Pannone has advised on the multi-million-pound investment by Maven Capital Partners into digital security specialist, Xentra.
We acted as legal adviser to Maven, which has invested £2.7 million in the Leeds-based company through the Maven VCTs and NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance, one of a series of Nations and Regions Investment Funds launched by the British Business Bank to deliver £1.6 billion of new funding to smaller businesses across the UK.
The investment marks a significant milestone for Xentra, the CEO of which is tech entrepreneur, Henry Doyle. The funding will support the company’s next phase of growth, enabling the business to strengthen its senior leadership team, accelerate customer acquisition, and increase revenue from its existing customer base.
Maven’s funding will also support continued investment in sales and marketing, while enabling the further development of Xentra’s proprietary customer portal and expansion of its STAX product suite.
The Pannone team was led by Corporate Associate Partner, Andrew Walsh, with support from Sophie Adshead and Sam Roberts.
Andrew Walsh commented: “Xentra is at the right stage of its growth journey to take advantage of the benefits the fund brings to businesses in the Northern Powerhouse region and this equity funding will undoubtedly help to accelerate its growth ambitions. We were delighted to work with the Maven team to deliver this investment.”
NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance aims to tackle an identified funding gap between the North and South of England and increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for smaller businesses. The fund can invest up to £5 million in ambitious and growth-focused companies.
Commenting on the investment, Lewis Jones, investment manager at Maven, said: “Xentra operates in an attractive and growing market with demand for outsourced, subscription-based cyber security driven by increasing cyber risk, regulatory standards and insurance requirements. Henry and the senior team have decades of experience in dealing with cyber vendors to allow them to find the right solutions for customers. The business has quadrupled ARR in the last two years alone across a customer database of over 90 and we are delighted to invest at this time as the business continues to scale.”
Photo credit: Alexander Sikov