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The Fund Partners
The Fund Partners
The Wellness Fund, bringing together Companies, Capital and Creativity
Fund Partners are organisations we identify and qualify as understanding the operational growth requirements of the Fund’s investees in various key aspects.
If you have a service that you believe would be useful to The Wellness Fund please contact us on sm@sturgeonventures.com
Fund Partners currently include:
Data Monitor
Datamonitor
The investment managers regard Datamonitor as an invaluable partner for the Fund and potentially for portfolio companies, assiting in assessing their marketplaces, their competition, and the users/consumers of their products.
Company Profile: Datamonitor is a leading provider of online database and analysis services for key industry sectors. We help our clients, some of the world’s leading companies, to address complex strategic issues. Through our propriety databases and wealth of expertise, we provide clients with online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for six industry sectors: Automotive, Consumer Markets, Energy and Utilities, Financials Services, Healthcare and Technology, so we are well placed to be a partner of The Wellness Fund, whose focused areas are Consumer Markets and Healthcare.
Datamonitor’s flagship delivery platform is the Knowledge Center which presents a brand new concept in business provision.
Knowledge Centers are available as subscription services for key industry sectors. Each Knowledge Center consolidates all Datamonitor information for a particular industry into a single customised online interface. In total that includes millions of data points, thousands of pages of analysis, and hundreds of daily news and comment articles. All this information is interconnected which means clients can easily locate the exact data point or section of analysis they need.
Datamonitor’s initial product offering consisted of published research reports and custom consulting, both of which are still offered today. Over the years, research reports have proven to be Datamonitor’s most popular product. We publish over 1,000 reports and briefs every year. But the Datamonitor brand is known for far more than just report publishing and custom consulting. Our intellectual property is the core asset of our business and we tailor new services to make the most of this asset for clients.
Neil Hendry
IP21
ip21
Company statement: The company’s goal is simple: to help companies achieve their business objectives by the effective use of intellectual property rights. From offices in the City of London and Norwich Research Park their professional attorneys offer the full range of services expected from a leading patent and trade mark firm, plus additional commercial and design services. These services are delivered in a straightforward and comprehensible manner designed to help clients understand and extract the maximum protection and benefit from their intellectual property assets. ip21’s successful business model is designed primarily to assist early stage and developing SME’s to use intellectual property rights as effective business assets, by providing high quality professional advice in combination with accessible customer service. A key feature of this model is fixed-price costing quoted to the client in advance at each stage of a given project. Their technical expertise covers all engineering and scientific disciplines. The company has developed a particularly strong reputation in protecting medical device technology.
John Williams
For further information please visit www.ip21.co.uk , or contact johnwilliams@ip21.co.uk or call 0207 645 8250.
Smith & Williamson
Smith & Williamson
Founded over a century ago, Smith & Williamson are leading independent providers of investment management, accountancy, and tax, corporate and financial advisory services to private clients, corporates, professional practices, and non-profit organisations. We are the eighth largest firm of accountants in the UK and our investment management business has nearly £9 billion funds under management and advice.
Our business spans 10 principal offices in the UK, with locations in the City of London, North London, Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Guildford, Maidstone, Salisbury, Southampton and Worcester, and an international capability in 97 countries through membership of Nexia International (the 9th largest international accounting network) and M&A International.
In an award-winning business as diverse as ours, professionalism and teamwork are key. We recognise that clients and intermediaries take comfort from knowing that they can easily reach senior people and decision-makers in our organisation who are able to understand their needs and objectives. Technical excellence underpins how we deliver our services and our teams are dedicated to offering practical financial solutions.
Restructuring & Recovery Services
Our Restructuring & Recovery team has a market-leading reputation built upon innovation and consistently reliable performance achieved through directors having an active involvement in all assignments. The department consists of 18 directors and over 100 fee earners.
We act for a variety of stakeholders include leading banks, UK and overseas financial institutions, corporate investors and individuals and we have built a strong reputation for providing innovative solutions, combined with a direct approach. The size and depth of our team ensures we are able to deal with both larger and smaller assignments.
Anthony Spicer – Director, London Office.
Anthony is a chartered accountant and a licensed insolvency practitioner. He has specialised in corporate advisory, turnaround, restructuring and formal recovery work since 1989 advising both lenders and company directors. He has considerable experience of providing pre-lending advice and monitoring services to stakeholders including leading banks, asset-based lenders and other financial institutions.
Anthony has built up a broad range of sector specialisations and in particular has been involved in many assignments in the media industry. He is the restructuring and recovery member of Smith & Williamson’s Media Group.
Anthony Spicer
Geoffrey Martin
Geoffrey Martin & Co
Companies, partnerships and individuals can sometimes fall into financial or other difficulties through no fault of their own and the reasons can be wide ranging, from the loss of a major customer to an economic downturn in their particular industry.
Management can be too close to potential problems and as a result be unable to review their business in an objective manner.
As experienced business turnaround professionals we offer practical advice and bespoke solutions to all types of businesses.
We fully support the change in emphasis to business recovery in the UK with more opportunity now offered to distressed businesses to avoid formal insolvency. More and more of our work involves creative solutions to financial problems involving, amongst other things, restructuring of core debt, refinance and redefinition of the business profile.
Geoffrey Martin & Co is a growing independent practice specialising solely in business recovery, turnaround and insolvency.
The firm was formed in 1983 by Geoffrey Martin who was until then Regional Head of Corporate Recovery with Arthur Andersen. It now operates from offices in Leeds and London which collectively employ four partners and thirty staff dedicated to assisting businesses.
The firm has no audit or corporate finance arms or associations, which enables us to deliver a professional service free from any potential conflicts.
Walker Morris
Walker Morris
Walker Morris is a unique firm with a national reputation for strong multi disciplinary teamwork and straight forward advice. "The firm's fee earners are regularly highlighted as some of the market’s shrewdest operators combining sound legal judgment with undoubted commercial acumen”.
The firm has achieved this as a result of the independent, non-conformist culture of the firm, the quality and enthusiasm of the people they employ and the close relationships they develop with our clients. 71% are based outside Yorkshire. They have developed the firm to have the capacity to support their clients' national legal requirements throughout the UK. "Glancing at Walker Morris' client list is comparable to a walk down the high street."
UNIQUE CULTURE
The culture of the firm is also very important to us. While it is vital that
they continually strive to improve client service in terms of delivery,
quality and commerciality we do not believe this is inconsistent with creating a friendly working environment. They firmly believe that a
friendly, motivated staff will ensure that their clients will enjoy working
with Walker Morris. Creating a culture which encourages genuine team work between staff and between staff and clients is therefore of fundamental importance to the firm. Lawyers are drawn to Walker Morris because they offer them the freedom to think and to apply their technical skills in a creative environment.
HANDS ON
We strongly believe that one of the secrets of their success is our
continued commitment to a true partnership structure. Despite the size of the firm they continue to believe in the importance of the partners being very much “hands on”. Clients as a consequence are able to tap into the extensive experience that has been built up by the partners in their respective specialist fields through practical application, in a commercial environment. Sturgeon Ventures LLP have had an ongoing relationship
with many of the lawyers in the firm, from Jeanette Harwood in the regulatory department who also heads their CSR committee; through
to the commercial department to those dealing with medical intellectual property cases; we are delighted that they will be an integral part of
The Wellness Fund’s processes.
Jeanette Harwood
Intramezzo
Intramezzo
Intramezzo sources executives who will provide services, largely for equity participation compensation in order to minimise cash fees pressure on the investee companies, for interim management training and coaching services in line with aims of our relevant ‘Bridge’.
Company statement: ‘we are one of the’ of choice for the
Wellness Fund I L.P.. We are one of the UK’s leading sources of senior executive talent, available on an interim, part time or permanent basis
and can deliver top-performing executive talent into ventures supported
by this fund at short notice in the UK and internationally. We have executives registered with us who cover the full operational spectrum of challenge; from launch through NEDs to IPO and beyond, ensuring that
we can deploy world class capability in the continuous pursuit of superlative corporate performance.
Not only do we bring ready access to the talent with experience but also insight and best practice in search and selection. This includes all the processes for rapid deployment thus ensuring that companies in the Wellness portfolio can fully capitalise on the ‘technology windows’ to which they are delivering. The experience of Intramezzo’s Directors, gained over many years, means that there is little we have not seen and is therefore a premium we can add when delivering this service. Unprecedented rates of change in our markets drive the challenges creating dynamic forces which test even the very best organisations. These forces include globalisation, economic, legislative, cultural and social - each of which offers remarkable opportunities for companies entering the portfolio. We fully recognise our role in providing every assistance possible in the winning of shareholder returns.
Since 2002 we have been building investable management teams, investment coming either from within the corporation or externally from investors. This can include a single senior executive into a key role through to a complete executive team. We describe our activity in the investment community as having a triangular relationship between intellectual property, investment and executive talent: when these are all in balance there is the foundation of a good business.
We continue to innovate and therefore extend our services into the portfolio whilst building on our position as a leader in the market for executive talent, developing sources of executives for the emerging markets of China, India and Central & Eastern Europe.
Dermot Hill
Contact Intramezzo on +44 (0)207 520 9290 or visit www.intramezzo.co.uk
Box89
Box89
Company Profile: Box89 is a London-based investigation firm with an extensive international network. Formed in 1999 Box89 Intelligence Services was created for the purpose of providing the private equity community with a high quality and discreet background checking service. Since formation we have been involved in a large number of key management buy-outs, buy-ins and published investments. During each project it has been our role to conduct detailed confidential checks on the management. The purpose of the checks is to establish that the people 'have done what they have claimed to have done,' that they 'were indeed capable and trustworthy' and that they 'did not have anything in their past that would be a cause for concern within the context of the proposed investment.' Reflecting our experience, Box89 has been a member of the British Venture Capital Association for the past 6 years and is also a member of the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association. Our clients also value our ability to conduct discreet inquiries in 'difficult parts of the world.' Our strength and success is based on our discretion, responsiveness and reach.
David Hutchinson, the founder of Box89, has over 20 years investigative experience in running due diligence projects across, the United Kingdom, South East Asia, North America, Middle East and Europe. Prior to forming Box89 David worked for the Metropolitan and Royal Hong Kong Police Forces as well as managing offices in Hong Kong, New York & London for a large US investigation firm. David is a fluent Cantonese speaker and has been a panelist at a number of investment forums. He has also appeared on UK and Asian television discussing money laundering and background checks. David is the co-author of two books which focus on performing due diligence within the financial services sector: The Private Equity Practitioners Manual, 2001 and Strategies for Successful Acquisitions in the UK, 2003.
David Hutchinson
Christian Darkin
Christian Darkin
Christian Darkin is an animator and illustrator creating 2d and 3d visuals for websites, video productions and television. He's produced animations effects, branding and still images for all media and combines technical skills with artistic flare and the ability to meet tough deadlines and requirements. Take a look at www.darkin.demon.co.uk to see examples of recent work (in this project, Christian is the animator of the Differentiators movie)
Christian Darkin
Bdirect
Bdirect
Bdirect was responsible for the design and development of The Wellness Fund website and database. The website was developed using Bdirect’s unique content management system called 10CMS. 10CMS allowed the Wellness site to deliver a richer and more interactive user experience, while allowing The Wellness Fund the ability to update the content on the site quickly and easily.
Bdirect also developed a comprehensive database to manage both investor registrations and the detailed online business application.
Fergal O' Mullane
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, is a full-service national law firm with its heaquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Through strategic acquisitions and mergers over the past century, Baker Donelson has grown to include more than 540 attorneys and public policy and international advisors. Baker Donelson has offices located in five states in the southern U.S. as well as Washington, D.C., plus a representative office in Beijing, China. In addition to providing U.S. counsel on securities related matters to the Fund, Baker Donelson's Intellectual Property group provides counsel on a global basis on patent and trademark issues, including matters concerning mechanical, electrical, chemical and biochemical technologies. Baker Donelson also offers counsel regarding matters concerning the acquisition and operations of companies in the U.S., China and elsewhere.
Robert Cornish, Jr