Whether you want private equity investment to start-up or scale a recruitment business, we'll set you up for success.
Since 2013, we’ve invested in over 32 talented founders across global office locations, enabling them to launch and scale growing businesses. Our success lies in our ability to provide not just knowledge, but also know-how. Investing time, money, and experience in people with the potential to become great leaders, we partner with and empower budding entrepreneurs to build world-class recruitment businesses, capable of achieving a high equity value on exit.
Many of the businesses we partner with are brand new. We have a 90-day plan for all start-ups we invest in. This is to ensure best practice is implemented from the outset and keep everyone on track for maximim efficiency. All our new portfolio partners are then ready to bill and attract talent to scale.
Request a callA number of founders came to us after spending years going it alone. Only after partnering with us did they managed to achieve what they originally set out to but were unable to deliver against as a small to mid-sized business with minimal operational infrastructure and support.
Make an enquirySome recruitment professionals don't necessarily want to rapidly scale and aren't ready for a full partnership. Instead, they simply need support to streamline their existing business or start-up and make it run more efficiently, so we offer a support solution that sets them up in the right way.
Find out moreTaking the leap and setting up on your own can be a daunting and lonely experience. We offer entrepreneurs the springboard they need to achieve their vision, whilst giving them guidance, strategic advice, and know-how from our extensive experience. Our support functions, which cover operations, IT, marketing, finance, legal, etc. take care of that side of the business, so you can focus on what you do best - building client relationships and a team of top billers.
Recruitment Entrepreneur's principle objective is to help entrepreneurs build and scale their recruitment business. Our model is based around enabling founders to achieve a business of between 25-35 consultants generating between £2.5-3m NFI.
It’s important to note that in the UK today 73% of all recruitment businesses have less than 10 people, which means that most recruitment business owners will not create any equity value; as boutique businesses, they are predominantly 100% owned by the founder and dependent on the founder, and therefore will have little or no value.
Recruitment Entrepreneur does not invest in lifestyle business as they don’t create any equity value. We recommend founders of boutique/lifestyle businesses should be independent, where they own 100% of the business and maximise on their income. For us, these businesses will not create any personal wealth or capital value in the long-term.
Many entrepreneurs have the opportunity of raising capital from family, friends, or professional connections which allow them to retain a higher percentage of equity. This sounds perfect, however, the investment fails to provide any infrastructure, expertise, development, resources, or a clear exit plan and strategy to create personal wealth.
In the UK, 80% of new recruitment businesses fail in their first two years due to a lack of experience in running a business, cash flow, or a range of other factors. This demonstrates that capital alone is not a guaranteed ingredient to success.
At Recruitment Entrepreneur we have an open and transparent environment where we share the equity equally and fairly with our founders; our model is based on having invested in 30+ entrepreneurs. We understand in detail the level of working capital needed to build and grow a recruitment business; based on this information we’ve concluded the investment required is £250k to grow to a scale of 25-35 people over a five year period.
Our funding enables entrepreneurs to start and scale recruitment businesses primed for sustained growth, whilst achieving the highest possible personal wealth for each founder. Chairman James Caan CBE and our investment team each personally invest when you do, making our investment a partnership.
Our partners receive leadership advice from our senior management team, who have considerable experience in starting and scaling recruitment businesses. Joining our portfolio also means you become part of a collegiate group of business founders with a proven record in overcoming the challenges in the early stages of building a business.
Developing a robust strategy is fundamental to scaling from a boutique specialist to a recognised business with market share. It takes senior strategic planning, leading infrastructure, and expert support to scale for sustained growth. We work with each founder to ensure their business is focusing its core activity on areas crucial to delivering growth targets.
A partnership with us supports you through the early days of set up, hiring, and growth to eventual exit.
Whether it’s mentoring, advice, strategy, forecasting, reporting, marketing, or HR, our team is on hand to ensure that we are building a business of scale, capable of achieving high equity value.
Hear from David O'Connell, the founder of one of our recent portfolio investments, about setting up his business - Bila Group - and why he chose to partner with us.
Using the right resources, processes and robust financial systems are crucial when building your business. Our team of specialist finance professionals supports you in all areas; from payroll and credit control to management forecasting and an annual audit conducted by BDO.
We work closely with each of our partners to create global sales strategies for client acquisition, retention and growth; reviewing affiliate associations, upselling, and cross-selling opportunities to help you stay ahead of the curve in the eyes of your clients and candidates.
We are focused on replicating the success of our model into the Irish and APAC markets, as a major step in furthering our international presence. Our global expansion plans provide excellent opportunities for opening offices overseas and international client attraction.
A marketing strategy is critical to standing out within a saturated market and giving our partners a competitive edge in winning business. We support each founder through choosing a company name, branding, designing a website, growing social media audiences, and delivering campaigns.
Our team is on hand to help you overcome operational hurdles by implementing strategic business solutions. We have a dedicated GDPR representative, IT support services, and a tailored CRM system in place, enabling you to concentrate on building your business.
Your employee value proposition is supported by our international network of partners, training programmes, and tailored marketing for your brand. We have over 65,000 followers across social media and are invested in supporting our portfolio partners in attracting great people.
Sometimes it doesn't always go to plan. We assist and guide all our portfolio partners, but we don't run their businesses for them. However, when issues do arise we respond swiftly to ensure they're taken care of and quickly turned around. See the case study with our cybersecurity specialist recruitment partners, EliteCyber.
Partnering to start-up a business or scale an existing business is a big decision that raises many questions. In order to respond to any initial thoughts or concerns, we've answered a few of the most commonly asked questions. Here's our CFO, Angus McDowell talking about some of the initial reservations founders have.
We look for exceptional recruitment professionals with relentless ambition. Once your application has been received it will be reviewed by our investment team.
If successful, we’ll contact you to discuss launching or scaling your business in more detail.
