GCP completes investment in AI-led Transformation Firm, Optima Partners

Growth Capital Partners (“GCP”) is pleased to announce a new investment in Optima Partners Limited (“Optima”), an Edinburgh headquartered, rapidly growing professional services business specialising in applied data and machine learning & AI transformation. Optima’s differentiated proposition blends PhD level academic leadership in mathematics and research, cutting-edge expertise in data engineering, data science and Machine Learning (ML)/AI, and proven capability in business transformation.

Optima supports complex enterprise organisations to address critical business challenges linked to understanding, organising, and leveraging their data with a particular focus on financial services, energy, insurance and pharma/life sciences. This is achieved through three interlinked missions: (i) unlocking greater value from their customer base through operating model transformation and personalised engagement at scale; (ii)  realising operational excellence with safe, governed and scalable AI-enabled decision-making and; (iii) building the modern data foundations required for growth by bringing together deep sector insight and engineering rigour to ensure accurate, resilient and accessible data across the enterprise.

Founded in 2013 by Alan Crawley as an associate-led customer experience and data transformation consultancy. The business gained further momentum in 2021 when Alan partnered with Dr Chris Foley, a leading academic and expert in the advanced maths that underpins cutting edge ML and AI applications. This was accelerated with the investment from BGF in 2022 and together, Alan and Chris have built Optima into a market-leading applied data and AI transformation partner trusted by global blue-chip businesses.

GCP’s partnership with Optima will support the business through a range of strategic growth initiatives focused on investment in customer success, enhanced service propositions and innovation, strategic marketing, talent development, and expansion across the UK and Europe to continue its rapid growth trajectory.

As the UK’s leading partnership investor in the Knowledge Economy, GCP’s investment in Optima marks the first deployment from its recently launched Fund VI and is highly aligned with the firm’s strategy of backing ambitious entrepreneurial teams in specialist technology businesses that deliver critical value through data, insight and innovation.

Alan Crawley, Founder, commented:

“Since founding Optima Partners in 2013, the business has gone from strength to strength, expanding our capabilities, growing our team and deepening our impact across a range of critical sectors. The launch of our health data science division, bioXcelerateAI, has been a major milestone, reflecting the scale of opportunity we see as organisations look to make better use of data and advanced analytics. The backing and continued support from BGF has been instrumental in helping us reach this stage of our growth.

This investment from GCP marks the start of an exciting new chapter. It gives us the momentum to build on our success, accelerate our plans and continue developing the capabilities that will define the next stage of Optima’s journey.”

Chris Foley, CEO, commented:

“Our focus is firmly on enabling the next phase of Optima’s growth. GCP’s investment is a strong endorsement of our mission to help our clients turn their data, analytics and AI strategies into measurable outcomes at speed. This funding allows us to accelerate our growing track record of innovation, invest further in our people, and strengthen the infrastructure required to support our clients at greater scale.

With this partnership, we can move faster to help organisations understand, adapt and enhance human- and data-led decision-making supported by AI, bridging academic foundations with industry-focused and value-based impact.“

Richard Shaw, Partner, GCP, commented:

“Alan, Chris and the wider Optima team have built a highly differentiated business at the intersection of advanced data science, machine learning and enterprise transformation. As organisations increasingly seek to harness their data and accelerate AI adoption, Optima is uniquely positioned to help them tackle mission-critical challenges and unlock meaningful commercial outcomes. The business has already demonstrated impressive momentum and scale, supported by strong leadership, deep technical skill sets and robust industry expertise.

We are delighted to partner with the team at this exciting stage of their journey and are looking forward to working together to enhance go-to-market capability, strengthen organisational infrastructure and scale delivery capacity in a rapidly growing and strategically important sector.”

About Optima

Optima Partners is an AI-led transformation consultancy that helps large and complex organisations unlock customer value by bridging strategy and execution. Combining practical strategy, deep data expertise and advanced AI, the firm delivers measurable growth across personalisation at scale, operational excellence and modern data foundations. Its multidisciplinary teams work closely with clients to translate ambition into outcomes, building solutions that are scalable, sustainable and commercially grounded. Optima operates across Financial Services & Insurance, Energy, Telecoms and Pharma, supported by bioXcelerateAI, its dedicated health data science arm.

About GCP

Growth Capital Partners (GCP) was founded in 1999 and has a proven track record of successfully building genuine investment partnerships with founders in ambitious, highly specialist businesses that power the Knowledge Economy.  With deep expertise in the Technology and Specialist Services sectors, GCP is currently investing from GCP Fund VI, and bringing valuable strategic support, tools for scaling, and extensive experience in helping people-driven businesses to unlock innovation, drive long term sustainable growth, and build the businesses of the future.