UK private equity house Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has appointed Andy Povey and Raj Minhas as Investment Managers to help manage the Maven MEIF Debt Fund team in the West Midlands.
Based in Birmingham, Povey and Minhas have responsibility for new MEIF investments across the West Midlands, as well as managing portfolio investments across the region.
Povey joined Maven in 2017 following a long career in SME investment and banking. He was previously a Director with SME investor Seneca Partners in Birmingham, sourcing and managing debt and equity transactions, and has extensive experience of leading a wide variety of SME equity investments across a range of sectors.
Minhas joins Maven following a 30-year career with NatWest, primarily in the SME commercial and corporate banking sectors. Raj has detailed knowledge and understanding of the SME market having managed a broad portfolio of commercial customers predominantly in the manufacturing sector.
These appointments follow the announcement of Maven’s appointment to manage GBP90 million MEIF Debt funds, focused on providing debt funding to high-potential growth businesses located across both the West Midlands and the East and South-East Midlands regions. Composed of two separate funds, of GBP50 million for SMEs located in the West Midlands, and GBP40 million for growth businesses in the East and South-East Midlands, the Fund will provide finance of between GBP100,000 and GBP1.5 million.
Maven is one of the UK’s most active private company investors, with a long-established record of working with advisers and supporting SMEs across the Midlands, and already manages a number of regional debt or equity mandates across the North of England and Scotland.
Steve Lewis, Investment Director at Maven, says: “We are delighted to welcome Andy and Raj to the team and strengthen our presence across the region. We have built a highly skilled team with considerable in-depth knowledge of the local SME market, and a range of sector specialist knowledge, allied to the national resource of Maven’s UK business. The Midlands has a well-deserved reputation as being a key driver in UK economic growth and producing innovative smaller businesses and our MEIF Debt Fund team is very much looking forward to working in partnership alongside Midlands SMEs.”
