“When YFM first backed them, these six businesses had a combined market value of £40m, employed 500 people and had a UK only customer base. Now they are worth in excess of  £900 million, employ over 2,500  people and operate all over the world. It has been incredibly rewarding to work with such diverse successful businesses. They have innovated, developed and adapted their products, services and businesses achieving transformational growth.”  says David Hall, Managing Director YFM Private Equity.

DXS, Nanoco, Hargreaves, Byotrol, Art Technology Group and Provexis were all early stage investments backed by YFM Group managed funds between 2003 and 2005. All but Hargreaves are innovative technology companies, demonstrating the high growth and strong performance of their products, services and management team.

Provexis discovers, develops and licenses scientifically-proven technologies for the global functional food, medical food and dietary supplement sectors.

Start-up nano-technology company Nanoco floated on AIM in April 2009 at a market capitalisation in excess of £35m, the share price has since increased significantly since the listing.
 
Manchester based personalised medicine company DXS was sold to international sample and assay technology giant Qiagen. The value of the business had increased 11 fold since the initial investment by YFM managed North West Business Investment Scheme and British Smaller Technology Companies VCT2.
 
Byotrol has seen sales grow thanks to the increasing awareness of swine flu prevention. The manufacturer of anti-bacterial chemicals used in the fight against super bugs has seen sales increase from £200,000 to £1.5m in the last six months.

Mineral resource management company Hargreaves employs over 2,200 staff and with turnover in excess of £400m, they are a perfect example of a company growing both organically and via acquisition. 

Art Technology Group is the premier provider of personalised cross-channel commerce software and services, working with more than 900 of the world’s leading brands.

David Hall says “YFM Group works with hundreds of entrepreneurs each year. We are in a privileged position of seeing the knock-on effect of such success, as the local and national economy benefits from the creation of jobs, inward investment to the region and increases in sales and wealth.”

In the last 12 months YFM Group has made investments into 95 companies across the UK worth £110m.

Contributed by YFM Group - The Small company investment specialist with over 20 years of investment business development.