Benula Capital provides equity capital and expertise to companies and management teams operating primarily within the Business Services sector, and with a particular emphasis on the Human Capital Services Sector.
Our Team
Miles Hunt
Miles Hunt trained as a solicitor before completing his MBA at Warwick Business School. In 1995 he established a procurement consultancy, ProSource Limited. Miles then set up the international specialist staffing business, Empresaria Group plc, in 1996 and was chief executive until he stepped down in December 2011 to pursue new opportunities. Since then Miles has been working with companies within the Benula Capital portfolio as well as advising a number of companies operating in the business services arena, including recruitment companies, training and HR services companies and companies that provide technology related solutions to the HR sector. He is also Chairman of APSCo Global. Miles founded Benula Capital in October 2012.
Miles is a highly experienced entrepreneur and investment manager specialising in the staffing and support services sectors. His key skills are in business strategy; deal origination and execution; marketing and cross selling; building brands and managing teams.
Simon Lawton
Simon Lawton qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1985 and became a Fellow in 1996. After 12 years at KPMG rising to a senior manager, he left to become group finance director of Dawes Group (5th fastest growing SME company in Sunday Times). In 1997 he joined Securicor and helped restructure a division and disposal of non-core businesses. In 2000 as group finance director he helped the founder entrepreneur grow Tribal Group plc from a start-up to £250m+ support services business over 10 years until he stepped down in January 2010. Between 2010 to March 2012, Simon was CFO for a tourism property development company that operated in Mozambique. He is currently retained as non-executive director or senior financial board consultant for four SME companies.
Simon is a highly experienced operational finance director with significant experience of all aspects of building and managing a high growth company. He has extensive M&A execution of deals, equity and debt funding and post-acquisition performance monitoring and strategy.
Our Vision
To generate exceptional investment returns, both through internal cash generation and value realisation, for shareholders, investors and management partners through investing in existing companies and new start ups within the business services sector, applying tried and tested investment management practices, with a particular focus on Human Capital and HR related businesses.
Our Investment Strategy
We focus on providing flexible funding solutions and leadership support in the following situations:
- Shareholder events, where we acquire a stake from an existing shareholder and support the management team in the future development of the company.
- MBO/MBI opportunities, working with vendors and management teams to facilitate a transfer of ownership and a succession plan.
- Providing growth capital to support the ambitions of the existing shareholders and management.
- Risk reduction, where shareholder managers are looking to take some money off the table in order to give confidence in, and reduce the risks associated with, a focus on rapid growth.
- The funding of start ups where there is a proven management team and clear map to profitability.
We invest in companies that meet the following criteria:
- Pre-tax profits up to £2.5m
- Deal size between £200,000 and £2m
Board Advisory
In addition to providing flexible funding solutions, Benula Capital provides board advice and support for growing companies and entrepreneurial management teams to include the following areas:
- Corporate strategy
- Corporates structure
- Organisational development
- Management and leadership development
- Commercial and financial management
- Systems design and development