Exchanger Industries
Exchanger Industries (Exchanger) engineers, designs and manufactures industrial heat exchangers. Company senior management is based in Watford, England. With manufacturing locations in Canada, Spain and India, Exchanger manufactures both component heat exchangers and large industrial heat exchange systems, utilising a bespoke design and build capacity. Group turnover is approximately £90m and company roots go back to 1961.
Exchanger’s products have a wide range of applications in sectors such as energy, environmental, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, industrial and petrochemical. Exchanger delivers custom client solutions that minimize total life cycle costs.
Caphaven has invested in Exchanger alongside select investors in a secondary buyout together with Nova Capital and is adding strategic value on the Board and operational added value with Exchanger management.
Genesis Automation
Genesis Automation (Genesis) is a healthcare SaaS company based in Cork, Ireland.
Genesis enhances the existing workflow of a hospital’s supply chain to track the movement of care-critical medical supplies from the warehouse right through to the care delivery in the operating theatre. Through its end-to-end enterprise traceability and analytics platform, Genesis empowers hospitals and suppliers to improve patient safety, decrease administrative burden of clinical staff, optimise inventory management, increase revenue capture and make significant cost savings. The software platform provides full interoperability across a hospital’s ERP and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.
High customer satisfaction with the functionality of the software results in very high customer retention. Genesis is the market leader in the UK and is fast expanding partnerships for expansion in core and new geographies.
Caphaven has invested in Genesis alongside specialised healthcare investor GHO Capital and is focused on providing operational and strategic added value on the Board.
DPS
Deutsche Prüfservice GmbH (DPS) is an electrical testing and certification company based near Düsseldorf in Germany, established in 2015. It provides services nationwide to a large number of blue-chip German companies. Its annual sales run rate has increased more than six-fold since Caphaven’s original investment.
The market for electrical testing services is growing rapidly due to an ever-increasing focus on corporate risk management and employee health and safety. DPS prides itself on providing a superior service, more sophisticated testing methodologies, and better data analytics helping customers minimise risks and reduce insurance cost. Competition is fragmented and there is a significant opportunity to participate in the consolidation of this market.
Caphaven controls and is chairing the Board and supports the company with active strategic advice and operational support helping to introduce systems, processes, and management structures that can support a much larger company in the future. During the first two years of its investment Caphaven also provided the interim CFO to DPS.
PlayMoreGolf
PlayMoreGolf (PMG) is the first independent multi-club flexible golf membership scheme particularly targeted towards younger and occasional players. PMG uses its technology to reduce the cost of club membership for golfers while increasing revenues for golf club operators. More than 250 golf courses and over 11,000 golf players in the UK currently are using the PMG flexible membership platform.
At the heart of the business is a sophisticated database and website that manages all member point balances and tee time bookings, making it easy for club members and keeping running cost and hassle for golf clubs to a minimum. Golfers typically buy 100 points for £325 and then use those points to play at their home and ‘abroad’ golf courses. They can get a handicap and play in competitions at their home club and can top up their points if they want to play more often. PMG also provides white label products for golf clubs to manage points based or corporate systems under their own brand.
Caphaven actively supports the PMG team’s strategy and operation at Board level.
Urban
Urban is a London based online and mobile marketplace for professional massage, facial, manicure, pedicure and osteopath treatments. Its therapists and practitioners are all screened, insured and certified. Urban enables users to book a spa quality treatment delivered to their home, office or hotel within 60 minutes via its web site, and IOS and Android apps.
The technology automatically dispatches therapists using its location, diary and logistics platform to ensure accurate ETA and efficient job dispatch so that professionals are able to spend more time on treatments and spend less time travelling. Professional therapists on the platform typically earn significantly more than if employed at a spa and users pay high street rates with the convenience of at home service.
Urban is currently operating in London and Paris.
Exited Investments
Dog Buddy
DogBuddy is the biggest online marketplace in Europe offering dog-sitting and walking services to dog owners. DogBuddy merged with Bibulu, the biggest marketplace in Spain and the combined company operates in many European markets including the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway.
The company vets dog sitters and provides an online marketplace for dog owners to contract dog sitters and walkers. Dog sitters are rated, and Dog Buddy is the easy-to-use platform for contacting sitters, making the on-line payment, and communicating between owners and sitters. It also offers insurance and emergency back-up services and takes a fee in return.
Caphaven chaired the Board of Directors and provided active added value support strategically and operationally.
In October 2018 DogBuddy was sold to Rover, the largest US dog boarding and dog walking marketplace for a consideration consisting of approximately one third cash and two thirds Rover shares. Subsequently Rover went public through a SPAC in February 2021 and received a take-private bid from Blackstone in November 2023.
Caphaven’s investors exited in the Blackstone transaction and achieved in excess of 3x return on their original investment.
Mace Montessori Schools
Mace Montessori Schools was a chain of nursery schools in London. Mace opened its original school near Russell Square in 2005. Since then the business had grown to ten schools and had consistently acquired and maintained a strong reputation in its local areas for outstanding care for young children.
We invested in the business in 2012 and Caphaven joined the Board to facilitate a faster expansion of Mace and to introduce stronger systems, processes and management structures. Since then the business opened and acquired a series of new schools and more than quadrupled sales and EBITDA.
Caphaven actively helped develop Mace’s growth and acquisition strategy as well as its systems and operations.
In May 2018 Mace Montessori was sold to Busy Bees, the largest UK operator of nursery schools. The MoM multiple realised on the investment in Mace was approximately 9x.