About us
Grafton Capital at a glance
2014
Established
£131m
Invested to Date
12
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 £130m 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
Specialists in software
Entrepreneurial at heart
History
Grafton Capital's milestones since inception
Grafton Capital achieves successful exit from Alva
Grafton Capital has achieved a successful exit for its investors from Alva, as it is acquired by portfolio companies of the US-based private equity firm, Falfurrias Capital.
Grafton Capital makes €18m minority investment in Xtremepush
Grafton Capital invested €18 million in Xtremepush, a multi-channel customer engagement platform provider, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
Grafton Capital achieves succesful exit from SportPursuit
Grafton Capital exits its investment in SportPursuit as bd-Capital acquire a majority holding.
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.
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.
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.
$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.
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.
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.
$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.
£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.
£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.
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.
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.
Grafton Capital moves to Michelin House
Grafton Capital moved to Michelin House in South Kensington in September 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.
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.
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.
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.
