We’re thrilled to announce that following the announcement earlier in the year that ECI had been shortlisted as finalists for Real Deals Private Equity Awards 2023 UK Mid-cap House of the Year and UK Upper-mid cap Deal of the Year, Tom Wrenn has also now been shortlisted as Mid-Cap Private Equity Investment Leader.
The shortlisting recognises an exceptional year of results for ECI – 7 exits, generating an average return of 4.2x gross MOIC and c.60% gross IRR. Furthermore, we have continued to invest in the hands-on support we can offer management teams, developing a Growth Specialist panel and further developing the tools on offer around data and machine learning, tech platform transformation and international expansion.
The nomination for deal of the year is for the successful sale of programmatic media partner, MiQ. Tom led the MiQ deal in 2017, recognising its phenomenal international growth opportunity. Since backing MiQ in 2017, we worked closely to support co-founders Gurman and Lee in their growth ambitions, including:
- Global expansion with the business operating out of 30 offices across 10 countries on exit, up from 9 and 5 respectively at entry.
- Internationalisation led to a 240% increase in US revenue during our investment.
- Hiring a Head of Inclusion & Diversity to further their market-leading D&I approach.
- Establishing an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Accountability Report which is now a point of pride for the business.
- Building out the senior team and wider employee base, with the business growing from 350 people at investment to over 1,000 at the point of exit.
This exceptional organic growth story led to a successful secondary realisation delivering a 6.1x return.
Congratulations to everyone shortlisted. We look forward to celebrating a very successful 12 months of investment activity with the corporate finance community at the awards ceremony in April.
