UK private equity house Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has appointed Gareth Price as an investment director with responsibility for sourcing VCT opportunities, investments for Maven’s MBO fund, and its private equity co-investor partner network in the South West, as well as managing portfolio investments in the region.
Price brings close to 30 years’ investment and corporate finance experience to Maven, having spent his career advising both privately-owned SMEs and companies listed on AIM and the London Stock Exchange Main Market across a range of transactions including acquisitions and disposals, IPOs and debt and equity fundraisings. Gareth is a qualified chartered accountant.
Most recently Price led the equity portfolio team at The Development Bank of Wales, managing investments across a range of industries, from initial funding to follow on capital and exit. Prior to this, Gareth was a director at Teathers, where he was an adviser to UK public companies. At Maven, Gareth will work closely with investee companies to help them achieve their business objectives and deliver shareholder value.
Recent investments lead by Maven’s south west team include Motokiki, the UK’s first tyre price comparison website, Lending Works, a leading UK peer-to-peer (P2P) lender and Bright Networks, a technology platform for recruitment.
Melanie Goward, Investment Director at Maven, says: “We are very pleased that Gareth has joined the Maven team in the South West – he brings a huge amount of experience advising growth businesses at all stages of their development and considerable knowledge of the regional SME market. Maven will benefit from the strength of Gareth’s relationships with both companies and advisers and will further help us to identify and secure investments for our VCT and MBO funds, and private equity co-investment opportunities, as well as provide strategic advice to existing portfolio companies.
This is a very exciting time for SMEs in the South West, most recently demonstrated by Maven leading the GBP3m investment in Port Talbot based Motokiki. With Gareth on board, we have the expanded resource to reach out to talented entrepreneurs and local business leaders, offering the investment they need to help them achieve their growth objectives.”
