Growth capital

Well, has there been a problem where we've got people starting up companies or people with good ideas in Britain and they start companies and then something happens whereby they're not growing fast enough or they get pushed overseas? In

my history, the issue has been a lack of growth capital funding, certainly in the later stages.

So myself, I raised 25 million during my process, but 80% of that money I raised from Asia because it was a struggle to raise in the UK.

And also just not just purely a struggle, but the time to raise was slower than other places and equivalents in other countries.

I think it really, really helps.

But I'm seeing the signs that that is changing, like in a positive way.

So I think just this week, the government announced that pension funds had committed to one billion to basically support growth capital for companies in the UK.

So that they are starting to gather around that and understand the idea of UK based investment.

As the company grew, Jeremy had the self-awareness to step back from the principal operating role and pursue the work for which he was best suited.

He went on to establish Middleton Enterprises, a family investment firm providing patient growth capital and strategic support to ambitious entrepreneurs who have the aspiration to scale.

That gives Jeremy a very rare perspective.

He has experience scaling as a founder, a partner, and an investor assessing whether other businesses and leaders are genuinely ready to scale.

And believe me, being an investor in [laughs] small businesses is a risky business for a thousand reasons that you can think of and quite often things that you can't think of.

What size is your portfolio, Jeremy? How many companies are you invested in?

We're in nine in the Growth Capital portfolio now, and think we're quite comfortable between that and 12, something like that.

They're all in different stages.

I'm Haim Zaltzman, Partner and Global Vice Chair of Latham's Emerging Companies and Growth Practice.

In this episode, I'm joined by Ernestine Fumac, Founder and Managing Partner of Brave Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that partners with early-stage founders from Pre-C to Growth Equity and focuses on transformative technology startups in sectors like AI, aerospace, and energy.

Ernestine, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for those insights, Brad.

Now, let's explore how targeted growth capital helps businesses scale with confidence.

So I'd like you to touch upon how does OCIF de-risk expansion by aligning public and private capital specifically for mid-market growth?

Yeah, no, that's a great question.