By Hugo Sousa, Senior Director at OakNorth
OakNorth launched in September 2015 with a clear mission – to empower entrepreneurs.
We’re now nine years into our journey, and it’s become clear from speaking with our customers that business leaders see OakNorth’s backing as a catalyst for their growth, innovation, and market leadership. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of supporting countless businesses in their growth journeys, enabling them to scale to new heights, overcome unprecedented challenges, and achieve their ambitions.
The value of being backed by OakNorth is reflected in the way our customers speak about us: I’ve highlighted below a handful of examples over the last nine years which I feel paint a clear picture of what it means to have us in your corner.
LEON
In August 2016, just a couple of months after the Brexit vote, we completed a £19m loan to LEON, the naturally fast-food chain, to support the opening of dozens more sites over the next four years. At the time, it had 36 sites across the UK. We continued to support the business over the years – including throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – and in 2022, once it had almost doubled in size to 70 sites, it was acquired by EG Group. This was a great outcome for the business which wouldn’t have been possible if it hadn’t secured the capital from OakNorth in 2016 to scale.
Melrose Education
In 2017, we provided an £8m loan to ICP Nurseries, a nursery group backed by Innervation Capital Partners, and led by Tracey Storey, to pursue a buy-and-build strategy. At the time, it had six nurseries. In 2020, ICP Nurseries merged with Cresswell Nurseries – which was also backed by Innervation Capital – to form ICP Education. Under Tracey’s leadership, ICP Education grew to 45 sites, serving nearly 6,000 children. It became one of the highest quality large nursery operators in England, with a third of its nurseries rated Ofsted Outstanding and 98% rated Outstanding or Good. Tracey Storey was also personally named as the seventh best CEO to work for during the pandemic.
In June 2021, Innervation Capital announced the sale of ICP Education to Oakley Capital IV, and set out to replicate its success with nurseries in SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) schools. It launched Melrose Education in 2022, with backing from OakNorth, and we’ve continued to support the business ever since.
Deliciously Ella
In 2021, we provided a loan to the world’s leading plant-based platform, Deliciously Ella, to buyout its investors and once again become a fully family-owned business.
Earlier this year, two years after receiving funding from OakNorth, the business was acquired by Hero Group, the leading Swiss food manufacturer and marketing company. CEO Matthew Mills said of his experience with us “OakNorth are utterly unique in their approach and have been a dream to work with – they are the only lender I’d recommend for entrepreneurs in high growth.”
Croud
In May this year, we participated in a £34m club loan to global, full-service digital marketing agency, Croud. Launched in 2011 by ex-Googler, Luke Smith, and the Former Head of Search at Harvest Digital, Ben Knight, the business has grown into a leading digital marketing agency with offices in London, Shrewsbury, New York and Dubai.
In 2019, Croud received private equity backing from LDC, reinventing the agency model with its Croud Network. This unique proposition is made possible by Croud’s proprietary technology platform, Croud Control, which delivers AI-powered planning, workflows, automation, and execution of digital marketing campaigns.
Earlier this month, we participated in a £77.6m club loan, to help fund ECI Partners’ acquisition of a majority stake in the business, enabling Croud to expand through further acquisitions and organic growth.
These examples show how consistent OakNorth has been through the years. Our relentless focus to continue helping UK and US businesses growth – being with debt facilities or day to day business banking – will continue to be our beacon as we enter and progress through 2025.
Some customer quotes
John Vincent, founder of LEON and the CEO at the time: “OakNorth has rigorous processes and advisers as good as a major bank, but the speed they respond at is unbelievable. When we were putting the deal together it took them five minutes to respond to emails. We met them on a Thursday and the credit committee met at 8am on Tuesday morning. By 9 o’clock we were told the deal was approved.”
Tracey Storey from Melrose Education: “Our relationship with OakNorth has been a cornerstone of our growth to date. Their support during the scaling phase of ICP Nurseries was instrumental, so it was a natural choice to continue this partnership with Melrose. OakNorth’s proactive and supportive approach to new and growing businesses has stood out. Their commitment to helping us achieve our goals has been unwavering, making them a valuable partner in our journey.”
Founder of Deliciously Ella, Ella Mills, at the time: “Taking out a loan from a bank is undoubtably daunting and comes with a lot of personal risk, but we felt it was the right decision and have been delighted with the experience we’ve had with OakNorth. In the years since, the business has continued thriving – our products are now stocked in every major supermarket chain in the country, our London restaurant is doing very well, we’ve just published our seventh cookbook and we purchased a factory to bring manufacturing in-house, bringing the total DE team to 100 people.”
If you’d like to learn more about our business banking proposition and exclusive benefits for VC-backed companies, please get in touch via [email protected].
