Introduction to Key?
Key are one of the most experienced investment teams in the UK and a leading player in the smaller buy-out market. We provide equity investment to SME’s in a straight forward, proactive manner. We are a supportive investor and our deals are structured to allow businesses to grow and invest in the future.
Brief history of Key
Key was founded in 2006 by experienced private equity professionals, who wanted to pursue their passion for working with growing businesses.
Having seen the firms where they were working raise even larger funds and do ever bigger deals, the founders wanted to keep doing the type of deals they enjoyed in an underserved part of the market. This enabled them to utilise the benefits of their experience and knowledge to bear in partnership with the management teams they backed.
Raising its first fund in 2007, Key has gone onto invest in 20 Companies, with many notable successes including Neville Johnson, TSC Foods, NursePlus, Gear4Music and Alliance in Partnership.
With offices in Leeds and London, Key makes equity investments of between £3m and £15m and has a strong reputation of deliverability and a track record of producing outstanding returns for its investors.
How can we help?
Key brings a mature and thoughtful approach to managing the businesses that we invest in. The five partners in the firm have over 100 years of collective business experience to draw on when working with management teams to address strategic challenges.
This experience means that we understand that things sometimes don’t go to plan and that the most important thing when faced with a tricky situation is not how you got there, but how you get out of it.
The firm is also able to identify and recruit high quality candidates to bolster the boardrooms of the companies we back, where appropriate, from an extensive network of contacts. We have successfully recruited Chairmen and Executive Directors for a large proportion of our investments.
Key's Mission Statement
We deliver superior returns to our investors. We seek to do this by supporting management teams to build the value of the companies we invest in. Increasing their profits, improving their market positions and strengthening their systems and value.