Mountside Ventures is a leading early stage advisory firm, supporting startups and growing businesses. The firm provides interim CFO and fundraising advice for Series A and Series B stage companies - one of the few focusing on this part of the market. Mountside also run a leading fundraising accelerator for pre-seed and seed founders. The team previously ran one of the Big 4's startup propositions and have deep experience in working with companies at this particular stage. Headquartered in London, Mountside supports companies across the UK and Europe.
The Tech & High Growth team at Cooper Parry are the UK’s leading startup and scaleup partner in the accounting and tax space, working with fast-growing venture backed businesses and the people that own them, to get ahead of the challenges and opportunities that lie in wait.
The team work with over 500 early stage and over 250 scale ups, building relationships with the Founders, CFOs, and Boards of high growth businesses. Unlike any other team in the tech sector, they support clients across all financial needs from Pre-Seed to Exit and beyond.
The Tech & High Growth team is an internal ecosystem built specifically for high growth businesses, and it doesn’t exist at other firms. That’s just one of the reasons why Cooper Parry are known as the rebels of accountancy. They don’t do suits and don’t do boring, instead cutting straight to the answers with the freedom to work closely with clients to deliver the pragmatic and timely support they need.
With an entrepreneurial spirit at its core, CP is here to ‘Disrupt, Lead and Make Life Count’ – backed up by being the 22nd Best Company to Work for in the UK and No.1 Accounting firm to work for in the UK. All whilst being largest accountancy firm to be B Corp Certified.
Operating from a network of 11 offices across the UK, the team serves clients across multiple industries including technology, financial services and digital assets, retail and consumer, health and social care, creative and media, professional services, property, construction, manufacturing and industrials.
The Generalist Co are specialists in finding fractional startup veterans to support SMEs on their growth journey. The team recognise the challenge of capacity limitations for growing businesses, whether in time, money or skills, and have built their solution to address these directly.
The Generalist Co bring in individuals who are experienced in getting up to speed quickly, creating strategies, building systems and clearing the to-do list, across any business function. Having gained an in-depth knowledge of how your business and the role works, they are then well-positioned to find and and train the right person to continue the relevant role on a permanent basis.
Excelerator Partners supports ambitious scaling businesses from the seed to mid-market private equity stages with access to best-in-class executive leadership expertise.
The team has extensive experience in scaling businesses from start-up to hyper-growth and leverages this to assess leadership capabilities and needs, growth plans and deliver solutions. Services include access to fractional C-suite leaders, advisory and consultancy on specific challenges and opportunities, permanent executives, Non Executive Directors and Chairs.
Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) is a leading UK-based exchange that is tailored to the needs of growth companies. The regulated and authorised exchange caters for primary and secondary offerings via the listing and trading of shares, as well as debt products.
The AQSE is divided into two segments: Access and Apex, with different levels of admission criteria. The Access market focuses on earlier stage growth companies, while Apex is the intended market for larger, more established businesses. This segmented approach allows the exchange to meet the differing needs of early and late stage businesses, while giving both access to a public market exchange. Companies listed on Access may have little or no trading history, while those on Apex have a proven growth strategy and higher standards in governance.
Bespoke Data are a specialist provider of model building and data analytics services for UK SMEs. The team has an in-depth knowledge of equity investment, mergers, acquisitions and exits, and has worked extensively with small to medium high growth companies. Bespoke M&A have a range of cost effective subscription models and analytics which are easy to tailor, or alternatively can build bespoke platforms if required.
Dartmouth Partners is an award-winning executive search firm operating exclusively with investor backed businesses. The firm nurtures enduring partnerships and strategically solves talent problems through their understanding of businesses moving through an investment journey. From offices in London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt, Dartmouth utilises its extensive investor and advisory network to identify and attract transformative individuals that can add significant value.
The firm has a proven track record of working with a diverse portfolio of venture backed businesses. Whether this is hiring for a business that has recently taken Seed or Series A investment or strengthening the leadership team of a Series E company readying for IPO. Dartmouth partners with organisations on board, management and transformational leadership roles that will successfully add value at every stage of the investment journey.
The offering includes board-level appointments (with a key focus on CEO, CFO and NED hires), HR (including generalist and Talent roles) and individuals from Corporate Development and Strategy backgrounds (which may sit in growth or product roles).
Dartmouth have supported companies such as Cazoo, Babylon, Trouva and Hello Fresh to build their senior teams and work with leading venture capital, growth and private equity firms, including Accel, Softbank and Hoxton.
Bixteth Partners specialises in sourcing growth capital for early-stage companies and providing advice to founders on capital requirements and growth planning with the aim of getting clients “investment ready” whatever their stage - Post-Seed, Early Growth, Series-A or beyond.
Led by Guy Briselden, who has over 30 years of capital markets experience, the team of partners has deep experience in public and private markets, from Private Equity through Investment Banking, Financial PR and Board roles, and an extensive investor network of institutional firms, HNW individuals and family offices. They undertake a staged and targeted approach to investor outreach to help companies raise the right amount at the right time, with investors that represent the best fit for their growth plans. They also assist with plans for an ultimate exit or strategic investment, whether that turns out to be private equity or secondary VC investment, trade sale or IPO (Aquis, AIM or Main Market).
Bixteth's sweet spot is funding requirements between £1m and £10m, but have supported on smaller and larger deals. They are sector agnostic, with the exceptions of deeptech and life sciences where they are less active. They have most recently advised companies in the premium spirits, digital printing and retail tech / Metaverse industries. Bixteth do not often assist companies which are pre-revenue or in very early revenue as it is not a sweet spot for their investor network; however, they are happy to offer advice and potentially some introductions.