What's behind Nick Cowles leaving Zeus?
Shock departure of CEO who started as grad trainee leads our Rainmakers round-up
Hello Rainmakers,
An IPO, a high profile departure and a flurry of deals across the UK this week, including deal number 17 for Phenna, all on top of our news that the Chancellor properly cosied up to the private equity world at their London summit this week.
This is free to all who have signed up, however Rainmakers subscribers get two unique pieces a week, but also full access to our back catalogue of investigations, scoops, and insights, including updates from The Secret Investor, interviews with entrepreneurs, and the leaders from VC and PE investors like Endless, and River Capital, Foresight, Mercia, Puma and LDC.
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By any measure Nick Cowles has had a fascinating career, albeit with the same company for 22 years.
He started as a grad trainee at Zeus Capital in Ralli Court in Manchester, long since demolished, and last week it was revealed that he’d resigned from his position as CEO.
He led the acquisition last year of the WH Ireland Capital Markets business which gave Zeus an enlarged platform with 125+ corporate clients and a national footprint across London, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.
He’s being replaced by two people. John Cummins and Tremayne Ducker are now Co-CEOs of Zeus, with Ducker also Head of Investment Banking, and Cummins, who joined Zeus on the acquisition of the WH Ireland business, and was appointed to the board in July 2025, as COO.
Well regarded in the corporate finance sector, at 44 years of age and with an enviable track record Cowles is likely to be in high demand. While at Zeus he worked on over 40 floats of businesses to the stock market, including £560 million IPO of Boohoo, where Zeus founder Richard Hughes was one of the founders of the Manchester-based fast fashion giant and acted as a non-executive director for 7 years.
It’s unclear what lay behind his decision, but it wasn’t acrimonious, and he has since taken to LinkedIn to change his status to “garden leave” and tantalisingly say:
“Time to switch off for a few months and then I cannot wait to write the next chapter.”
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Phenna Group is keeping its foot on the gas, ticking off acquisition number 17 of 2025 with the purchase of AC&E, a machinery compliance and safety specialist that knows its volts from its hazards.
Based in Verona (because even technical standards deserve a romantic backdrop), AC&E operates across Spain, North America, China and Brazil.
The company helps manufacturers avoid shocking mistakes with testing and certification services, such as EMC, ATEX/HazLoc, electrical safety, flammability, and structural testing.
The deal gives Phenna’s testing, inspection, certification and compliance portfolio a serious power-up, expanding its global reach and adding more spark to its regulated equipment expertise.
AC&E MD Gino Zampieri says the deal will help scale their mission faster, without short-circuiting quality. Phenna’s CEO Phil Marshall says AC&E brings “critical capability” to the group’s platform.
With yet another acquisition locked in, Phenna seems to be the East Midlands’ certified front-runner, and it’s testing the limits of how fast a company can grow.
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While the robots aren't taking over just yet, the data centres are certainly making their presence felt. According to figures published by the BBC last month, the number of data centres in the UK is set to rise by nearly a fifth with an estimated 477 of these facilities now up and humming already. These giant warehouses packed with powerful computers are increasingly required because the relentless growth in artificial intelligence is boosting the need for processing capacity.
One Yorkshire firm which is capitalising on growing demand for these facilities is Sheffield-based CSH, which develops liquid cooling systems for data centres. The business, which was founded in 2016, secured a £250,000 finance facility to help it meet buyer demand. This backing means CSH was able to process £1.5m worth of orders between April and May 2025 and is taking on 11 new workers before the end of the year. The firm has a global network of buyers, with close to 99 per cent of its orders coming from overseas. The company is showing no signs of slowing down and plans to nearly double its workforce in the coming year.
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Birmingham’s own Joblogic has plugged into a £100m+ investment from Vista Equity Partners, giving the field service software specialist the juice it needs to speed up its AI-powered growth plans.
If your boiler breaks, lights flicker, or HVAC system wheezes, chances are someone’s using Joblogic to fix it.
The firm’s cloud-based platform is already a toolkit essential for 100,000+ contractors across plumbing, electrics, HVAC and facilities management, helping teams schedule smarter, automate faster, and keep operations flowing.
Now, with Vista’s support, Joblogic is ramping up its AI capabilities, using machine learning to speed up workflows, predict delays, automate admin, and help engineers get the job done faster and with fewer headaches.
As CEO Jim Whatmore puts it: “Our goal has always been to simplify the complex reality of field service work to help our customers achieve efficiency and growth, and with Vista’s support, we’re better positioned than ever to deliver on that.”
Fresh off the back of acquiring Protean Software and Clik, Joblogic is expanding fast and firmly positioning itself as the digital toolkit of choice for the trades.
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It’s been a long time coming, but we have news of the IPO of The Beauty Tech group this week.
Cheshire-based The Beauty Tech Group is to float on the stock market.
Based at Bruntwood SciTech’s Glasshouse business park in Nether Alderley, the brands owned by the fast growing The Beauty Tech Group include CurrentBody, which is used by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams.
According to a filing this morning the business made revenue of £101.1 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation excluding one-off costs and acquisition related expenses (“adjusted EBITDA“) of £22.9 million.
That would indicate a potential float value of £350m.
It also claims to be fast growing and said that between the financial period for the 16 months ended 31 January 2023 and last year’s full year, the own-brand revenue and adjusted EBITDA grew at a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR“) of 73.6% and 92.9% respectively.
This morning the dream of a float moved a step forward when “Project Glow Topco Limited”, the ultimate holding company of The Beauty Tech Group Limited, said intends to publish a registration document to apply for its hares to be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
For the purposes of the float, the business is chaired by former EY partner Elaine O’Donnell, who previously chaired Games Workshop. North West entrepreneur Simon Cooper, founder of On the Beach, is also a non-executive director.
University of Manchester graduate and former medical clinic owner Newman founded the business as CurrentBody with its chief technology officer Andrew Showman and finance director Sam Glynn in 2009, initially selling third-party At Home Beauty Devices (or AHBDs), the company now sells exclusively own-brand product under its three distinct and premium brands.
That market is estimated to be about £9 billion – £12 billion and the company sells to customers in over 90 countries worldwide. North American revenue accounted for 37% of the total with the EU (excluding Ireland) 23%, the UK and Ireland 22%, Asia 14% and the Rest of the World 4%.
Its products include home-use beauty technology, such as LED, radio frequency, microcurrent and laser treatments.
Earlier this year theBuisnessDesk.com reported that according to accounts filed in January 2025 for the financial year to the end of December 2023, The Beauty Tech Group posted pre-tax profits of £6m on turnover of £59.5m.
This morning (8 September 2025) Laurence Newman, Founder and CEO of The Beauty Tech Group, commented: “Founded with the ambition to bring clinically-proven, professional-grade beauty technology into everyday use, I am extremely proud of The Beauty Tech Group’s achievements to date. Since launching our own-brand at-home beauty technology products in 2019, the Group has delivered sustained and profitable growth and established itself as a global leader in the fast growing at-home beauty market.
“Our three distinct, premium brands, CurrentBody Skin, ZIIP and Tria, span across the four core technologies used in professional aesthetic clinics, giving us a unique position in the market. Moreover, all of our innovative technologies are underpinned by research and rigorous testing, demonstrating our commitment to producing effective and trustworthy products while simultaneously raising the standards across the industry.
“There are significant opportunities ahead for The Beauty Tech Group and an IPO on the London Stock Exchange will provide us with access to capital, and enable us to raise awareness and incentivise staff to take the business to the next level. Our journey to date has only been made possible due to the team’s hard work and dedication, and I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome an experienced bench of Non-Executive Directors to our Board who collectively bring a wealth of consumer and capital markets experience and knowledge. I am very excited to embark on this next chapter as we look to build on our position as a trusted and recognised leader in the market.”
Elaine O’Donnell, Independent Non-Executive Chair, said: “The Beauty Tech Group has established itself as a global leader in the at-home beauty market and I am thrilled to be joining the Board at this exciting juncture in the Group’s growth journey. Considering that home-use beauty technology is a fast-growing category in the beauty sector, a float on the London Stock Exchange will facilitate the Group’s ambition to capitalise on the significant opportunities ahead.
“I have every confidence that a London-listing, coupled with a solid go-to market strategy, will support The Beauty Tech Group’s ambition to grow its distribution while continuing to deliver the next generation of beauty technology products through ongoing research and development.”
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We are hosting Rainmakers Lunches soon, an opportunity to network with leaders from the corporate finance sector.
These events will bring together the region’s Rainmaker community to discuss the deals market in 2025 and celebrate your successes over the last 12 months.
We will be joined by our Rainmaker of the Year in each city.
Joining us in Leeds on the 23rd of September will be Rainmaker of the Year – Paul Mann, partner in the corporate team and head of the private equity team in the UK at Squire Patton Boggs.
Also attending is the Changemaker of Year, Alexandra Fogel, partner and head of private north at EY, who scooped the award at our Rainmakers awards in June.
Chris Handy, who is Partner and Head of West Midlands for LDC, alongside him we will have Richard Swann from Inflexion, who won our Changemaker of the Year award. on the 2nd of October.
Also on the 2nd of October in Manchester we have Rainmaker of the Year – Michael Loudon, partner and head of the North West at Clearwater.
Alongside him will be our Changemaker of Year, Greg Holmes, from Palatine, who scooped the award at our Rainmakers awards in June.
Also providing insights will be Claire Alvarez of private equity firm Foresight, who won the finance leader category at the Leadership Awards 2024 and shortlisted for Rainmaker of the year.
Laura Wiggins, our Rising Star, will be on maternity leave and we send her our very best wishes.
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