PHILADELPHIA & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frost Brooks, the London-based boutique private equity firm co-founded by Miles Frost, formerly of LDC, and Peter Brooks, formerly of Sovereign Capital, has completed its second deal with a significant capital investment for BizEquity, the world’s leading online provider of business valuation services.
The new investment included commitments from Frost Brooks’ founders and also from the firm’s high-calibre network of limited partners comprised of former leader of the world’s largest data company, Experian; captains of industry and executives from Lloyds Bank; Standard Chartered Bank; and other leading financial institution executives.
It will help U.S.-based BizEquity, which already has a presence in London and Singapore, accelerate its expansion strategy, which includes a full U.K. launch in first quarter 2015 followed by strategic rollout across Europe, Asia Pacific and North Africa. The market opportunity is significant: fewer than 2% of the world’s 200 million businesses value themselves annually, largely due to the time and cost constraints, yet it is a multi-billion dollar market.
BizEquity is the creator of the first and leading online business valuation platform, Valuation as a Service (VaaS), and has valued more than 27 million businesses around the globe ranging in annual revenue from $50,000 to $100 million. The algorithmic valuation system that drives the platform has been granted eight patents, with more than 60 additional patents pending. The accuracy of BizEquity’s valuations is supported by regular benchmarking against previous valuations and continuous positive feedback from its subscribers.
The company’s ground-breaking platform gives business owners a reliable, user-friendly method for gaining insight into a fundamental question about their business – what it’s worth – at a fraction of the typical $8,000 cost and 4-6 week time frame required by traditional business valuation firms to complete the same process.
Knowing a company’s valuation helps business owners optimize decision making across a range of areas including finance, insurance and employee benefits, and paves the way for the adoption of appropriate growth strategies. Last month, BizEquity launched the latest version of its platform, featuring enhanced functionality, at New York’s Finovate, one of the largest global gatherings of leading financial technology companies.
In the U.S., BizEquity has already made significant progress securing as clients a number of innovative and market-leading distributors including Metro Bank, Experian, Dynasty Financial Partners, Bryn Mawr Trust Bank, Fox Chase Bank, and Action Coach.
BizEquity was founded by Michael Carter in 2010. Carter, a former venture capitalist, conceived the idea with the support of the acquisition of assets from a leading financial institution and leaders in the accounting, finance, venture capital, and technology arenas. BizEquity Board Members include legendary U.S. software investor Peter Musser, founding investor behind Novel and Comcast; Michael Abbott, former head of technology and engineering at Twitter; and Clarence Davis, former COO and CFO of AICPA, America’s largest association of accountants.
The global business valuation industry is on a path toward rapid acceleration, and is expected to hit $7.4 billion in the U.S. alone by the end of 2014. Powerful key drivers include a rise in Peer to Peer lending; an increase in corporate M&A activity; easing of credit conditions; stronger economic growth in the U.S., the U.K. and Asia; and increasing demand from the growing number of baby- boomer business owners looking to retire in developed economies such as the U.S. and the U.K.
Miles Frost, Managing Partner of Frost Brooks, commented:
“BizEquity is an exceptional company whose globally scalable technology has already been thoroughly tried and tested in the U.S. market. Our capital raising will help accelerate the company’s global expansion to make its unique, cloud-based valuation platform and data service available to an increasingly diverse global client base.
The question ‘What’s my business worth?’ is top of mind for the typical business owner, but until BizEquity came along, determining the answer required a tremendous investment of time and resources. Through BizEquity’s deep understanding of the complexities of valuation and its simple yet innovative approach, business owners now have their company’s valuation, and the full rationale behind it, at their fingertips.
We are always rigorous and patient in assessing an investment opportunity, and BizEquity marks only our second investment in two years. In CEO Michael Carter we have backed one of the most impressive entrepreneurs in FinTech globally. Under his leadership and with the power of his product, the future of BizEquity is tremendously exciting.”
Michael M. Carter, CEO of BizEquity, commented:
“We very much look forward to working with Frost Brooks to help further enhance our services and support the company’s international expansion. The group of investors the firm has assembled include some of the most powerful names in British business and they will undoubtedly add significant value, contribute strongly to our future growth, and help reinforce our position as the world’s leading cloud-based business valuation service.
Providing companies with an easy and reliable platform to assess their worth gives them the insight into the fundamental question relating to their business and helps them ensure that the strategies and plans they implement are the most appropriate to help propel their growth and success. It is an exciting time for BizEquity as we look forward to our full launch in the U.K. early next year, followed by a release in other key regions to give companies all over the world the opportunity to leverage our service. Business valuation is a multi-billion dollar market category that we are democratizing by putting it online and making it accessible to the masses.”
About Frost Brooks
Frost Brooks is unique as a private equity firm. Its network of investors includes some of the most respected names in financial services, tech and media, including FTSE 100 Chairmen, powerful family offices and motivated entrepreneurs. Because of its deal-by-deal approach and personal capital commitments of its founders its investment approach is both highly selective and relentlessly supportive. Truly aligned with the entrepreneurs it backs, Frost Brooks uses its extraordinary network and broad skill set to help make global successes of its partners.
Frost Brooks invests between £1-10 million of growth, equity-release and buyout capital in established, profitable, high-growth companies with international aspirations. Its focus is on B2B service businesses that are truly scalable, both in terms of the tech-enabled nature of their business models and the global applications of their services. The firm completed its first deal in September 2014 with a significant capital raising for the Parcel Monkey Group, one of the U.K.’s fastest growing e-commerce service businesses.
About BizEquity
BizEquity is the world’s largest provider of online business valuations. Founded in 2010, the company’s mission is to help democratize financial knowledge to the small and midsize business (SMB) marketplace. Its cloud based valuation engine and system reliably values a large spectrum of businesses at a fraction of the cost and without the hassle involved with traditional valuations.
To date the company has registered eight patents and has another 60 patents and inventions pending. Its cutting-edge cloud system was conceived and constructed with the support of a leading financial institution and improved upon by leaders in the accounting, finance, venture capital and technology arena. To provide the best estimate of a business’ value, BizEquity incorporates data from more than 27 million other companies that have been valued using its proprietary service. The result is an easy to use yet powerful online tool. Headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, the company has expanded to include several additional offices in the U.S. as well as in London and Singapore.