Melissa setting the record for women securing seed funding

And the spirit of Abraham Lincoln at Alvarez & Marsal

Hello Rainmakers,

We’ve got a wrap up of a good number of deals around the country for this free Friday frolic, also a taste of some of the events we’ve been to.

In the week in which we brought you THE SECRET INVESTOR, regard is all part of the service, keeping connected and bringing this community together.

FEMALE FOUNDERS LIGHT UP BRUM

Wednesday saw many of you join us at Squire Patton Boggs for our Rainmakers Seminar - a chance to hear how you can get deal ready for 2025, writes Anna Cooper.

With our partners from SPB, Grant Thornton and Palatine, the morning session spotlighted incredible female founders and the funding gap, how the budget will (hopefully) provide more certainty for business owners and how factors beyond the financials are increasingly more important. 

Melissa Snover, founder of Rem3dy Health group delved into her experience of setting the record for women in securing seed funding - a record she says is ridiculously low and someone should beat her!

She focused on the investment she received and the process of attracting that from a range of investors.

The brand has since gone on to partner with the likes of Colgate, Neutrogena, Johnson & Johnson and has gone wild in the Japanese market.

It all came from Snover dropping her vitamins at Dusseldorf Airport - she thought there must be a way to combine every nutrient I need but in one gummy. And that is what she did.

She bought 3D printers and learnt how to take them apart and put them back together (because that is so easy) and ended up with the world’s first FSA and FDA-approved food 3D printers. 

Born and raised in America, Snover says her global personalised nutrition brand wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn’t based in the West Midlands. 

I left Wednesday morning feeling just so inspired by Melissa - I’ve been wracking my brain since for any ideas for a brand! But I think I’ll leave the 3D printers to her…

SPIRIT OF ABE LINCOLN

Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham delivered his welcome address to an audience at the new offices of Alvarez & Marsal in Manchester this week. Outside of his natural habitat, and not so fresh from DJing at Labour conference the night before, it was expected he would talk up business, slap them on the back and then everyone there could go back to talking about private equity, dry powder and interest rates.

Instead he evoked Abraham Lincoln, spoke of the workers and merchants of Manchester rejecting slave cotton in 1862 and linked it to a proud city with a generational opportunity to build life chances for our young people. To hope that kids from Hulme and Rochdale could see a pathway to a career at A&M, through the MBacc reforms to our schools that he is driving through.

A&M’s boss in the office, Wiganer Jonathan Boyers, embodies a lot of this. Boyers also described Burnham as another leader who has taken on the south. Maybe, that’s why so many people across the Rainmakers community wanted to come and work for him.

SUPERPOWER MOVE

In a power move Nottingham’s energy software specialist, ENSEK, has acquired Zoa. 

With this deal, ENSEK’s headcount surges to 550 – that’s a lot of people talking kilowatts and algorithms. Zoa, known for its AI-powered home energy management platform, was formed in the wake of UK energy supplier Bulb’s collapse. 

Zoa's team of more than 45 employees will join ENSEK and while Zoa has had a rocky beginning, it's now set for a fresh start, armed with AI.

GOING UP IN THE WORLD

Deltron Group, the Dudley-based lift maintenance specialists, have been on an upward trajectory.

Since LDC's minority investment in the company in July, they've acquired five companies: Metro Lifts, Elevate UK Lifts, Elevator Group, A1 Lifts, and Lift Control. 

The acquisitions have expanded their reach across the UK and boosted their unit portfolio. 

Led by directors Scott Haywood and Lukas Schlenker, Deltron now has 160 employees, maintains 12,000 lifts, and serves 3,000 customers across both public and private sectors. 

Business, quite literally, is on the rise!

WELL SUPPORTED

Bravissimo has been acquired by a Japanese-listed manufacturer of women’s lingerie and underwear, as it looks to boost its UK position.

The Leamington Spa-based lingerie brand has been snapped up by Wacoal Holdings, owner of brands such as Freya, Elomi, Wacoal, Fantasie and Goddess. Bravissimo has sold these products across its 26 UK stores for many years.

Founded in 1995, Bravissimo is a leader in bras and bra-sized swimwear, made for D cups and up. The company employs 700 people and has 26 shops throughout the UK, with one outlet in the US that complements its online store which sells to women all over the world.

WAVE OF ACQUISTIONS

North East wholesale group Kitwave has swallowed family-owned Creed Catering Supplies in a deal worth up to £70m.

Kitwave boss Ben Maxted is leading a buy-and build strategy, and Gloucestershire-based Creed will bring synergies, an expanded geography, and around £10m-a-month in revenues.

The deal - which sees £60m paid now and £10m based on the next two years’ performance - will be partly funded by a capital raise.

Kitwave’s share price has doubled in the past two years, as the group has continued to grow through acquisitions including Total Foodservice and WestCountry Foods. With Creed’s contribution, annual revenues will now be around £800m.

HOODIES NOT ESSENTIAL

Hoodies weren’t compulsory at the completion meeting where Manchester cybersecurity start-up company Cytix raised £1.6m to expand its client base and scale its operations as demand grows for support managing tech defences. 

Manchester-based Cytix has raised the money in a round co-led by the NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance, which is managed by Praetura Ventures and is part of The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.

PALATINE BACKS EX-WIGAN FOOTBALLER IN GLOBAL BID

Palatine has announced a “significant investment” from its Buyout Fund into digital transformation services provider Bluprintx as the Liverpool-based consultancy seeks further acquisition opportunities.

The investment, for an undisclosed amount, coincides with the completion of Bluprintx’s acquisition of an American business ITG, which has operations in both the US and Hungary, and is a specialist in Adobe Commerce. The deal takes the group to a headcount of more than 140 employees globally.

According to Lee Hackett, founder and CEO of Bluprintx, Palatine’s backing will be “instrumental” as the business expands its services. 

A former professional footballer with Wigan Athletic, Hackett (right) has ambitious plans to build a global digital transformation consultancy business focused on marketing technology.

The business was launched in 2016 in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and has made multiple since, most recently in April 2024 it acquired Definitive Results, an automation and productivity consultancy, also based in the US. 

Palatine’s Buyout Fund typically invests between £10m – £30m in businesses with growth potential. 

CELNOR BUYS TREE SPECIALIST

Chester-based tree survey specialist Arbtech has been acquired by Celnor group, a buy-and-build compliance services business backed by private equity investor Inflexion.

Arbtech becomes 18th member company to join Celnor which was formed in 2023, pulling together complementary businesses offering a broad range of inspection, testing, certification, and compliance (TICC) services to commercial clients across the UK.

Environmental consultancies continue to be hot property, with investors keen to have ESG compliant businesses in their investment portfolios, as well as the demand for popular consulting service lines.

Reading-based Celnor is openly seeking new acquisitions in the UK, Europe or North America with annual profits between £250,000 and £10 million that work in testing, analysis, certification, or compliance related services.

In November 2023 TheBusinessDesk.com reported that Celnor had acquired consultancy Brownfield Solutions in Cheshire, and in January 2024 moved to purchase APEC, also in the city of Chester.

Founded in 2005, Arbtech’s team of over 100 arboriculturists and ecologists provide tree surveys, biodiversity surveys, bat surveys and more. 

READY FOR THE UPTURN?

As the corporate finance community anticipates the end of a subdued and uncertain period, the upcoming Rainmakers Forum in Manchester on the 8th of October will explore the challenge of becoming deal-ready for 2025.

Featuring insights and contributions from the winners of the Rainmaker Awards – Nicola Merritt and Catriona Lang – the event will look ahead at where the deals are going to come from in the year ahead.

With a more stable policy landscape expected following the general election and some economic headwinds easing, the seminar will concentrate on several key areas:

• Current market demand and appetite

• Changing culture and practice in the Rainmakers community

• Funders’ primary areas of focus

• The increasing significance of factors beyond financials, especially ESG and data

• Opportunities within the North West market and Rainmakers’ role in driving growth

Event details to come soon. As well as the winning duo, the speaker line-up will also feature Giles Chesher from Squire Patton Boggs and Matt Hodgson from Claritas Tax, with more to be announced.

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RAINMAKERS CONFERENCE IS BACK IN 2025

The art of such deals is just the sort of thing which will pepper our 2025 Rainmakers Conference.

It’s being supported by BGF, Dow Schofield Watts, NorthEdge, Palatine, Shawbrook, Squire Patton Boggs, while PHD Industrial Holdings is a breakout room partner.

So save the date for Rainmakers 2025 –  Wednesday 26 March, 2025 – and secure your place today at The Point, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.

It will bring more opportunities to network, more amazing speakers, more candid debate, more inspiring entrepreneurs, but also a chance to discuss the challenges of value creation.

The first Rainmakers Conference this March sold out, with more than 400 people attending to hear the insights and perspectives from entrepreneurs, investors and advisors, and to network with senior figures from across the corporate finance community.

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