Gresham House Ventures has made five senior promotions within its investment team as the business continues to grow its investable capital base and looks to expand its team further.
Maya Ward and Rowan Grobler have both been promoted to Investment Director in recognition of their outstanding track record leading on numerous successful deals for Gresham House Ventures. Ward joined GHV in 2019 and has led investments in a wide range of businesses in the digital healthcare and pharmaceutical services sectors, including eConsult, Panthera Biopartners and Metrion Biosciences. She plays an active role on the boards of several investee companies.
Rowan Grobler has been with the Mobeus VCTs team – acquired by Gresham House in September 2021 – since 2018 and has led a number of growth capital fund raises. He spearheaded an investment in nursery management system company Connect Childcare, as well as the recent follow-on funding round for data privacy business ActiveNav. With more than ten years of operational experience as a financial director and CFO in high-growth businesses, Grobler has also led exits and sits on the board of several portfolio companies.
The promotions come as Gresham House Ventures continues to grow its capital base, having recently raised a further £75m for the Baronsmead VCTs and bringing the Mobeus VCTs to their £35m fundraising target within a record 22 hours. The team is also looking to expand, with recruitment plans in motion for 2022 in a range of areas.
This builds on a strong 2021 for GHV, with total assets under management reaching £898m (as at 31 January 2022).
In addition, James Hendry, who joined Gresham House Ventures in 2019, has been promoted to Associate Director. Hendry’s promotion reflects his experience leading a wide range of deals for GHV, including legal document automation platform Clarilis and SME banking and accounting app Countingup.
Meanwhile, Matt Jones and Mackenzie Travers have been promoted to Investment Manager. Jones joined Gresham House Ventures in 2021 and has worked on a range of transactions, with a particular focus on the B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector. He is actively involved in the entire investment process, from origination through to deal execution, and has a geographic focus on Ireland and the North East of England, as well as London.
Travers, who joined Gresham House Ventures in 2019, has a focus on the consumer, consumer technology, media and marketing sectors and has been involved with several significant GHV investments, including AI-driven photobook provider Popsa and ecommerce platform Patchworks.
Bevan Duncan, Managing Director of Strategic Equity at Gresham House, said:
“This series of senior promotions reflects the outstanding performance of the team in the face of challenging market conditions in recent years. The Gresham House Ventures offering continues to go from strength to strength, and we are pleased to see this has been recognised by investors through recent successful fundraises for the Baronsmead and Mobeus VCTs. In their new roles, we are confident Maya, Rowan, James, Matt and Mackenzie will continue to unearth innovative and ambitious companies with enticing growth prospects to deliver outstanding results for investors amid the ongoing uncertainty.”
