7th March 2018
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NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active SME investors, is pleased to announce an investment of £250,000 in tech company GradTouch Limited (‘GradTouch’), a platform that connects graduates and employers, offering a cost-effective, unique solution for attracting, vetting and hiring graduates.
The investment, made on behalf of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), will increase the number of jobs by 50% in GradTouch’s Manchester office and will further support the company’s growth plans.
Based in central Manchester, GradTouch provide the complete end-to-end solution for SMEs wanting to attract, assess and ultimately hire graduates. Its platform offers businesses time and efficiency savings, as well as the convenience of having everything managed in one place. Currently no company in the market provides the media services, backend software and the dedicated subdomain landing pages for SMEs and without the right resources, bringing graduates into smaller companies can be labour intensive and expensive.
Each year over 50,000 employers hire around 400,000 graduates. The Guardian 300 highlights the most recognised graduate employers, with their job vacancies accounting for between 6-8% of all graduate jobs. This leaves a large majority of the market competing for high quality applicants with less resource for sourcing and attracting them, a problem GradTouch looks to solve.
With an ambitious and driven management team, founders Zac Williams and Joe Twigg who, on leaving university found the graduate employment market to be outdated, set up the company with the aim to modernise the sector. Zac leads the strategic direction of GradTouch and is also in charge of the platform technology alongside the Head of Development, Theo Chung. Joe runs the sales aspect of the business, working with the team to deliver the customer proposition through an evolving and focused consultation process with potential clients.
Backed by a strong set of investors and consultants, Nick Bate, an experienced entrepreneurTony Bolland, an entrepreneur who has successfully grown and exited three tech businesses, acts as Advisor working closely with GradTouch to develop the sales focus and strategy.
David Furlong, Investment Director at Maven, said: “We are delighted to support GradTouch’s innovative technology platform. With a dedicated team that knows the market and understands its customer, we believe the business will continue to develop and prosper. NPIF investments continue to support pioneering businesses like GradTouch where there is a funding gap for companies who need help to fulfil their growth potential.”
Zac Williams, Managing Director at GradTouch said: “We’re excited to be bringing Maven on-board as I know they will be a real value add investor. Their wealth of experience in helping businesses grow is something that really attracted us to working with them and applying for to the NPIF fund. Looking forwards into the rest of 2018, I know that Maven’s input, coupled with our current team of employees and investors will lead to a great year for GradTouch.
Sue Barnard, Senior Relationship Manager at British Business Bank, said: “NPIF continues to offer routes to funding for scale up businesses across the North and is making real differences to companies across the region. We are pleased that Maven has delivered this latest round of funding thanks to the introduction from the Co-Angel team, part of the Growth Company, and reaffirm our commitment to supporting job creation in Manchester’s growing technology sector.”
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
Maven Capital Partners UK LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Firm Reference Number 495929
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