Voting Closed

To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London

CBPE Fund XI

In March 2025, CBPE held the first and final close of CBPE Fund XI, reaching its hard cap of £714m in c.3 months (£700m from LPs + 2% GP commit). The fund was heavily oversubscribed, with a 27% uplift on its predecessor, Fund X (£561m), and a strong re-up rate from existing investors. CBPE strategically broadened its global investor base by welcoming select new investors from North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The fund also attracted commitments from a highly diversified group of institutional investors, including insurance companies, public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, and family offices.

The fund will continue CBPE’s strategy of focusing on UK LMM investments in primary buyouts, backing growing, cash-generative businesses with enterprise values of up to £175m. CBPE follows a high-conviction, low-volume investment strategy with a disciplined approach to pricing and ambitious value creation plans. CBPE’s core sectors include- Business Services, Financial Services, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Industrials, and Technology.

The close of Fund XI follows a busy twelve months for CBPE whereby the team realised three investments from Fund IX, including a 5.4x MoC return on Perspective and a c.5.3x MoC return on Centralis, and made five new investments from Fund X.

GCP Fund VI (Growth Capital Partners)

GCP held the first and final close of GCP Fund VI at £411m on 30 June 2025.

Highlights include:

• “One and done” closing, just 3 months after launch
• Significantly oversubscribed at the hard cap
• Well ahead of £350m target
• 58%/ £151m up on prior fund (£260m Fund V)
• Strong support from existing investors – all that were able to re-up to the timetable did
• Further developed investor base – adding highly prestigious investors; more capital of a permanent nature; more geographic diversity; and investors with a desire to build many-fund relationships and with the ability to scale further
• Enhanced terms for GCP – funding increased resource and bringing flexibility to support its long term strategic development.

Northcote I

Northcote Equity (“Northcote”) is a newly established private equity firm, founded in January 2025 after raising its maiden fund, ‘Northcote Fund I’, at its hard cap of £160 million, only 16 weeks after launching the fundraise. The Fund initially targeted £120 million and was substantially oversubscribed with Investor demand in excess of £300 million. It attracted commitments from leading institutions, university endowments and family offices based in the US and Europe.

Northcote specialises in technology and services investments in the UK and Ireland. Taking a high-conviction and flexible approach, the team can support both minority and majority structures, investing up to £30m of equity in buyout and growth capital investments. The long-term vision for Northcote is to stay true its niche in the UK lower mid-market, creating the leading boutique manager for ambitious founders and management teams seeking a first-time partner. Prior to founding Northcote, its founding partners, Matthew Charman,

Scott Fairlie and Charles Dale spent nearly a decade together at one of Europe’s best-performing private equity funds.

Queen’s Park Equity II

Queen’s Park Equity (“QPE”) partners with high-quality, founder-led businesses in the UK lower mid-market. We specialise in three resilient, high-growth sectors: Education, Health &Pharma, and Tech-Enabled Business Services.

Founded by an experienced team with over 15 years of working together, QPE’s mission is clear: We Buy to Build. We invest in strong platforms and work closely with management teams to accelerate growth through strategic initiatives, operational excellence, and targeted M&A. Since launching our debut £202m fund in 2020, we have invested in 12 platform companies, completed 16 add-ons and 7 roll-outs, 72% of which were off-market, and achieved a standout exit delivering a 5.9x MMx - expected to increase to 7.6x MMx with deferred pipeline payments. This early exit also increased recyclable capital to £35m, thereby increasing the effective fund size by approximately 20% and enhancing the Gross-to-Net IRR spread for LPs. Following strong deployment, consistent portfolio growth, and the Encore exit in Q4 2024, QPE closed Fund II at £305m in March 2025, which represents a 50%+ uplift on Fund I. The fundraise was completed in just four months, was oversubscribed, and saw a 114% re-up rate from existing investors. We also added 11 individuals to our sector-relevant Ambassador Network, who committed 7.5% to the fundraise. The Ambassador Network, comprising experienced Chairs, CEOs, CFOs, and NEDs, actively supports deal evaluation, governance, and value creation.

Voting Closed

To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London