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Bernard Dale

Bernard DaleBernard leads Connection Capital’s investment activity.

An engineer by background, he is a successful UK investor, well known in the industry, with private equity experience gained over 22 years. Following his early career at TI Group he joined 3i (1987-94) and went on to hold Director positions at LDC (1994-02) and Hotbed (2002-08).

Bernard has completed investments across many sectors, stages (start-up to management buy-out) and economic cycles in investments ranging from £1-40m in value. Four of his investments have achieved a FTSE listing, another three reaching AiM and three being winners of prestigious BVCA Deal of the Year Awards.

Bernard joined Hotbed when it was an EIS led venture capital investor and was instrumental in growing it to be the UK’s leading private investor syndicator, backing companies with £20m+ turnover and £2m+ EBIT. As Head of Private Equity he recruited an investment and portfolio team of five, transforming it from a sub-£500k early stage investment firm to a significant player in the UK private equity market regularly investing c£5m in substantial management buy-outs and later stage growth capital.

He personally led nearly half of the 36 businesses backed by Hotbed. At the time of his departure the Connection Capital team’s investment record showed:

  • 17 investments totalling £33m, ranging from £625k to £5.1m
  • 6 exits achieved returning £27.2m v £13.4m cost
  • Range of returns 1.4-3.3x money (some in very short periods, giving a high IRR)
  • An average return of 2.2x investment and IRR in excess of 50%