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Market-leading end-to-end system for nursery administration

Connect Childcare’s market-leading technology solutions provide a single, comprehensive, end-to-end system for nursery administration.

14 of the top 25 UK nursery chains, nurseries and pre-schools use Connect Childcare to manage nursery activities, including logging observations of children (meals and naps), invoice and payment management, and parent communication.

Investment rationale

We invested £4m of growth capital in December 2020 to support the launch of a new payment offering and a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. The SaaS product can be installed remotely and integrates easily with third-party applications, making it more flexible and scalable. As part of the investment, the business will strengthen its sales and marketing team, develop product marketing, and drive further growth from its market-leading position.

Investment Team

Ed Wass

Portfolio Director

Ed brings over 20 years’ experience of helping SMEs to create and realise shareholder value to his role. He has been working with our management teams since 2017 to help them achieve their ambitions for growth and has overseen several notable exits in that time, including Automated Systems Group, Access-IS and Auction Technology Group. He also led the successful IPO of Virgin Wines in 2021.

It is a pleasure to work with so many great businesses and fantastic management teams.  It is a real privilege to be involved in the growth of the exciting companies that Gresham House invests in and to contribute to their ongoing success.

Ed is on the board of several businesses, including Virgin Wines, RotaGeek, Airfinity and Vivacity Labs. His previous roles include CIO at Catapult Ventures and at PwC in both Assurance and Business Recovery Services.

Ed was named as one of Real Deals’ Future 40 Investment Leaders in April 2021.

He holds a BA (Hons) in Ancient History and is a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW).

Outside of work Ed enjoys spending time with his family and whenever possible chasing after a ball of some description (cricket, golf, tennis and fives) – sometimes these happen together.

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Shalin Pather

Associate Director

Shalin joined Gresham House in August 2022 and has 12 years’ financial experience.

I joined the Gresham House Ventures team because I enjoy the challenge of supporting courageous management to grow their businesses.

Prior to Gresham House, Shalin was a Portfolio Manager at BOOST&Co, turning around underperforming SME businesses. Shalin acted as a Non-Executive Director and observer on investments within various industries, including telecommunications, advertising technology, vehicle finance, smart metering logistics, and lead generation. Before this, he was an Equity Analyst at RMB Morgan Stanley.

Shalin holds a BCom (Hons) in Accounting Science.

Outside of work, he is a keen cricketer and passionate rugby fan. He also enjoys trying new recipes and frequently braai (South African-style BBQ) accompanied by a quality bottle of wine.

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