2024 Portfolio Review: A Year of Partnership Growth, Achievements, and Milestones

With 2024 coming to an end, we are delighted to share a round-up of some of the impressive progress and results achieved across the growth businesses we partner with.

Despite the various challenges faced throughout the year, we feel privileged to partner with such outstanding entrepreneurial teams and extend our gratitude for their hard work and support. We look forward to further supporting all our investment partners achieve their ambitious growth plans for 2025.

A selection of achievements from across the portfolio:

• Bridewell: Bridewell started the year with strong momentum, marked by the acquisition of cyber security consultancy Arculus, further bolstering its cyber security capabilities and reinforcing its position as a leading advisor to Critical National Infrastructure. Alongside its strategic growth, Bridewell earned ‘’We invest in people” Gold accreditation from Investors in People, recognising its outstanding commitment to employee engagement, communication, organisational culture and work practices. Bridewell’s successful year was further validated by significant award wins, including Cyber Business of the Year award at the National Cyber Awards and the Thriving Together Award at the Heathrow Business Summit.
  
• CloudRock: One of our new investment partnerships in 2024 was with the impressive team at CloudRock. The team have built a leading independent ERP digital transformation business and are one of the small number of global Workday partners. We were delighted to see them recognised as one of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies in The Sunday Times 100, a testament to their exceptional growth trajectory.
  
• Coolr: In November, we announced our partnership with the social media agency Coolr, whose strong track record has been reinforced by the number of awards they’ve won this year. Coolr has capped off 2024 with two prestigious industry accolades: Social Media Agency of the Year 2024 at the UK Agency Awards and Best Large Agency 2024 at the Global Social Media Awards.
  
• Electric Theatre Collective:This year, we also partnered with ETC, a visual effects and animation company with a strong track record of growth. Their exceptional creative work with international clients has earned them multiple industry awards in 2024, along with an Emmy nomination. Highlights include multiple wins in the category of ‘VFX company of the year’  at different ceremonies including AdAge, Ciclope and Shark Advertising Awards. They’ve ended the year on a high note, collaborating with some of the UK’s most iconic consumer brands for their Christmas advertising campaigns.
  
• Flint Global: This year we welcomed former Cabinet Minister James Purnell as the new CEO at Flint Global. Flint maintained an influential presence in national and international policy discussions, with its Managing Partner, Sir Simon Fraser, chairing a speech alongside the former Deputy Prime Minister at the Chatham House’s Royal Institute of International Affairs. For immediate insights on political and policy developments, be sure to listen to Flint’s broad range of podcasts.
  
• First Mile | Certified B Corp: In September we were thrilled to see sustainability leader First Mile acknowledged for its ESG initiatives. First Mile was awarded the BVCA Vision 2024 Award for London and the South East, recognising its dedication to environmental innovation and progress. We take great pride in working with all the businesses we partner with on how to deliver positive and sustainable value through our Responsible Investing Framework.
  
• Hippo: Hippo Digital continued its successful progress in 2024, delivering impactful work with public sector bodies. Highlights included hosting AI workshops with the Government of Barbados and welcoming Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne . Hippo also strengthened its  strategic education partnerships, supporting the growth of future tech talent  through its new partnership with Leeds Trinity University. Alongside the strategic growth, Hippo also grew as a team, this year brought a huge milestone for the business as they hired their 500th team member. Hippo’s achievements were celebrated at this year’s Northern Tech Awards.
  
• Indigo: It has been a positive year for Indigo, marked by continued growth in the US coupled with investment in senior strategic hires across the business. This growth culminated in June with an impressive win of the prestigious Esri GIS Customer Success Award, demonstrating its excellence in  fibre design tools and field operations.
  
• Plenitude Consulting: Plenitude achieved a key milestone this year with the acquisition of Contineo, accelerating their Tech and Data service offering. Additionally,  the Plenitude Regulatory Intelligence team released its 2024 Recap and 2025 Outlook report providing a comprehensive overview of the year’s regulatory developments and insight into potential changes for 2025.
  
• Robiquity: Robiquity started the year with the successful launch of new regional offices in Leeds and London, enhancing its footprint alongside their Manchester headquarters. This expansion was accompanied by their achievement of becoming a strategic partner with Microsoft, making them one of Microsoft’s first accredited Power Automate partners; a big milestone for the team, and highlights their impressive growth and commitment to delivering cutting-edge automation solutions and driving digital transformation. Robiquity’s successful year was celebrated with awards, including Best Performing Company in IT Consulting, and success alongside Hippo at the Northern Tech Awards.
  
• 101 Ways: In August we were pleased to welcome Richard Neish as new CEO of 101 Ways. Joining an already strong leadership team, Richard has brought more than two decades of experience in enterprise technology consulting and large-scale data and software delivery experience. His wealth of experience will support the continued development of 101 Ways’ exciting growth plans in 2025.