Praesidian Capital Europe and Connection Capital have invested GBP15 million in debt and equity in Redeem Holdings, a UK-based mobile and electronics recommerce specialist.
Praesidian Capital Europe, which provides senior and subordinated debt and growth capital predominantly to UK companies, has invested GBP7 million in debt capital and GBP1 million in equity. An additional GBP2 million will be available as an acquisition line of financing.
Connection Capital, a private client investment business, has made a GBP5m equity investment in Redeem.
Funds will be applied to support Redeem’s international organic growth and potential acquisitions.
Redeem specialises in ecommerce (recycling and take-back management) of mobile and electronic products. It is already the UK’s largest mobile recycling company. Revenues have grown at nearly 50 per cent per annum compound over the last four years and are expected to reach GBP90 million in the current financial year.
The management team is led by founder and chairman Trevor Bayley, a private equity professional who was a founding partner of HgCapital. Redeem’s CEO is Claes Svensson, formerly a vice president at Sony Ericsson, responsible for Western Europe.
“We are very pleased to have secured significant institutional backing to maintain our rapid growth,” Bayley says. “We selected Praesidian Capital and Connection Capital for their commerciality and have been delighted with the rapid delivery of a competitive funding package. We will continue to review our corporate funding options, including flotation, as we plan to treble in size over the next three years.”
In 2012, Redeem was listed 41 in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100. In July 2014 it came 55 in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 ranking of Britain’s mid-market private companies with the fastest growing international sales.
Jason Drattell, founder of Praesidian Capital, says: “We are excited that our UK team has found such an interesting company with high growth potential. We anticipate more investments of this calibre in the near future.”
Claire Madden, partner at Connection Capital, adds: “Redeem is an excellent example of the type of high-quality investment our clients can invest in. Demand for the opportunity was strong and consequently it was oversubscribed.”
