You've built a great business. We'll make sure it thrives.
We invest in founder-led B2B services firms drawing on our own experience of building, scaling and exiting businesses.
ABOUT US
EST Partners is a private investment office founded and led by entrepreneurs. We strive to be a great home for Services Sector businesses over the long term. Your business is really important to us as we invest our own capital and provide on-the-ground help to management teams.
Investment criteria:
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Services sector focus: regulated (and financial) services, real estate and FM services and energy/renewable services.
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High client retention and deep domain expertise.
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Clear pathways to growth.
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High integrity founders and management.
Structure & Style:
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Minimum £2M revenue; no profitability requirement.
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Majority preferred; or significant minority with protections.
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Day 1 cheques from £500k – £10M (up to £25M with co-investment).
Value-Add / What We Bring:
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Operator-led governance from founders who've built, scaled, and exited.
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Immediate founder liquidity event at close.
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Growth capital for strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
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Proprietary automation toolkit™ deployed from Day 1.
TEAM
Henry Smithers
Henry previously led the UK Business Services M&A team at Duff & Phelps, where he focused on professional services sector transactions, helping shareholders of mid-sized consultancies on mergers, acquisitions and recapitalisations. Henry also led the European Financial Sponsor coverage team.
Prior to Duff & Phelps, Henry was co-founder of a VC-backed mobile loyalty platform. Prior to this, Henry was an investment director at Starwood Capital Group covering UK and Nordic investments. Henry started his career in M&A at Gleacher (New York, London) and JPMorgan Cazenove (London). He holds a first class honours degree in Economics from the University of Sydney and an MBA from INSEAD.
Matthew Eatough
Matthew founded and led Proxima Group and was chairman of the board up until its sale to Bain & Company in 2022. Proxima is a specialist procurement advisory platform with operations in Europe and US. Over the past 20 years, Proxima has grown to be recognized by Fortune 500 corporates for its domain expertise and IP-led delivery. With over 230 consultants, it is one of the world’s largest procurement consultancies.
Prior to Proxima, Matthew founded and exited buy.co.uk (sold to uSwitch) and has been active in the development of supply chain analytics software. He is also chairman of Meronimi and a board member of Flow & Ebb.
Gerhard Grueter
Gerhard Grüter is Managing Director of a German-British family office in London, with over two decades in finance. As an institutional investor, he specialises in corporate and alternative credit, focusing on private credit, collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), senior loans, high yield and asset-backed strategies.
He began his career in mergers and acquisitions at a US investment bank and later became a partner at an alternative investment fund. An entrepreneur, he has co-founded several financial services businesses in the UK, including a diversified asset management platform with US$2.3 billion under management and an international software and consulting firm.
He holds a doctorate in law from the University of Hamburg and an MBA from Cornell University. He is a regular visiting lecturer at British universities on private credit and long-term capital allocation.
SENIOR ADVISORS
Georgina Penfold
Georgina is a Senior Advisor to EST in respect to UK energy and renewable services.
Georgina previously worked at Inspired PLC as Group Director and member of the Senior Leadership Team where she led commercial strategy for all brands under the Inspired PLC group. She currently sits on the board of BSRIA.
Georgina holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD and a Masters in Energy and the Environment from Leeds University.
Mark Sherfield
Mark was CFO of BDO LLP from 1999 until 2020 including a term as COO from 2010 to 2016. He joined BDO Stoy Hayward in March 1999 with the merger of Moores Rowland where he had been a Corporate Advisory partner from 1988 – 1997 and Finance Partner (CFO) from 1997 – 1999. He qualified as ACA in 1986.
Mark has overseen 11 mergers and acquisitions of professional services firms and also managed financial reporting to some 250 equity partners.
Guy Strafford
Guy is a Senior Advisor to EST in respect to procurement services and technologies.
Guy is current chair of OneSupplyPlanet, Argus Cognitive, Anddine.co.uk and Carbon Quota. He was a director and co-founder of Proxima, the procurement consultancy, prior to its successful sale to world leader consultancy Bain and Co.
Guy is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants; and fellow and ex trustee and audit chair of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
SECTOR FOCUS
Regulated Services.
Real Estate and Facilities Management Services.
Energy, Renewable & Waste Services.
Pension administration
Regulatory compliance and trust services
Wealth management and planning
Customs broking and freight forwarding
Property management
Property surveying
Security, fire & electrical
Landscaping
Energy broking
Waste management and recycling
Sustainability auditing