourcing and closing of deals. Equity firms obtain their capital from financial institutions and external limited partners. This is done from Insurance companies, wealthy individuals, and financial institutions like pension funds and others.

They also do sourcing of potential companies in which an analysis is performed pre the selection of the partner they eventually go with. Potential companies suited for their acquisition are first screened based on a series of factors like financial performance, the industry the company operates in and management. Their service or product is also taken into account for making this decision.

Below, we would be a listing a few of the private equity firms that are London based and have significant presence in the UK.

CVC Capital Partners

They were founded originally in 1981 as an investment division of the group Citigroup. The equity firm has eventually been able to own its own LBO. With an AUM of $82.4billion as at 2020 which officially made them one of the largest private equity firms in London as well as one of the top 10 firms worldwide.

They engage in a wide range of private equity investing like recapitalization, venture capital investments, acquisitions. They generally invest in medium or large companies with tech and communications as its market sector. They also deal with companies that are engaged in the energy sector, healthcare and industrial sector. They also invest in infrastructure such as public utilities and transportation.

Apax Partners

Originally starting out as a venture capital business around the 1980s and early 1990s, Apax was a leader in both European US investments at the time. They however began to specialize in specific sectors. This was because they wanted to grow country funds in Germany, United states, United kingdom and even Israel.

They began to invest in buyouts around 1993 and very soon, teams from countries banded together to create regional funds. Apax has been able to raise €30.8bn ($35.2bn) aggregate commitments to buyout funds since 2005.

Apax partners naturally invest in large companies spread across the four global sectors. Sectors like Healthcare, consumer goods, services, tech and telco. They have raised a total of about $50 billion and have a global network that comprise of seven offices in three continents and over 220 people in their employ.

BridgePoint

Bridgepoint is an equity firm that was founded in 1984. Bridgepoint capital group has been approximately $20 billion in AUM. They stated that their aim is to bridge the gap between buyouts and successful and long term growth for the companies they are invested in. Bridgepoint equity typically focuses on the acquisition of major equity interests in the middle market. Their focus is basically on companies that provide healthcare, financial, consumer and even business services.

They only invest in market leading companies that are valued up to €1 billion.

Bridgepoint's investments are mainly located in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, China. Turkey, and Switzerland.

They invest in about six sectors. Business services, financial services, healthcare, consumer, media and technology, manufacturing and industry.

Their investment base also adds pension funds, insurance companies, asset managements and more.

LDC

LDC is a mid market private equity firm. They have more than 35 years in experience and have been able to dispense about €1.5 billion in capital.

They invest in the telecommunications business, education, technology, digital marketing agency.

They also provide backing for mid market company management teams.

A more comprehensive list of london based private equity firms is found below along with their websites

General List.

Important to take note that the below list covers only the major funds and does not add the venture capital funds and Private Equity funds that have less than £500 million of assets in their management.

• The Carlyle Group (carlyle.com)
• KKR (kkr.com)
• The Blackstone Group (blackstone.com)
• TPG Capital (tpg.com)
• Permira (permira.com)
• Apax Partners (Apax.com)
• Bain Capital (baincapital.com)
• CVC Capital Partners (cvc.com)
• Cinven (cinven.com)
• Apollo Management (agm.com)
• 3i (3i.com)
• Warburg Pincus (warburgpincus.com)
• Terra Firma (terrafirma.com)
• Hellman & Friedman (hf.com)
• General Atlantic (generalatlantic.com)
• Charterhouse Capital Partners (charterhouse.co.uk)
• Sun Capital Partners (SunCapPart.com)
• BC Partners (bcpartners.com)
• Bridgepoint Capital (bridgepoint.eu)
• Doughty Hanson & Co (doughtyhanson.com)
• TA Associates (ta.com)
• Advent International (adventinternational.com)
• Clayton, Dubillier & Rice (cdr-inc.com)
• Barclays Private Equity (bpe.com)
• Duke Street Capital (dukestreet.com)
• Eurazeo (eurazeo.com)
• GI Partners (gipartners.com)
• HIG Capital Europe (higeurope.com)
• IK Investment Partners (ikinvest.com)
• Phoenix Equity Partners (phoenix-equity.com)
• Rhone Group (rhonegroup.com)
• Silverfleet Capital Partners (silverfleetcapital.com)
• Hg Capital (hgcapital.com)
• PAI Partners (paipartners.com)
• Cerberus Capital (cerberuscapital.com)
• Star Capital (star-capital.com)
• Montagu Private Equity (montagu.com)
• Omers Private Equity (omerspe.com)
• Arle Capital (arle.com)
• Vista Equity Partners (vistaequitypartners.com)
• Capvest (capvest.co.uk)
• Pamplona Capital Partners (pamplonafunds.com)
• Elecktra Partners (electrapartners.com)
• Inflexion Private Equity (www.inflexion.com)

There are many more firms that are less established but still active, the UK also has many regional firms active outside of London, Linkedin is a great place to start if you want to network and form relationships witht these providers, though it can be tough to break in.

Bio - Adrian is the CEO of Reporting Accounts and is active around the internet in places such as the Xero community.