The Growth Stage has launched what it says is the world’s first funding platform for private growth companies to raise investment capital from regulated institutional investors.
The company has signed up investors with over USD4 trillion of assets under management, from pension funds, retail funds and hedge funds through to sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
Headquartered in London, The Growth Stage has been designed exclusively to marry the increasing demand from institutional investors around the world, to invest in high growth, scale-up companies, and for those companies to seek alternative sources of capital.
Directly challenging the traditional model by removing the barriers to accessing alternative sources of financing, The Growth Stage has no joining fee for private companies or institutional investors, and charges only 1 per cent of funds raised – a highly competitive rate compared to alternative approaches to fund raising.
Simon Stewart (pictured), Co-Founder and CEO, The Growth Stage, says: “Traditionally, it has been very costly and difficult for private growth companies to get access to institutional investors to help finance the next stage of their growth. Institutional investors don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to invest in the leading private high-growth global companies of today and tomorrow. A global platform enabling institutional investors and private growth companies to meet, and funds to be raised at low cost didn’t exist, and this is exactly why we have created The Growth Stage. After two years of developing the business with our institutional investors and professional advisors, we are delighted to launch The Growth Stage today.”
The Growth Stage has also partnered with 10 of the world’s leading professional advisers, offering its members essential global business services and deal transaction expertise. They are Acuris Risk Intelligence, EY, Gallagher, Merrill Corporation, Sage, The&Partnership, Travers Smith, WeWork, WorldFirst and WSGR.
Debbie O’Hanlon, Regional Markets Leader at EY, says: “The Growth Stage has built a meeting place for entrepreneurs, investors and advisers that is set to become the launch pad for some of the world’s biggest brands. EY is committed to working with entrepreneurial and fast-growth companies and helps ensure that we are working with more of tomorrow’s global leaders.”
The Growth Stage is a platform exclusively for institutional investors, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and has been designed for primary and secondary equity and debt investments.
The Growth Stage is focusing on scale-up rather than start-up situations, where private companies are looking to raise more than USD10 million. The company is on track to see a number of funding rounds completed in its first quarter.
Margot James MP, the Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, says: “The Growth Stage has developed a brilliant solution to match some of the world’s most exciting and high growth businesses to the long-term institutional capital and advisory network they need to fulfil their growth potential. The firm is exemplary of the innovation in finance and technology that the UK excels in and highlights its central role in the global investment community.”
The Growth Stage was founded by experienced City investors, advisers and entrepreneurs Simon Stewart and Simon Acton. They have since been joined by Jennie Holloway, who recently left her position at Goldman Sachs, where she was head of the alternative equity capital markets division in London and led on private funding.
