WestBridge III closes at £220m
WestBridge has held a final close of its third Fund, WestBridge III, at the hard cap of £220m after being oversubscribed. This follows on from the success of WestBridge’s predecessor fund, the £100m WestBridge II fund, which independently benchmarks in the top 5% for its strategy and vintage. Notably, the WestBridge II fund recently agreed to sell its environmental consulting business, APEM Group, earning over 11x MOIC. Once this sale completes, the average MOIC earned on all exits to date by the fund will increase from 4.4x to 6.5x.
The fund has expanded its investor base and benefited from significant re-ups from existing WestBridge II investors. Despite losing a significant investor, due to the UK leaving the European Union, re-ups totalled 140% of the WestBridge II total fund size. Significant investors include a large European wealth manager, a number of local authority pension funds, institutional investors and family offices from across the globe. The fund was concluded by British Business Bank who committed £34m at final close.
Based on the £220m final close, WestBridge III has deployed approximately 40% of the capital allocated for platform companies into four companies: Tryzens, Survey Solutions, Causeway Securities and KOTO. The strategies across the portfolio combine organic growth and growth by acquisition. The fund is already reporting an uplift of approximately 30% on invested capital with a number of the assets showing rapid value growth. The fund’s target gross MOIC is 5x.
Guy Davies, managing partner said, “We are delighted to have achieved the hard cap which is 100% greater than WestBridge II in what is a very challenging fundraising environment. We are extremely grateful to all the investors that have supported us but in particular to the large European wealth manager who acted as a cornerstone investor in the fund and to the British Business Bank who not only concluded WestBridge III but also provided support to WestBridge II to enable a first close in 2017.
“We are convinced that our strategy and award-winning value creation approach for the lower mid-market can deliver repeatable market leading returns. The whole team is looking forward to selectively deploying the fund into UK headquartered, high growth niche businesses with management teams that are looking for a sympathetic but value creating partner to grow their businesses.”
Peter Barkley, partner added, “This fundraise is a resounding show of support for our investment strategy and the exceptional returns that can be achieved in the UK lower mid-market. Whilst economic conditions have been challenging over the last 18 months, we have continued to remain disciplined in applying our attribute led strategy and seeking high quality partnerships with management.
“Our market leading value creation approach has allowed us to capitalise on these strong partnerships and continue to support long-term, sustainable value growth across our portfolio. We look forward to 2026 and beyond with a robust pipeline of potential opportunities for new platform investments and acquisitive growth across the portfolio.”
Capstone Partners acted as the exclusive placement agent.