Caple supports management buyout and growth at Venturi

Alternative SME credit specialist Caple has helped Venturi, an international IT recruitment company, to access a multimillion-pound five-year unsecured loan. Caple offers access to unsecured lending of up to £5m.

Manchester-based Venturi was founded in 2009 by Brad Lamb and is one of the top-50 tech staffing businesses in the UK, as ranked by industry publication The Recruiter.

Venturi will use the loan to complete a vendor-initiated management buyout of the entire business. Venturi will also use the loan to grow in the UK and internationally, supporting US and German tech clients from its New York and Berlin offices respectively.

Firms such as Venturi can find access to secured lending a challenge because it is a services-based business with few physical assets, and it trades internationally. Banks generally need tangible assets to put up as security for loans, so raising additional finance to complete an MBO and grow was not open to them.

Another challenge for Venturi in raising this finance was that it does a significant part of its business overseas and uses invoice financing on those transactions.

This can make it difficult to raise finance from high street banks. They often make additional debt finance dependent on them also taking over the invoice finance services, even though they don’t fund overseas invoices. Consequently, in order to raise finance, Venturi would first have had to forgo much of its existing finance, stifling growth.

Caple worked with Sonovate, Venturi’s existing invoice finance provider which supported with additional working capital, to ensure the business has all the funding it needs.

Sean Brophy, UK country manager of Caple, said: “Many successful businesses, such as Venturi, are growing by developing intangible assets such as services and data. However, while banks can lend against the tangible assets in a business, they can only do so up to the value of those physical assets available as collateral. After that, they cannot help.

“This creates a barrier to growth and may force businesses to issue equity instead of raising debt. Venturi is a classic example of an asset-light business with few long-term financing options despite its impressive growth. Our unsecured lending deal demonstrates how we are able to work with other lenders so businesses like Venturi can focus on scaling their business.”

Brad Lamb, founder of Venturi, said: “This is an exciting new chapter for Venturi. We will build on the excellent international reputation we have established in the IT and technology sectors. Working with both Caple and Sonovate, the management team is looking forward to expanding Venturi’s market share and playing a key role in supporting the international technology industry.”

Venturi specialises in placing high-quality people into key technology roles in the IT and tech sectors. These roles include business information, data, analysis and security, and software development.

The business has grown significantly over the last decade. It established a presence in Germany in 2015 and set up in the United States in 2017. It employs 70 people and is forecast to deliver revenues of around £31m at the end of this financial year.

Caple is the UK’s first firm to offer access to long-term unsecured lending of up to £5m based on the future cash flows of the SME. It requires no collateral or personal guarantees as security. The loans also work alongside existing secured lending, meaning firms can have access to more funding than they would get from their bank alone. It also allows them to maintain their existing financial relationship.

Caple’s technology platform supports a network of accountants and financial advisors to SMEs who identify suitable borrowers and prepare the loan application materials. This enables an efficient and robust credit process. Carl Swansbury, partner at RG Corporate Finance, advised Venturi.

Carl Swansbury, partner and head of corporate finance at RG Corporate Finance, said: “Venturi is a successful, growing international technology staffing business. The business needed an unsecured loan to fund the MBO and grow while keeping its existing invoice discounting facility in place to fund its working capital. Caple is unique in the market in being able to offer access to unsecured lending for growth which complements existing secured lending from other providers.”

The loans Caple facilitates are part of BNP Paribas Asset Management’s SME Alternative Financing direct lending platform, which enables SMEs to access funding from institutional investors. BNP Paribas Asset Management aims to provide €1bn per year in funding to SMEs across Europe.

Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) lands £3m re-financing

Helideck Certification Agency (HCA), a global leading authority on the safe and compliant operation of onshore, offshore and afloat helicopter landing areas, has selected Shawbrook as its new finance partner.

Aberdeen-based HCA were looking to refinance existing facilities including a legacy acquisition finance loan from 2014.

As a specialist lender to UK SMEs, Shawbrook has recently expanded its range of funding facilities to include a senior cashflow product. Alongside its established complex ABL proposition, Shawbrook can now offer event-based finance to businesses with either a solid asset base or those with few assets but strong cashflows that can be leveraged.

Shawbrook were introduced to the funding opportunity with HCA – responsible for the inspection and certification of more than 700 helidecks globally including 300 across UK and Norwegian waters – by Alderburn Finance Ltd, a Scottish-based independent specialist finance broker.

Alex Knight, managing director of Helideck Certification Agency Ltd, said:

“Our goal was to find a lender that could understand our business, the dynamics of the sector and what we are trying to achieve over the next few years, and Shawbrook did exactly that. In the end, the team at Shawbrook delivered exactly what they committed to and communication throughout the process was excellent.”

Neil Davidson, managing director at Alderburn, said:

“We believe this is a great deal for all parties involved. Alex is an excellent CEO and knows the sector inside out and we are delighted that a real specialist lending provider in the form of Shawbrook has supported them. The team at Shawbrook have managed this case excellently, specifically in their understanding of HCA’s business, the communication levels they maintained with the client throughout as well as in the efficiency of the information gathering, credit assessment and speed of processes.”

David Cayzer, director at Shawbrook Bank, said:

“This was an excellent funding project to be involved in and being able to play such a central part was a real pleasure. Since it was formally launched, our new commercial loan proposition has proven to be a great fit for organisations such as HCA. Alongside our established asset-based lending proposition, we’re now able to cater for a huge breadth of businesses looking to fund the next major event in their own evolution. We welcome HCA to our growing portfolio of clients.”

Financial due diligence was undertaken by AAB.

£1.35m investment in platform for reporting workplace abuse

A Manchester-based technology business that has created a platform for people to confidentially and safely report workplace harassment has secured a £1.35m investment in a funding round led by Praetura Ventures, a VC firm which targets early stage businesses in high value sectors. GC Angels joined the round and invested £100,000.

Culture Shift was founded in 2018 following a string of stories about bullying and harassment in high-profile businesses across the UK. It is led by Gemma McCall, CEO and a prominent commentator on workplace harassment, COO Stuart Bradley and CTO Carl Sadd.

The software is designed to empower those who are reluctant to report wrongdoing, by removing barriers to reporting, and ensuring they have a secure and confidential platform in which to do so. The software also allows victims or witnesses of harassment to access support for what they’ve experienced as well as giving organisations oversight of any worrying trends, helping them to tackle them.

A 2017 survey, taken at the height of the #MeToo movement, revealed that 40% of women and 18% of men had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace. However, only a fraction of these incidents are reported to or acted upon by employers. Workplace bullying is also estimated to cost the UK economy £18bn a year in absenteeism, staff turnover and lost productivity.

Praetura Ventures’ funding, and the support of its team, will help Culture Shift to develop its proprietary software and accelerate its rollout to business customers, with a focus on FTSE 350 and heavily-regulated sectors.

Culture Shift currently has more than 50 customers, mostly in the higher education sector. However, it is now set to target the professional services sector, which has endured a series of workplace scandals.

Gemma McCall said: “Recent high-profile events concerning bullying and harassment have ignited a long overdue public debate about how we behave towards each other, both in society and more specifically in the workplace. This heightened awareness of the issue, along with the clear signal from the public, regulatory bodies, and the courts has empowered people – both women and men – to report abuse and seek support.

“Though this progress is encouraging, a lack of confidence in employers’ processes for reporting bullying and harassment is still a barrier for many victims of such behaviour to come forward.

“Culture Shift are proud to be both leading that debate and offering a real solution to help overcome that barrier through our innovative, trusted software.”

As well as providing a confidential platform for reporting bullying and harassment, the software allows businesses to analyse data to identify trends that mean they can take appropriate action. They can monitor any worrying behaviour and intervene early with communications or specific training. This helps businesses to better support their employees, which in turn reduces the cost of workplace bullying-based absenteeism, staff turnover and whistleblowing related costs.

Gemma added: “Our software offers businesses the opportunity to show they take the issue seriously and empowers their employees, while respecting the desire of some to remain anonymous. Importantly, it also means senior management can draw insights from the data to create a safe working environment and a culture that aims to stamp out abuse.”

The investment in Culture Shift is Praetura Ventures’ fourth from its Praetura EIS 2020 Fund, which closed in January.

The deal was led by Praetura Ventures’ Louise Chapman, Myrto Lalacos and Pete Carway. Pete will join the Culture Shift board as a non-executive director.

Pete Carway said: “Culture Shift is an impressive start-up offering a way for companies to tackle a serious problem that is afflicting business and wider society, as well as attracting increasing media attention. Gemma, Stuart and Carl are passionate about empowering people and giving them the confidence and tools to report abuse, as well as providing firms with the platform to show they are taking the issues seriously.

“There is a clear market opportunity here targeting enlightened organisations that recognise the risks – reputational, financial and cultural – of failing to tackle workplace bullying and harassment. With our investment, Culture Shift will be able to take its platform beyond its current core market of universities to professional services firms and SMEs, which we know remain behind the curve in proactively combating the issue of bullying and harassment.

Praetura Ventures has raised more than £22m since May 2019 to invest in early-stage businesses in the North and across the UK. Its current portfolio includes AI and machine-learning business Peak and online delivery platform Sorted.

Other recent investments include Patchwork, a rapidly growing healthtech start-up on a mission to solve the NHS staffing crisis, and SteamaCo, a technology provider to energy suppliers in emerging markets.

Matt Noon and Katy Oakes from Hill Dickinson LLP provided legal advice to Praetura Ventures and commercial diligence was undertaken by PMSI.

ThinCats provides growth platform with £5.25m funding

ThinCats, the leading alternative lender to mid-sized SMEs has provided a £5.25m funding facility for Maritime Developments Limited (MDL), the Peterhead based provider of offshore mission critical ‘back of boat’ systems and services to the global energy sector. The funding will be used to refinance existing loans and create additional working capital to support MDL in its long-term development plans.

Founded in the 1990’s by current CEO Derek Smith providing engineering services to the North Sea fishing industry, the business has grown into designing, manufacturing and renting a full suite of lifting and handling equipment and providing tailored consultancy, equipment and personnel services for global offshore oil and gas and wind farm operators.

The funding represents the largest deal to date for ThinCats in Scotland. Key to delivery of the transaction was the deep level of understanding Thincats was able to demonstrate, not only in structuring a bespoke financing package, but also in the specialist nature of the MDL business and the offshore energy sector.

The ThinCats team was led by Kenny Hughes, business development director, Scotland and Robert Thompson, regional head of credit, North of England & Scotland. Pinsent Masons provided legal advice to ThinCats.

Derek Smith, CEO, Maritime Developments: “Since we launched more than 20 years ago, we have had to be quick to adapt to the ups and downs of both our fishing and energy clients. We see exciting opportunities in the subsea sector with our renewable and traditional energy customers, however, our existing finance facilities were too rigid for our growth plans.

Once we had spoken to Kenny and Rob from ThinCats, they quickly came back with a simple flexible solution that included additional working capital. The new funding means we can be very nimble in offering our clients unique blends of purchase and rental equipment to meet their purchasing and scheduling requirements.

Kenny Hughes, business development director for Scotland, ThinCats: “The global oil and gas sector has had a tough time over the last few years, so it’s great to be able to support businesses like MDL who have continued to thrive through their ongoing investment in people and technology. ThinCats prides itself on the flexibility of our funding solutions and the structure created for MDL was no exception.
I am delighted that our largest funding deal in Scotland to date is to support Derek and the MDL team and wish them every success with their ambitious plans for the future.”