Edward Keelan

Another significant milestone for Hometree as we announce that we’ve secured a £50m mezzanine debt facility backed by CPP Investments | Investissements RPC which will sit alongside the £250m senior debt raised earlier this year from Barclays. This combined funding will enable us to finance renewable energy for 35,000 homes over the next two years. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the world’s largest pension funds, is an exceptional partner for Hometree. Their support, along with Barclays and our equity investors, strengthens our mission to decarbonise over one million homes by 2030 and build Europe’s leading residential energy services company. Special thanks to Paulo Merino, Guillaume Blachier, & Feilun Cao for their partnership and commitment in helping us create a new asset class vital for decarbonising millions of homes in the coming years. In addition, we’re excited to announce partnerships with three outstanding companies: Project Solar UK – The UK’s largest residential solar installer So Energy – A leading UK energy supplier myenergi– A leading manufacturer of renewable energy products These partnerships will make Hometree Finance available to their customers, significantly expanding our reach. In a fragmented market, collaboration is key. No single company will have enough volume of assets needed to attract institutional investors to reduce the cost of capital. That's why partnering with leading renewable installers, utilities, and hardware manufacturers is critical for scaling our business and ultimately driving down the cost of renewables for homeowners. We now have 25 partners offering Hometree Finance and are excited to announce many more in the coming months. A huge thank you to the incredible team behind these milestones - Rory Duff, Matthew Boyes, Nick Bellman, David MacLean, Nina Whittaker, Rav Chatha, Jodie Povah, martyn mascord, Jaime Irurzun, Jorge Bastida, Kathryn Simcock and our advisors Julian Craughan & Steven Minke. And thank you to Mark Kleinman for the great coverage. https://lnkd.in/dy5aARJJ

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A step in the right direction, but c'mon...how difficult do they need to make this? The lemmings of the #UK institutional investment sector want a more globally competitive domestic market but insist on tying the hands of the boards, preventing them from competing globally. It's not that hard - The Investment Association should simply instruct these boards to find the best and most experienced talent available and provide competitive, well-aligned pay packages across both executive directors and non-executive directors. If you don't compete, you can't win. #investing #stocks #corporategovernance #shareholderactivism

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Edinburgh-based Computer Application Services Ltd (CAS) has secured an additional £500,000 equity investment to boost growth.   The company is increasingly referred to by its product name, Workpro, a software system for managing customer complaints and HR casework. Organic growth is providing a 20% uplift this year but, with the market quickly opening up to the benefits of using this software, it’s time to pick up the pace.  Managing workload is just part of the solution - Workpro ensures compliance with procedures which, if not observed, too easily lead to pain and penalties.  Insightful reports let users see where they are “attracting trouble” so that prevention of future issues becomes part of the package.   Maintaining a digital presence – being easily found when people come searching is an obvious must for the marketing team, a never ending task in a busy online world. The new investment will fuel more proactive activities to reach out to target audiences, some of whom don’t yet realise how readily the task of juggling cases and causes can be streamlined and supported by UK developed software. Workpro has all the right data security credentials to pass muster with government and corporate governance.       CAS employees own around half of the company through a combination of direct shareholdings, the Employee Benefit Trust and a monthly share-save scheme. External investors hold the other half – Capital for Colleagues who specifically support employee-ownership, and, more recently, two additional private investors.    CAS CEO Ken Naismith comments, “While CAS and Workpro are obviously good horses for investors to back, we do not take for granted what terrific support has been made available to us when so many businesses are worried about the future. Consumer complaints and employee relations issues are only going to rise as organisations meet 2025’s challenges. Workpro makes light work of heavy caseload and provides essential insights into issues arising from customers and colleagues.”

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Excellent piece of marketing, well written, long and in a good publication There is a problem though. Selecting "best-of-breed" is tricky because: 1. "best-of-breed" changes, 2. integration of everything to everything - does not work, 3. most of widespread systems are actually old and not designed to be integrated with "everything" or ever-changing "best of breed". And, finally, but most importantly - most systems were develop to support old Face-to-Face advice flow while online flow is differnt because clients behave online differently!!! You need to build a new system to actually service clients online, with "everything" integrated from the very start, from designing the architecture stage. So, my marketing piece - speak with JustFA - More than a platform 😎

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You know an industry issue is big when mainstream papers start to write about it... - A significant shortage of exciting UK tech companies listing on the London Stock Exchange. Not surprising given... - Underperformance of Recent IPOs: Half of the top 20 IPOs in 2023 underperformed compared to the Stoxx Europe 600 index, with some companies like CAB Payments experiencing significant share price declines. - Regulatory Concerns: Founders and venture capitalists are hesitant about pursuing acquisitions due to increased scrutiny by competition watchdogs. - Post-Election IPO Surge Expected: According to PitchBook, IPO activity in Europe is predicted to increase considerably after upcoming elections, with 300 companies potentially ready to float, nearly a third from the UK. - Market Valuations Caution: The financial climate suggests 2024 might still be premature for many companies to go public, given uncertain valuations and economic conditions. - Brain Drain to the US: There's an ongoing trend of European companies, including notable names like Arm and Birkenstock, choosing to list in the US due to better returns compared to Europe. - Dissatisfaction with London Listings: Some British tech companies that listed in London express regret, citing issues like lack of knowledge, liquidity, and negative media coverage. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gFpN4hRD #thrivetogether #liquidity #secondaries

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The vital role that the VCT industry plays in supporting UK economic growth and job creation is highlighted in this article from the The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) #vct #vcta #venturecapital #economicgrowth

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This report makes a thoughtful and important contribution to the debate around net zero. My key takeaways are: ·    Public support for net zero remains strong ·    We must be pragmatic not dogmatic, carefully balancing decarbonisation and economic growth ·    Clean technologies can shift demand from fossil fuels, but needs active government involvement to de-risk investment and increase investor confidence   It reinforces our view that we must collectively focus on how we can practically accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.

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Regulators Don’t Drive Growth—Entrepreneurs Do Keir Starmer’s decision to ask regulators like the FCA, Ofgem, and Ofwat for “proposals for growth” is fundamentally misguided. Growth comes from entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats. Here’s why this approach won’t work: 1) Regulators Constrain, They Don’t Create Regulators enforce rules and ensure stability; they’re not equipped to design the conditions for rapid innovation or economic growth. 2) Out of Touch with Reality Fast-paced growth comes from risk-taking, innovation, and scaling businesses—things only entrepreneurs understand. Talking to regulators misses the point entirely. 3) More Red Tape, Less Progress This approach risks producing even more unnecessary regulations that stifle investment and innovation when we need fewer barriers, not more. 4) Talk to the Real Experts The people who’ve built businesses, created jobs, and scaled companies know exactly what’s holding back the economy. They should be the ones shaping policy, not regulators. If Labour is serious about making the UK the fastest-growing G7 economy, it must listen to the people who know what it takes to build, grow, and succeed—entrepreneurs.

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At EHE Ventures, we turn ideas into global firsts. Here's how we do it: ✅ Funding Support: Get the capital you need to grow. ✅ Coaching and Mentoring: Straight-talking advice for fast growth. ✅ MVP Scoping and Tech Build: Turn your tech ideas into market-ready products. We're "Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs" and we’ve got what it takes to build and scale successful companies. 👉 Learn more about our success stories: https://hubs.li/Q02DxCzK0 #EHEVentures #TechSuccess #Entrepreneurs #Investors #AIFunding #TechInnovation #GrowthFunding

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A good article in City AM this morning - positive to see the strong returns and outperformance and clearly there's more to come. The portfolio of good quality mispriced companies and the engaged approach by Laurence and the team at Dowgate Wealth are the foundations for building Onward Opportunities further. For investors that want to dig deeper into the portfolio, the annual report published last week is a great way to get to know ONWD better. https://lnkd.in/eKzfwh3F.

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With the ongoing growth in white-labelled financial services products, our Partner Noel Leung (MAICD) and former colleague James Carrington put these thoughts together on how to build a white-label (or embedded) financial services strategy. Lots to think about for #banks, #insurance and #super. #whitelabelfinance #embeddedfinance #financialservices https://lnkd.in/gt6PgktH

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https://lnkd.in/eY3-AmYM will MoF walk the walk!?.. #JPY strength to play through opts. A very decent chunk of 5s and 7s UST auctions coming up, #SPX500 nearly achieved ideal correction level 4800-4900 range, mega cap earnings and PCE coming up - #highfrolonger still in play, core inflation could actually end up closer to 4.5% towards q3 2024.. QQQ ideal correction more towards 16K, the growth vs value rotation only just started #assetmanagement #qualitybalancesheets

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A good selection of webinars are taking place this week for founders on various programmes we (Capital Enterprise) partner on with Foundervine, Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester and Barclays Eagle Labs. Our 'Ascend' founders yesterday got a deep dive into GTM strategies. The brand new cohort of Eagle Labs Funding Readiness Programme will be getting Startup Investment 101 - 'Introduction to the Investment Landscape' and the TIC Accelerator founders will be treated/subjected (depending on my caffeine intake 🤣 ) to a slightly more intense, AI-focussed version of this in a smaller group setting; All of this ahead of a range of curated investor breakfast, dinners and socials to maximise the chances of getting these businesses appropriately capitalised. We love doing direct-to-startup delivery with our partners - and these sorts of projects are an integral part of our approach to building the capacity of innovation ecosystems up and down the UK to increase their productivity and output as much as possible. We have some exciting developments on the way soon where other types of stakeholders in their respective geographies will be using our tools and methodologies to drive forward a GDP-level change in their local economies.

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A friend of mine sent me this article on the decline of the UK (public equity) market's size and ownership and it's implications (not great if the UK misses out on financing wealth creating life sciences companies created in the UK). Over 20 years ago we took a conscious decision to globalise client portfolios primarily due to the higher growth investment opportunities available overseas (in US markets in particular) where exposure to similar growth companies was not available in the UK. It was undoubtedly the right thing to do from an investment perspective but the lack of new growth listings in the UK feels a bit "chicken and egg". Whether it is due to lack of risk appetite or available capital, it could well hand a significant prize to overseas capital markets particularly in life sciences as highlighted in the article. The reasons are many and manifold, ranging from closed defined benefit pension schemes with underlying risk aversion to a consistently weak domestic currency (twin fiscal and capital account deficits) . Serious UK politicians would be giving this some proper thought but if the leaks/previews of the forthcoming budget are to be believed, the UK is headed in the other direction. My job is to seek the best global risk adjusted returns for our clients and to that end, a deeper pool of UK opportunities would be welcome but as the article highlights, it is more.of a diminishing pool under current trends. https://lnkd.in/eeKqZdxQ /0ur-biggest-problem-hiding-in-plain-sight

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Great piece here from 'JB' Beckett, looking at how the lanscape has evolved for portfolio products within advisers' CIPs: https://lnkd.in/euUrRtTN Very timely from my selfish perspective, as exploring this in a forthcoming series of presentations (see graphic). The *really* interesting thing is the CGT cat 😼 that's recently been thrown among these pigeons through reduced CGT-free allowances (a cat that might become even more bloodthirsty in forthcoming budgets...) Unitisation, in some form or other, puts control back in the hands of the adviser and the client, whereas the 'classic' ununitised MPS model, in many cases, will likely end up triggering unexpected tax bills for clients holding it outside of a tax wrapper. This is one of the reasons why, when I set up Downing Fox, I went the fully unitised route. I just think it's cleaner and simpler. Anyway, this one's set to run and run. If you want to get up to speed on it, you could do a lot worse then reading JB's excellent potted history.

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Interesting thread on the massacre of the Unicorns (its not just a Silicon Valley problem). The article and the comments don't necessarily focus on the crux of the issue. Hundreds of $billions were deployed into a valuation bubble leading up to the 2021 crash. Most of that capital is now trapped in companies that aren't performing. All the common holders and management are trapped behind a huge preference stack. Likely 90% of the companies would benefit from a capital restructure, but none of the VCs want to take the down mark. It's going to take a decade or more to unwind. I've lunch with a different Founder / CEO caught in the trap every few months. The advice is always the same, accept reality for what it is, then if you decide to stay figure out how to get the business operating as a profitable going concern. The fundamental benefit of VC vs PE is that there isn't a debt servicing component. Getting to operating breakeven buys a lot of time. I'd a call with a (former) unicorn CFO yesterday. He was brought in to help turnaround a dying unicorn, with great success it has to be said. The business is now profitable and growing after three years of focus including a couple of inspired acquisitions. Great product now selling like hot cakes. It is still sitting on $800m pref stack though. The call really emphasised two things. First, with skill, vision, will and perseverance it is possible to move forwards. Second, getting out of the trap is a five year project.

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It’s been a humbling 7 years feeling very grateful for everyone who’s been a part of the learning journey. Check out our newest blog

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