The funding package will enable NorthRow (formerly Contego) to drive growth by expanding product development, adding commercial resources and entering new markets
Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), one of the UK’s leading private equity houses, has led the £3.5 million investment in NorthRow (formerly Contego), to support the continued growth of the business. The transaction is being jointly funded by Maven and NVM Private Equity (“NVM”) which are investing £1.8 million and £1.5 million respectively. The remaining £0.2 million is being funded by existing investors.
NorthRow provides an automated compliance solution across a wide range of industries, helping organisations in the property, banking, financial services and public sectors to gain a full understanding of their clients, customers and employees by automating onboarding, monitoring and data enrichment processes, and providing complex, real-time compliance and fraud checks. Its comprehensive software platform enables customers to improve the operational efficiency of their compliance processes, and minimise operational costs, helping to reduce risk when dealing with people, companies and identity documents. NorthRow performs a wide array of screening, verification and vetting assessments including: Know Your Customer (“KYC”); Anti Money Laundering (“AML”); “Right to Work” checks; “Right to Rent” checks and Counter-Party Risk Management.
The company operates in an attractive niche of the Regulatory Technology (“RegTech”) market which is estimated to be worth US$2 billion globally and is expected to grow at over 14% per annum. Demand is being driven by additional regulation, such as GDPR and MiFID II, and by increased enforcement that is creating additional complexity and operational costs for businesses, as well as significantly raising the risk of financial penalties and reputational damage.
NorthRow was founded in Oxfordshire by CEO Adrian Black in 2010 with a focus in identity and fraud prevention and has recently become established in the City of London. In 2016 Contego acquired proprietary technology conceived by specialist immigration law firm Davison Morris and offers an integrated enterprise solution recognised as an industry leader.
Melanie Goward, Investment Director at Maven said: “We are delighted to lead the fundraising to support NorthRow’s continued growth and product development. NorthRow has a strong business model and has already proven its reputation for developing market leading products and solutions, as well as its ability to successfully enter and grow its presence in new markets. We have every confidence that the highly experienced management team, led by Adrian Black, will be able to deliver the growth that our investors have come to expect from Maven. We look forward to working with Adrian over the coming months and years to achieve this.”
Adrian Black, CEO of NorthRow commented: “Given increased regulatory pressures and the significant benefits our platform has demonstrated with clients to date, we are pleased to receive investment from Maven and NVM that allows us to expand our operations to support customer demand and new partnerships. We know that clients value being able to tailor our platform to perform complex checks for a variety of scenarios. They can choose from the widest range of available data, seamlessly integrating into their existing processes, backed by high levels of security, robustness and availability. We will be using this funding to continue to expand our capabilities, driven by the evolving needs of clients who also see NorthRow as their strategic innovation partner of choice.”
Charles Winward, Investment Director at NVM said: “In our due diligence when talking to NorthRow’s customers, it was clear that they are faced with complex, evolving challenges and that Adrian and his team have a compelling proposition to help meet them, reducing risk and saving cost. We look forward to working with the team and our investment partners, Maven.”
Principals and key advisors to the transaction:
Maven was provided with:
- Legal advice by Gateley plc
- Financial due diligence by WK Corporate Finance
- IT due diligence by MSC R&D
- Management referencing by Avalon Management Consulting
- Commercial diligence by Chalo Consultancy
- VCT compliance by Philip Hare Associates
NorthRow was provided with legal advice by Taylor Wessing LLP
Notes to Editors
About Maven Capital Partners UK LLP www.mavencp.com
Maven Capital Partners UK LLP (Maven) is a lower-mid cap private equity house focused on the provision of growth capital and mezzanine finance to SMEs across the UK. It is one of the most active private equity fund managers in the country, managing over £415 million of assets for a variety of client funds, including Venture Capital Trusts, a number of government-backed regional debt and equity funds, and Maven Investor Partners – a syndicate of institutional, family office and experienced investors.
Headquartered in Glasgow, and with other offices throughout the UK, Maven has nationwide coverage of the market for SME finance and is introduced to around 400 deals per year through 20 regionally based investment executives. With over 60 staff and partners, Maven executes a range of private company transactions, offers hands-on proactive portfolio management to investee companies and provides a fully integrated back-office support function to client and third-party fund managers. Since 2009 Maven has invested over £300 million in SMEs across the UK.
About NVM
NVM Private Equity is independently owned with over 30 years’ experience of investing in unquoted UK businesses. NVM is a generalist investor, managing over £270 million of funds, and is differentiated by having executives living and working in regional business communities throughout the UK. NVM seeks investment opportunities of between £2 million and £12 million in UK businesses which have the right mix of growth potential and market vision. They may be looking to grow organically, acquire another business or secure a management buy-out. www.nvm.co.uk
About NorthRow (Formerly Contego)
NorthRow provides an automated compliance solution across a wide range of industries helping organisations deliver a complete picture of their clients, customers and employees, to enable them to adhere to increasing regulation and improve onboarding processes.
NorthRow is the only solution of its kind enabling businesses to carry out complex, real-time checks on people, companies, identity documents, social media accounts and mobile phone locations, delivered via a range of flexible, easy-to-integrate options to suit our customers’ needs.
Committed to collaborating with law enforcement and trusted data suppliers, NorthRow continues to innovate and invest in new functionality and solution enhancements. NorthRow has recently broadened its offering to enable ‘Right-to-Work’, ‘Right-to-Rent’ and ‘Right-to-Study’ compliance by fully automating checks and managing record keeping.
