Shaw & Co, the specialist corporate finance advisory firm, has continued its expansion with the appointment of Dan Martin as Partner Head of Deal Origination.

Dan, who joins from Shawbrook Bank, has over 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry and will oversee the further development of Shaw & Co’s deal origination activities across the UK.

He will be tasked with building a new Deal Origination team that will provide the company with a solid platform for its ambitious expansion plans. These include growing the business to become a leading player in the lower mid-market (deal sizes £10m to £100m) and with offices across the country.

At Shawbrook Dan was a Senior Director for four years leading numerous leverage and asset-based lending deals for debt mandates ranging between £2m-£50m. Working on a variety of deals including recapitalisations, MBOs, MBIs, PE buyouts, EOTs, refinancing, acquisitions and share buybacks, he delivered over £350m worth of both owner-managed and private equity backed lending transactions across a wide variety of businesses and sectors.

His major deals included a £17m acquisition facility for Software Circles; the Panoramic Private Equities acquisition of Full Circle; a super-senior facility for Inflexion-backed CNX Therapeutics; a share buyback for Proximo Limited; NVM’s acquisition of Inprova Group; the refinancing of Key Capital Partners-backed Commhoist; Harwood Private Equity-backed Medica Packaging’s acquisition of FG Curtis; recapitalisation and growth funding for Secure Retail; Think Print’s transition to EOT; Nimbus Private Equities’s acquisition of Hawthorn Timber; and the VIMBO of Carnaby Caravans.

Before joining Shawbrook he was a Director at OakNorth Bank where he played an integral role in establishing the business in the SME market across the North of England. Prior to this Dan spent almost 12 years with the NatWest Group.

Shaw & Co, which helps SME owners across the UK to buy, sell, or fund the growth of a business, has been expanding rapidly in recent years. Last year the company made a number of hires, including the appointment of Constantine Biller as Partner to spearhead its expansion across the North West of England. In 2023 the company also surpassed a major milestone – the completion of over £0.5bn worth of business transactions since its inception in 2011.

Shaw & Co has been involved in a range of notable deals, including the sales of Pukka Herbs to Unilever, GoProposal to Sage, Senta to IRIS, Canopy Simulations to Michelin and Vouchercloud to Groupon.

More recently, the team has overseen:

• The sale of AMSBIO, a leading life science research supplier, to Europa Biosite.

• The sale of Vigo Software, which builds and implements software and technology solutions for the logistics, haulage, warehouse and pallet network sectors, to Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS), a global provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business management software.

• The sale of MyWorkpapers, a digital working papers solution for accountants and auditors, on its acquisition by Bright, a leading tax, accounting, finance and payroll software company.

• The £24m sale of The Safeguarding Company to Tes (Times Educational Supplement).

• The sale of Canopy Simulations to global brand Michelin.

• The £9m sale of Wiltshire-based accounting software business Data Interconnect to global digital finance transformation leader BlackLine.

• The management buyout of Now Education, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of staff for primary, secondary and SEND schools across England and Wales, which valued the business at £28m.

• The sale of Ecosurety’s UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Batteries Compliance schemes to Reconomy.

Jim Shaw, Founder & CEO at Shaw & Co, said: “Over the years we have worked extremely hard to demystify the complexity of corporate finance so more business owners and SMEs can achieve their ambitions and realise their company’s maximum value.

“Our unique approach has proved to be highly successful and we’re currently in the midst of an extraordinary period of growth. There is burgeoning demand for our services across the UK and Dan will have a pivotal role to play in building a new Deal Origination team that will provide the company with a solid platform from which to successfully fulfil our ambitious plans.”

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