Partner Content: Capitama – A new and professional way for investors and businesses to connect

The demand for direct deals in global private markets has never been greater. But beyond a small network of usually local contacts and capital-seeking businesses, investors are often limited to how they can find a wider community to prosper from.

Step forward Capitama, a highly sophisticated direct private investment network and platform that has just been launched. Capitma brings together top-level investors like ultra-high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs, family offices and private investment offices together with financial sponsors and management teams of high growth companies together in a secure and global network.

“Capitama is fundamentally a high calibre investor network,” says Brett de Bank, co-founder and head of business development at Capitama. “And what we’re trying to do is help that investor network connect with very good opportunities with businesses seeking to raise capital.”

Effectively, Capitama is a capital introduction service for sophisticated investors, financial sponsors and businesses. But a big differential for Capitama is that it works with sponsor-backed companies. “Our deal sponsors comprise both venture capital and private equity firms as well as professional real estate investors and experienced management teams leading high growth businesses.

The key considerations for who Capitama work with are not only the quality of the business and deal sponsor, but also the quality of the existing investors with skin in the game. “These factors provide strong comfort to new investors being given access to the deal,” says Simon Ramery, co-founder and CEO. “The fact that Capitama only works with deal sponsors that already have strong investors means investing is a lot more straightforward for both sides, as the valuation tends to be set, there is usually an existing data room to be reviewed and moreover, the deal sponsor is experienced in working with other experienced investors so the process is more efficient.”

All this means the sponsor-backed approach of Capitama of bringing two parties together is much more cohesive, says de Bank. “A prospective company investor can take a lot of confidence and comfort from existing investors and shareholders already in the business. They’ve already put hard money into the company demonstrating a real commitment to the company and other potential investors,” he says.

When registering on Capitama, investors can set their preferences so that they only see investment opportunities that are of interest to them. This reduces time spent on sourcing and assessing irrelevant deal flow, while also improving an investors screening and due diligence process, increasing efficiency and speed to investment.

Capitama already has a large investor network and already over 300 have registered on the platform, comprising HNWI & UHNWIs, family offices, private equity and venture capital firms, private investment offices and corporate investors. This small portion of their network already has an annual investment appetite of over £7bn per annum. What is also interesting is how investors can also be deal sponsors, and vice versa.

“Increasingly we are not only helping venture capital firms and family offices source new investment opportunities, but also helping them raise capital for the companies they have already invested in to”, says de Bank. “This partnership approach is very beneficial for all sides as raising capital is for most, an on-going distraction to their core business”, says Simon Ramery.

Capitama is not a peer-to-peer platform nor is it driven by tax advantages – we are here to help drive the efficient allocation of capital

Capitama provides investment opportunities across nine investment areas that include not only growth investments and buy-outs, but also early stage, real estate, infrastructure and renewables, turnarounds, private equity funds and debt & income. From this range, deal sizes can start as low as £500k and be up to £100m+. The aim of Capitama for fast-growing scale-up businesses is to be the funding partner of choice, helping companies raise capital from the relevant investors as they grow and internationalise.

Capitama also connects investors to social impact and philanthropic investment opportunities in areas such as education, healthcare and the environment. This is a key passion for the founders of Capitama and as such, 2% of its revenue will be donated to organisations it is working with that are making an important social impact.

Another big advantage of using a platform like Capitama is its independence. “We aren’t conflicted by being part of any bigger organisation trying to push its own agenda,” says Ramery. “Capitama is not a peer-to-peer platform nor is it driven by tax advantages – we are here to help drive the efficient allocation of capital.” Moreover, investor participation in Capitama is entirely risk-free. There is no cost to access the Capitama platform. A fee is only paid when an investment is made and this is paid by the sponsor or company, not the investor.

And backing the platform is the expertise and connections of two highly skilled individuals.

Simon is the Co-Founder of Capitama and CEO. Prior to creating Capitama with Brett, Simon was the founder of Innovation Capital Advisors (‘ICA’), an advisory firm established in 2013 to focus on raising equity and debt capital as well as providing strategic advice to companies.

Prior to establishing ICA Simon was the former Head of Capital Advisory at Cavendish Corporate Finance, having set the business up in 2008. From a standing start, Simon closed a number of groundbreaking deals in education and technology, finding investment for businesses from private equity, venture capital, ultra-high net worth individuals/family offices and corporates.

Before joining Cavendish Simon spent over 15 years working in investment banking focused on providing leveraged finance to support private equity firms to acquire or expand companies. Simon worked on deals in a wide range of sectors and notable transactions he closed were the £817m public to private of Matalan plc and the £750m public to private of Big Food Group (Booker and Iceland Foods).

de Bank is a former analyst at Goldman Sachs International and financial advisor with Merrill Lynch advising high net worth Clients and family offices.  He has 15 years broad banking and commercial finance experience. He has since set up and established a family office and Advisory business where he focused primarily on the origination of and fundraising for direct private equity deals.

During the past 10 years, Brett has worked extensively with a number of global family businesses and family members on a wide range of activities such as manager search and selection, structuring advice, philanthropic mandates, investment analysis and strategy.  He is an active investor in proprietary situations such as real estate and biotech.

During his career, de Bank has undertaken a number of roles advising firms such as Weight Partners Capital, a UK turnaround and profit improvement private equity boutique, acting as Special Advisor to Columbia Threadneedle Investments, a Global Top 25 Multi-Asset Class Manager, advising on distribution and strategy, and advising the Bank of London & the Middle East on their fixed income real estate investment funds.

With a great platform and a highly skilled team behind it, Capitama represents a great opportunity for investors to access some of the best deals in the private investment universe.

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