Based in Hessle, East Yorkshire, GEV employs specialist technicians to support the maintenance of on- and offshore wind turbines across the globe. GEV’s client base includes the world’s biggest OEMs and Wind Farm Operators and it is the recognised market-leader in the maintenance of wind turbine rotor blades.

GEV supports clients through its operational hubs in North America, UK & Europe and Australia, deploying a pool of more than 500 specialist technicians to maintain thousands of wind turbines across four continents.

Bridges initially invested in GEV in 2019, in line with our mission to invest in a more sustainable economy. Since then, the business has serviced a total of 5,757 blades, equivalent to maintaining c.6,000 MW of wind energy.

Certek is an investment vehicle led by David Harrison, who originally founded Phenna Group in 2019, a business providing Testing, Inspection, Certification and broader Compliance services globally. It is supported by Macquarie Group, a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services with assets under management in excess of €569 billion as at 30 September 2024.

Certek is backing GEV’s CEO and founder David Fletcher and the existing management team, who have led the expansion of the Group over the past 15 years. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

David Fletcher, CEO of GEV, said: “Our business plays a critical role in supporting the generation of clean energy, as we actively maintain the operational performance of wind turbines and help to reduce downtime. With Certek’s backing, we will continue to increase our support infrastructure to our clients but also play an active part in supply chain consolidation, focusing on the consistent delivery of quality and safety that our clients demand across all key geographies where we operate”.

Simon Braham, a partner at Bridges, said: “Wind energy is critical to the transition to a more sustainable future. As a global leader in wind turbine repair and maintenance, GEV can play an important role in supporting this transition, and we look forward to seeing the business continue to go from strength to strength in the coming years.”

Fletcher added: “I want to thank Bridges for their investment in the Group over the past 6 years, which has enabled us to complete the strategic acquisitions of rotor blade technology solutions provider Wind Power Lab, based in Denmark, and Australian based wind turbine and safety specialist Rigcom – with the support of our Chairman John Leahy, who has expertly guided us during the journey.”

David Harrison, CEO of Certek, added: “The wind energy industry is growing rapidly and there are more opportunities than ever for GEV to expand their offering on the back of rising demand. Our partnership with GEV will help them to respond to this demand, investing in a focused and strategic manner to meet the businesses growth aspirations. We are looking forward to supporting David and the rest of the team as they continue to drive the business forward in the years ahead.”

Adam Joseph, Head of Private Equity, Europe for Macquarie, added: “GEV is a high-quality service provider in a sector that will play an essential role in the global transition towards net zero. We’re delighted to support this transaction and extend Macquarie’s involvement in the wind turbine O&M sector.”

Bridges invested in Just Ask – a family-run ESG-driven facilities management business that worked primarily with Housing Associations – in 2017. In the subsequent years, Bridges worked with the founders to support their transition out of the day-to-day business, building a high-calibre new management team – led by CEO Mark Little, CFO Gordon Peattie and chair Jon Andrew – to lead the business through its next chapter of growth.

Alongside management, Bridges also spearheaded five bolt-on acquisitions that have collectively transformed the scale and scope of the business, extending its core sectors beyond Social Housing into Education, Healthcare and Property Management. The integrated business, which was renamed the Nexgen Group in early 2023, is now one of the few scaled facilities management platforms in the UK and remains the market leader in its core Social Housing market.

Supported by Bridges’ specialist value creation team, Nexgen has now fully integrated the acquisitions, creating a resilient, tech-enabled operational platform – including IT, Finance and HR – to support further growth. This has significantly improved the business’s efficiency, helping it to reduce carbon emissions through route optimisation and service a broader range of clients more effectively. This has enabled the enlarged Nexgen Group to enjoy strong organic growth since the acquisitions.

When Bridges invested in Just Ask, the business employed 450 people and was generating about £10m of revenue. Nexgen Group is now generating revenue of about £90m, with around 3,500 employees.

The business has retained its focus on ESG and social value, which continues to be an important differentiator when bidding for public sector and social housing contracts. Nexgen is committed to improving local communities, both through a relentless focus on quality service provision, and by providing employment opportunities for local people. Thanks to its proactive recruitment efforts, about a third of delivery staff are recruited from the social housing associations in which it operates. It is also focused on supporting people out of long-term unemployment (11% of staff fall into this category) and improving skills, notably through its in-house training academy. Volunteering is actively encouraged: staff have now pledged over 2,000 hours of their time to support local and community causes. This year, Nexgen is expecting to deliver about £2m of social value to its clients (as measured by the Social Value TOM system).

The exit is Bridges’ fourth in the last seven months, following sales of home decarbonisation delivery platform AgilityEco, specialist plant-based ingredients supplier Vegetarian Express, and Iberian low-cost fitness operator VivaGym.

James Hurrell, Partner at Bridges, said,

“Nexgen is a great example of three key elements of Bridges’ investment strategy. First, we identified a high-quality, impact-driven provider whose focus on ESG and social value would help them become a leader in their market. Second, we were able to support the founders to transition, while building an outstanding senior leadership team. And third, our value creation team has been able to work closely with management to deliver growth, both by implementing significant operational improvements, and by identifying complementary acquisitions that have transformed the breadth and scale of the business. We are proud of the progress Nexgen has made during our partnership, and are confident that Bidvest Noonan is the right partner to enable the business to continue its growth trajectory.”

Mark Little, CEO of Nexgen Group, said:

“Bridges were the perfect investment partner for Just Ask, because they understood the value that its ESG focus would bring, while also providing hands-on commercial input and support. Over the years, the Bridges team have played a vital role in helping drive through transformative acquisitions, significantly enhance our operating capacity, and scale our impact. We’re very grateful for their partnership and support over the last seven years.

“Looking forward, I am confident that Bidvest Noonan will be an excellent partner to support our long-term growth plans. They recognise that Nexgen is a best-in-class operator in an attractive niche, and we look forward to drawing on their support to further enhancing our offer to clients in the coming years.”

Declan Doyle, CEO of Bidvest Noonan, said:

“We are very impressed with the team at Nexgen Group. They have built a thriving business with a very bright and exciting future. Their strong commitment to their colleagues, customers and communities has been key to their success. We look forward to supporting them and contributing to their continued growth and success.”

VivaGym operates 104 gyms with over 315,000 members across Spain and Portugal. As a customer-focused innovator, VivaGym is a leader in the Iberian fitness market through a service offering underpinned by high-quality facilities; fun and engaging group classes; long opening hours; and affordable and flexible membership options.

Bridges first invested in VivaGym in 2015 when its footprint spanned just 15 gyms in Spain. The firm had a deep understanding of the sector, having previously launched The Gym Group, a UK-based affordable gym operator that subsequently listed on the London Stock Exchange. This expertise enabled Bridges to build a best-in-class management team, streamline operations and processes, and expand VivaGym’s footprint through new openings and strategic bolt-on acquisitions – notably Fitness Hut, one of the largest operators of affordable gyms in Portugal, as well as Duet Fit and Happy Gym.

Juan del Río Nieto, CEO of VivaGym, added: “Since Bridges’ investment in 2015, VivaGym has pursued an ambitious growth plan, expanding from 15 to 104 clubs. Thanks to its previous investments in this sector, Bridges’ experience and industry knowledge of best practice has helped us transform VivaGym into a leading operator within the Iberian market. Bridges was also a hugely important partner in helping us manage and bounce back from the challenges of the Covid period and we owe them much thanks for their support.

“Looking ahead, we are very excited to work closely with Providence as we double down on our efforts to cement VivaGym as an Iberian leader in fitness. We have the shared passion and vision to make health and fitness as accessible, affordable and fun as possible – giving us the confidence that Providence is the right partner as we enter this new chapter.”

James Hurrell, Partner at Bridges Fund Management, said: “It has been hugely satisfying to see VivaGym’s growth – from just 15 gyms when we invested to more than 100 today. During that period, it has broadened access to high-quality gym facilities, and supported better health outcomes for hundreds of thousands of people. We believe that VivaGym has built one of the best platforms in the industry. Under Juan’s inspirational leadership, we have no doubt it will go from strength to strength in the coming years, and continue to meet its ambitious goals.”

Providence has considerable experience partnering with quality businesses in the leisure and adjacent industries across Europe, as well as an extensive background investing in Spain. Its experienced investment team will assist VivaGym as it continues to execute its growth strategy in Spain and Portugal. VivaGym’s management team, who will continue leading the business post-closing, are re-investing alongside Providence, as is Ares Management Corporation, VivaGym’s primary lender.

“Europe’s fitness industry is one we have studied closely for ten years and we believe now is the right time to partner with a leader like VivaGym in this highly attractive market,” said Robert Sudo, Managing Director at Providence Equity Partners. “In our view, VivaGym is a classic Providence investment: a solid business model with loyal customers, engaged and talented employees, and an established brand. At the same time, we believe VivaGym has significant growth potential and we look forward to working closely with Juan and his team to continue capturing the attractive market opportunity. With nearly 20 years of experience investing in Spain, and prior experience partnering with leisure businesses, we believe Providence is well positioned to support VivaGym as it enters an exciting new phase of growth.”

The agreement is subject to customary and regulatory closing conditions, including approval by the Spanish and Portuguese antitrust authorities. Closing is expected before the end of Q2 2024.

Providence Equity Partners was advised by Roland Berger, PwC, CBRE, West Monroe, Uría Menendez and Allen & Overy. Bridges Fund Management was advised by lead advisor Canaccord Genuity, as well as KPMG, Deloitte, Pinsent Mason and Eversheds.

The Watford-based business specialises in providing high quality, plant-based ingredients, ideas and inspiration to chefs across the UK.

Having identified Vegetarian Express in 2016 as a business with strong potential, and in line with Bridges’ ‘Sustainable Planet’ theme, the business has grown substantially to become the UK’s leading specialist provider of plant-based ingredients, supplying over 1,200+ products to a diverse customer base of over 3,000 chefs nationally.

With its compelling market opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, Vegetarian Express has more than doubled revenues under ownership and averted an estimated c.15,000 tonnes of CO₂e as a result of its products directly replacing meat or dairy products.

Under the leadership of Managing Director, Dave Webster, and with Bridges’ support, the company became the UK’s first foodservice business to achieve B Corp status in 2019, and saw significant geographical diversification, entered new sectors, and launched an e-commerce platform to reach smaller independent customers.

Dave Webster, Managing Director of Vegetarian Express, said:

“The management team and I are incredibly proud of what we’ve delivered in the last seven years, which has seen the professionalisation of Vegetarian Express into the UK’s leading plant-based category specialist to the foodservice sector. For the next stage of our growth journey, we’re excited to be partnering with private equity firm NVM. NVM’s backing will enable us to scale faster and help even more customers get brilliant-plant-based food on their menus.

Emma Thorne, Partner at Bridges, said:

“We invested in Vegetarian Express because we believed there was a clear commercial and impact opportunity in helping consumers reduce their meat consumption by switching to plant-based meals.

In Vegetarian Express, we identified a best-in-class provider with strong growth potential that also shared our values. The business has grown substantially over the course of our investment  diversifying its offering, expanding its own-brand range and launching its unique Seedbank tool for chefs. We’re really proud of the growth and impact it has achieved, and wish its outstanding team all the best for the future.”

Feng previously led VCP Apex’s European distribution as Managing Director, advancing its private equity primary fund placement, secondary and direct investment fundraising activities. Prior to joining VCP Apex, Feng was part of the institutional fundraising team at Octopus Investments. She has spent many years working in investment management in Europe, North America and Asia, and brings significant investor relations and global capital-raising experience from the likes of J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Fenglin Zhao, Director at Bridges Fund Management, commented: “It’s wonderful to be joining the Bridges team, especially at a time when sustainable and impact investing is emerging as one of the most exciting areas in finance. Having spent a number of years in investment management and alternative investment, I’m keen to elevate opportunities for investors to put values-aligned capital to work: Bridges’ pioneering DNA, commercial success and impact leadership are a great place to do so. I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Maggie Loo, Partner and Head of Client & Strategy Development at Bridges Fund Management, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Feng to the team. Her talent and broad, cross-border experience will be hugely valuable to us as we look to diversify and expand the firm’s assets under management and deliver further powerful positive impact alongside attractive financial returns to our investors. With Feng’s expertise, we will continue to explore and develop relationships, both within and beyond the UK, to enable the continued growth of our impact-driven strategies.

We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Henry Jones as Partner & Head of Value Creation, to further strengthen our efforts to optimise the commercial and impact performance of our portfolio companies.

Henry will work closely with our investment professionals, impact specialists and portfolio management teams to help these businesses improve revenue and margins, hone their proposition, strengthen their senior teams, and achieve greater impact.

Henry is an experienced business builder, with a strong track record of driving growth in international businesses, building high-performing teams and executing operational improvements.

His previous roles include leading the US West Coast operation and global tech practice at Axiom, a tech-enabled legal services company, during a three-year period when the business tripled in size.  He also headed up EMEA and International Growth at Aconex, an Australian construction tech business, where he led the acquisition and integration of its biggest European competitor, ahead of Aconex’s $1.1bn sale to Oracle.

He was most recently the CEO of Togetherall, an online mental health support community, where he led a rebuild of the leadership team and technology platform, and a full rebrand, before overseeing a launch in the US and a successful growth capital raise.

Philip Newborough, co-CEO of Bridges Fund Management, said:

“For the last two decades, Bridges has been helping impactful businesses to maximise their growth and impact potential. Henry’s appointment will allow us to build on this experience and pull together our existing value creation initiatives – while also drawing on his impressive track record as a business leader and operator. We believe this combination will strengthen our credentials as the investment partner of choice for businesses that are helping to solve the world’s biggest challenges over the next decade.”

Henry Jones, Partner and Head of Value Creation said:

“Having run a number of different businesses, and having been through the capital-raising experience – most recently in a business with social impact at its core – I’m excited to be able to use what I’ve learned to support others on a similar journey. I’ve always been passionate about growing businesses and building great teams – and I understand the value of having an aligned investor on the other side of the table. Bridges has been a specialist and a market-leader in this space for many years; impact is in its DNA. We are moving into a new era where all businesses will have to be focused on their impact and sustainability, and Bridges has a fantastic opportunity to be in the vanguard of this movement. I feel privileged to be part of that, and to work with growth businesses that are helping to build a better future for people and the planet.”

Henry will work closely with Bridges’ Impact team on value creation initiatives that will enhance commercial and impact performance.

Olivia Prentice, Partner & Head of Impact, said:

“Henry’s skillset will perfectly complement Bridges’ market-leading impact management expertise, as well as the extensive experience of our investment teams in building high-growth, high-impact companies. Our specialist impact team works closely with every company we back to provide expertise on how to measure and improve social and environmental performance, in ways that create value for shareholders and the company’s broader stakeholders. Henry will help us enhance this integrated value creation offering with his strengths in strategy development, technology and team-building.”

The investment, from Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds, will help to boost HYCUBE’s presence in the fast-growing global market, bringing the benefits of clean energy to millions of family households and supporting the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

HYCUBE was founded in Mannheim, Germany, in 2014. Its offering – which combines solar panels, proprietary high-tech battery storage, an electric vehicle ‘wallbox’, proprietary smart home energy management software and ancillaries – enables customers to cut their grid electricity consumption by 80-90%. This substantially reduces energy bills while also mitigating carbon emissions from fossil fuel usage: early estimates suggest the business could be delivering annual carbon savings of approximately 12,000 tonnes by 2026.

HYCUBE is operating in a fast-growing market that is already worth almost €5bn in Germany alone, and is expected to almost double in the next five years. Clean energy currently enjoys widespread political and popular support in Germany; while the volatility in energy and gas prices is both strengthening the argument for energy independence, and making HYCUBE’s system increasingly attractive from an economic point of view.

Bridges is backing the existing management team, led by CEO Rainer Appold, COO Nina Appold and CTO Holger Koch. The investment will enable HYCUBE to expand its provision to significantly more households in Germany, working directly with customers and through established installers. Bridges’ specialist impact management team will also work closely with the business to ensure impact management best practices are implemented across the business and its product lifecycle. 

Rainer Appold, CEO of Hycube, said:
“In seeking external investment, we really wanted to find a partner that could support our growth ambitions but would also share our commitment to sustainability and positive impact. So we were attracted both by Bridges’ mission and values, which align closely with our own, and by its track record of helping companies like us to accelerate their growth. We are excited to work with the Bridges team to build Hycube over the next few years.”

James Hurrell and Daniel Knight are leading the investment for Bridges. The Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds have now invested in a number of exciting growth business models that are supporting the transition to Net Zero, as part of Bridges’ Sustainable Planet theme. Recent examples include GEV, which provides maintenance services for wind turbines; Tier 1, a circular economy business that specialises in end-of-life IT assets; World of Books, which re-sells or recycles second-hand books; and Vegetarian Express, a specialist provider of plant-based ingredients and meal inspiration to caterers.

Daniel Knight, Investment Director at Bridges, said:
“Getting to Net Zero requires us to decarbonise domestic energy usage while generating more energy off-grid. Hycube is perfectly placed to support this transition – and its offering meets the growing consumer demand for clean energy solutions that can reduce energy bills and carbon emissions. When we identified this as an attractive sector through our thematic analysis, Hycube stood out as a European market leader. We’re really excited by the growth and impact opportunity the business has, and we look forward to working with the team to realise this potential.”

This is the third investment by Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds in as many months, following the recent acquisitions of Storetec, a digitisation and data storage business, and Evora, a specialist ESG consultancy for the real estate sector. This reflects the strong dealflow we have seen this year – testament to the growing demand from purpose-driven businesses for Bridges’ impact-driven value creation approach.

Impact Food Group is a leading UK school catering company focused on providing healthier food to children and promoting a positive food culture among pupils.

Bridges created the business in 2018 by bringing together two leading caterers to form IFG, with the mission to provide high-quality, nutritious food to children in the UK.

With one in three 11-year-olds now overweight, school catering offers a clear opportunity to improve health outcomes and improve educational performance. IFG is constantly working to make its recipes healthier: this year it was able to reduce the fat, sugar and salt in its food by 13%, 11%, and 41% respectively. It also works closely with parent and student groups to promote healthier eating habits. IFG drives measurably better throughput in schools when they take over a service, simply because the quality of the food is the main focus of the IFG team. This means that more students are eating better food, every day.

The combined group now provides high-quality, nutritious food to over 300 schools and is focused on feeding more students, better food.

Emma Thorne, partner at Bridges, said:
“IFG has shown that a focus on high-quality, healthier food is a win-win for schools: it enables pupils to make better food choices, supporting better health and educational outcomes and reducing the environmental impact of their diet, while also improving uptake and creating revenue for the schools themselves. This is reflected in the strong customer feedback by schools that are now using IFG’s services.”

John Hamill, CEO at Impact Food Group, said:
“We are hugely grateful to the support and partnership of Bridges over the last five years, which has helped the business become one of the leading educational caterers in the UK. We’re looking forward to continuing this progress in partnership with THI: for our customers, it will be very much business as usual once the schools are back in September.”

Tarquin Wethered, Director at THI Investments, says:
“We are delighted to partner with IFG, which is a fantastic business, at a time where providing nutritional school food has become more important than ever. We look forward to supporting IFG, John and the team to feed more students better food by focussing on the quality of food to enhance uptake at IFG’s school customers and therefore educational attainment by students.”

Rob Burden, Partner at Clearwater International, says:
“IFG is a true market leader in the school catering space with a differentiated value proposition, absolute focus on quality and led by a fantastic management team. IFG has gone from strength to strength under Bridges ownership and we are looking forward to seeing IFG’s success continue with support and further investment from THI. We are delighted to have advised the shareholders on this successful transaction and I’d like to wish the management team and THI all the best as they move forward into this new and exciting phase.”

Founded in 2011 by Chris Bennett, Ed Gabbitas and Paul Sutcliffe, Evora has grown rapidly in recent years, following the addition of key senior hires and as demand for action on sustainable finance and climate risk has risen up the agenda of corporations generally. The company, which now has over 200 staff, provides consultancy services to many of the biggest names in global real estate investment, and has developed its own software, SIERA, to help its clients make better investment decisions around sustainability.

MSCI, the global financial information business, and Farview Equity Partners, a team of specialist software investors, are also investing in Evora as part of this investment round, and will both take board seats alongside Bridges. The mission-critical decision-support tools, insights and market access provided by the consortium will further aid Evora’s growth, and maximise the value of its ESG and climate solutions to the global real asset investment community.

Evora has a strong commitment to sustainability and impact, and specifically chose to partner with Bridges because of our market-leading credentials in this area (including our status as a ‘Best for the World’ B Corp). In addition, our track record as one of the UK’s leading investors in sustainable real estate was also critical in understanding this market and establishing our credentials as a partner of choice.

Chris Bennett, Founder and Managing Director of Evora, said:
“When we founded this business over a decade ago, people didn’t want to talk about climate risk or sustainability. It was a real battle to even get a meeting. Now, we are experiencing huge demand for our services globally as the world has woken up to the risks of climate change. Our client base is made up of leading asset managers and owners, and they have been asking us to support them globally. This funding enhances our ability to support them and to improve our technology and advisory services globally.

“We wanted investors who were aligned with our vision. We had a lot of options, but Bridges really stood out for its commitment to sustainability and impact investing, as well as being a B Corp. Working with MSCI will broaden our ability to drive positive impact, helping our clients with their sustainable development goals while widening our global reach. Farview’s experience of growing enterprise technology companies will transform our SIERA software and support its international growth.”

Emma Thorne, Partner at Bridges, said:
“Real estate is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, so Evora’s tools and services can play an important role in reducing emissions and building a more sustainable economy. We think there’s a significant commercial and impact opportunity here. So we’re excited to partner with this excellent team and help the business scale, drawing on Bridges’ 20 years’ experience of helping ambitious companies to accelerate their growth and achieve more impact.”

René Veerman, Head of Real Assets, MSCI, added:
“High quality data is an essential part of commercial real asset investors’ ability to develop effective strategies, built upon the in-depth evaluation of portfolio and asset climate risk. The combination of Evora’s tools for climate data management and advisory services, together with MSCI’s robust climate risk models and indexes, will help to improve the flow of critical decision data and accelerate the adoption of climate standards and thereby to strengthen the global real asset investment process. MSCI is committed to providing critical decision support tools that help investment managers to build better portfolios and, in this collaboration with Evora, we will better serve the evolving needs of our shared and new clients.”

Guy Sochovsky, Partner, Farview, said:
“We believe meeting the demands of climate change across global real estate portfolios will continue to need powerful software tools able to both track environmental impact and project future economic risks. SIERA has many of the right ingredients around data quality and deep industry understanding to enable these features within its software. We are excited to have the opportunity to partner with the team at the company to help realise that vision for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Bridges was advised by Alantra (corporate finance) and Addleshaw Goddard (legal). Polestar Corporate Finance advised Evora Global. 

Notes

About Evora Global
Evora Global works with clients to improve their sustainability and reduce their climate risk. Its clients include many of the biggest names in global real estate, including Invesco Real Estate, Hines and M&G. The company provides consultancy services and has developed its own software, SIERA, which enables its clients to make investment decisions regarding climate change and sustainability. Founded in 2011 by Chris Bennett, Ed Gabbitas and Paul Sutcliffe, the company now has over 200 staff.

About MSCI
MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data, and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyse key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process.

About Farview Equity Partners
Farview Equity Partners specialises in investing in growth-oriented enterprise technology companies in Europe. Founded in 2019, Farview’s mission is to empower European enterprise and financial technology companies to grow beyond their current horizons. Farview invests exclusively in SaaS; technology-enabled information and business services; and financial technology companies. The firm makes both minority and control investments that range from €15 to €50 million. In addition to capital, Farview provides targeted support to its portfolio companies, leveraging its deep network, extensive resources and pattern recognition of past successes to help drive differentiated outcomes. 

Storetec, based in Hull, provides outsourced document scanning, archive storage and cloud-based document management solutions to businesses in both the public and private sectors, including NHS Trusts, councils, FTSE 100 companies, professional services firms and SMEs. This enables organisations to protect their most sensitive data and build more sustainable digital workflows.

With so much of our daily lives now powered by technology – a trend accelerated by the rise of remote and digital working post-Covid – data security has become a significant ESG issue. According to the World Economic Forum, cybersecurity is now one of the five key risks facing businesses globally: more than 80% of UK companies have experienced a successful cyber-attack in the last year. This is creating strong demand for services that can help companies digitise and secure their critical data: the electronic data storage market is forecast to grow at about 15% in the coming years.

Storetec works with over 400 organisations each year. Over the last decade, it has digitised over 333m paper records: FreeDocs, its proprietary digital platform, now stores over 8,000GB of data. The company has multiple gold standard accreditations and has won numerous awards for the quality and security of its services, including Business of the Year (for its digitisation business) and Records Management Product of the Year (for FreeDocs) at the Document Management Awards. For customers, Storetec’s services enable improved data protection, regulatory compliance and archives access, and – by supporting their digitisation journey – lower carbon emissions via reduced paper consumption.

Bridges’ investment (via its Sustainable Growth Funds) will see it working in partnership with the existing management team, led by founder & CEO Neil Robson, to accelerate the growth of the business and support more clients in the U.K. and beyond. This will include embedding best-in-class impact management practices throughout the business to build an impact-led exemplar in the ESG services sector, with data security at its core.

Neil Robson, CEO at Storetec said:
“We’re excited to be partnering with Bridges at this critical stage of the business’s growth journey. We wanted an investor who understood our market, shared our values, and had a strong track record of helping businesses like ours to harness their growth and impact potential. Bridges fitted the bill perfectly.”

Simon Braham, partner at Bridges, said:
“In the last few years, the digitisation trend has accelerated rapidly. Protecting sensitive corporate and personal information has to be a priority for every organisation. We identified Storetec as a best-in-class operator in this sector, and we believe it has a really compelling market opportunity. We’re looking forward to partnering with Neil and the team to help accelerate Storetec’s growth and establish it as an ESG champion in the sector – drawing on our extensive experience of impact-driven value creation.”

Our co-CEOs (and co-founders) were this year’s selection for the private equity ‘Hall of Fame’ – in recognition of the work they (and Bridges more broadly) have done in building the market for sustainable and impact-driven investing.

Bridges was an idea born out of the private equity industry, and some of the UK’s leading firms played an instrumental supporting role in our early years.
In return, Bridges has always tried to support the growth of this segment, both by sharing what we’ve learned along the way for the benefit of others, and by playing an active role in groups like the BVCA, PRI and B Corp UK.

In recent years, we have also hosted and facilitated the Impact Management Project, an initiative designed to help all investors agree standard norms and frameworks for measuring and reporting on their impact.

So Michele and Phil (on behalf of the whole team) are hugely grateful to receive this recognition from their peers. Many thanks to Real Deals and all those who supported the nomination!

This year’s Private Equity Awards, brought by Real Deals Media and hosted by Scottish impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner, saw an impressive 38 awards handed out to various deserving firms and professionals from across the industry.

Bridges was also shortlisted in the GP category for ESG – recognising our continued commitment to best practice in environmental, social and corporate governance.

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