About us

Grafton Capital at a glance

2014

Established

£116m

Invested to Date

Investments

£5m-£20m

Typical Investment

Grafton Capital is a private equity firm focused on investment in European, growth stage, tech-enabled companies.

Since 2014, Grafton has invested over £110m and partnered with founders who have global ambitions, as well as companies that are leading players in valuable niches.

We typically invest between £5 – £20 million, taking a minority stake in a business. Our focus is on providers of business software, data and analytics, online platforms and marketplaces.

Grafton Capital General Partner Limited and Grafton Capital (Jersey) GP Limited (together “Grafton Capital”) are Jersey-based Alternative Investment Fund Managers under the regulation of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, wholly-owned by Grafton Capital Limited, and references on this website to investments or portfolio companies are references to investments made and managed by Grafton Capital.

Grafton Capital Limited is based in London, is the investment adviser to Grafton Capital. Grafton Capital Limited is an Appointed Representative of Sapia Partners LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Commitment, not control

Taking a minority stake in business means Grafton Capital partners act as a sounding board, listening and guiding founders in the right direction rather than taking control. Being a boutique firm, we offer a committed team of senior level executives and advisers with the professional approach of top tier growth capital investment firms.

Specialists in software

Grafton Capital has a proven track record of supporting entrepreneurs that have built successful tech-enabled or software businesses. We are laser focused on this market and are able to share best practice across the portfolio, supporting founding teams when and how they need it.

Entrepreneurial at heart

Grafton Capital has an entrepreneurial approach to investing and building value. An investment can be growth capital into a business, used to buy shares from inactive shareholders, or to help founders de-risk their own position.

See all testimonials

Grafton Capital has brought immense value to Third Financial. They bring a sensible sounding board for ideas, independent thinking and very valuable experience. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them.

Ian Partington, CEO at Third Financial

It’s very easy to work with them. They are very skilled with an entrepreneurial approach. The relationship with my organisation has been very successful.

Giovanni “Nanni” Grossi, Founder and CEO at BOARD International

Ed has been a great addition to the SportPursuit Board, building relationships quickly with founders, management and our other venture capital investors. Ed has pragmatic style and a great ability to focus on the key issues in the Board room.

Adam Pikett, CEO and CoFounder, SportPursuit

“I was a little apprehensive initially, but Grafton Capital met and exceeded all my expectations. They added immense value to our board of directors and were exceptionally good at helping the management team to focus on what really matters and to make informed decisions.”

Marios Stavropoulos, CEO and Co-Founder of Softomotive

October 2020

Grafton Capital invests further £7m at Third Financial

Grafton Capital invested a further £7m in Third Financial, the fast growth fintech platform for the wealth management industry, becoming the majority owner. Read more here.

April 2020

Microsoft Corporation acquires Softomotive

Microsoft Corporation acquires Softomotive for an undisclosed sum, 18 months after Grafton became the first and only outside investor in the company. Read more here.

March 2020

Grafton Capital surpasses £100m of investments

Grafton Capital passed the milestone of £100m invested in growth companies, since inception in late 2014. Read more here.

March 2020

$20m growth capital investment at Omilia

Grafton becomes the first outside investor in Omilia. Omilia’s AI platform delivers automated, conversational customer care at enterprise scale. Leading enterprises, across banking, insurance, telecom, and broadcast, rely upon Omilia’s platform to address hundreds of millions of customer queries per year. The Omilia platform has been trained by billions of real-life customer utterances, and uses voice biometrics to serve customers securely, with minimal disruption.

May 2019

Follow on investment at Starleaf

Grafton invests behind Starleaf‘s continued growth, expanding its position from £10m to £16m. Starleaf has more than doubled its customer base since Grafton’s initial investment.

February 2019

Nordic Capital acquires BOARD International

Grafton Capital realises a 4.5x net return for investors on its May 2016 investment in BOARD International. Grafton re-invests CHF 20 million alongside the founders and new owners, Nordic Capital.

October 2018

$25m invested into Softomotive

Grafton Capital invests $25m and becomes the first outside investor in Softomotive. Softomotive is one of the leading providers of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) software, serving over 7,000 customers worldwide.

May 2017

£10m investment into Starleaf

Grafton Capital invests £10m to become the first outside investor in StarLeaf, alongside Highland Europe, who invest an equal amount. StarLeaf is a leading cloud platform for enterprise video conferencing and calling services with several thousand customers worldwide.

April 2017

£7.75m invested at MPP Global

Grafton Capital invests £7.75m and becomes the first outside investor in MPP Global. Grafton co-invested with Albion Ventures, who invested £4.0 million. MPP Global delivers an enterprise-grade subscription management and billings platform to media and publishing companies such as Sky, Pro-SiebenSat, NBC Universal, and McClatchy.

May 2016

CHF 23.4m invested at BOARD International

Grafton Capital acquires a CHF 23.4m (£18m) minority stake in BOARD International. BOARD is a leading provider of Corporate Performance Management software and serves several thousand customers worldwide.

March 2016

Launch of Third Platform Services

Grafton Capital invests a further £1.5m into Third Financial Software to support the expansion of Third Platform Services- a regulated, software enabled service offering to the UK wealth management market.

September 2015

Grafton Capital moves to Michelin House

Grafton Capital moved to Michelin House in South Kensington in September 2015.

April 2015

Third Financial Software Investment

Grafton Capital invests £2.5m and becomes the first outside investor into Third Financial Software, a leading provider of front, middle and back-office software to the discretionary wealth management industry.

March 2015

Alva Reputation Investment

Grafton Capital invests £2.5m in Alva Reputation. Alva provides sentiment based reputation data to global businesses including Rio Tinto, HSBC, Santander, Tesco and Virgin Group.

December 2014

SportPursuit

Grafton Capital cornerstoned the £9.5m Series C round investment into SportPursuit, investing alongside Scottish Equity Partners and existing investor DFJ Esprit. SportPursuit is the UK’s leading marketplace for flash sales of premium sports apparel, with circa 1.4m members at the time of the investment.

September 2014

Founded

Grafton Capital was established on Grafton Street in Mayfair, London: committed to investing capital behind the founders of profitable, growing companies seeking a sector specialist, minority partner.

Explore our History