Portfolio: Private Equity: Current

Virtua

Raising capital?
Virtua Logo

In August 2015, Connection Capital completed a £4.6m investment to enable Virtua's founders to realise some equity value and provide capital to support an acquisition.

Investment highlights

  • Date of investmentAugust 2015
  • SectorTelecoms
  • Investment typeEquity release & growth cap
  • Investment size£4.6m
  • Revenue£11.0m
  • EBITDA£1.3m
  • Employees150
  • StatusLive

The company

Virtua provides engineering services (design, installation, testing) for the roll out of telephone and wireless networks, on behalf of the large Mobile Network Operators, such as Nokia and Huawei.

Virtua also provides these services for individual developments e.g. Heathrow Terminal 2, Wembley Stadium, the “Walkie Talkie”, where the landlords require independently installed, multi-operator systems that work with multiple networks.

Investment rationale

Virtua operates in a growth market, with significant infrastructure spending planned on 4G roll out across the UK.

The company had already completed two acquisitions to expand its routes to market. There was an attractive opportunity to fund and integrate the acquisition of another smaller business in Virtua's sector, to expands its capabilities. Future opportunities to grow into complementary service areas and customer verticals were also realistic.

Progress since investment

As the business continued to grow we undertook a further equity fundraise to provide working capital to Virtua.

We have also assisted in succession planning for the original founders with the introduction of a new CEO, CFO and experienced NXC, which has seen the company grow to almost £20m revenue.

"They [Connection Capital] are a flexible and trusting partner."

Andy Richards, CEO, Virtua

View full SME Investment Team

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