Bespoke Kitchen Foods (Bespoke) is a leading provider of innovative vegetarian and vegan products for the pub and casual dining market.

Based in Coalville, Leicestershire, Bespoke supplies premium products to the UK’s leading branded pub and restaurant chains and food wholesalers supplying the foodservice channels. Its products are developed specifically to meet customer requirements and include sweet and savoury baked and formed products.

Segment expansion

In August 2025, LDC backed Bespoke’s existing management team, including its CEO Sam Tidball, to support its organic and acquisitive growth strategy, which is underpinned by expansion into new segments, including high street casual dining chains.

Panthera Biopartners (Panthera) is the UK’s largest Site Management Organisation (SMO) for commercial clinical trials.

Based in Preston, Lancashire, Panthera specialises in the recruitment of patients and running of Phase II and Phase III clinical trials across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas including vaccines, cardiovascular medicine, diabetes, neurology, respiratory medicine, dermatology, rheumatology and early dementia trials. Its service offering spans trial planning, data collection and patient retention. It operates six UK sites and provides clinical trials for many of the largest pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organisations (CROs) globally.

Scaling and expanding

In August 2025, LDC backed Panthera’s existing management team, led by CEO Stuart Young, CCO Chris Dodd, CFO Rory Lloyd, CMO Dr. Mahadev Ramjee and CIO Andy Broomhead, to support an ambitious growth strategy underpinned by further expanding its operations in the UK and Europe, increasing its number of clinical sites, investing in technology, and scaling its trial delivery capabilities.

In April 2026, Panthera announced the acquisition of Óbudai Egészségügyi Centrum Kft (OEC), Hungary’s leading clinical research organisation.

Harper James is a full-service commercial law firm that specialises in supporting growing businesses to succeed.

Since 2014 Harper James has supported more than 6,500 SMEs across the UK, delivering scalable legal support through an innovative and cost-effective subscription-based model.

Headquartered in Birmingham, the firm is a people-first business with a strong focus on work-life balance, an established culture and core value. Its team of more than 140 people based are fully remotely right across the UK, including its experienced lawyers.

Investing for growth

In June 2025, LDC backed Harper James’ existing management team, led by founder and CEO Toby Harper, to support its growth strategy.

Blis is an innovative provider of powerful and privacy-centric advertising solutions with advanced omnichannel targeting capabilities to connect brands with audiences.

Founded by Greg Isbister in 2004 with a grant from the King’s Trust, Blis’ advertising platform remains at the forefront of innovation, delivering future-proof technology that drives measurable performance and helps advertisers reach and engage audiences across all screens.

Accelerating international growth

LDC invested in Blis in June 2022, backing the management team led by Founder and CEO Greg Isbister and including CFO Parm Dhami, CTO Aaron McKee, CPO Amy Fox, Global Commercial Officer Dave King and President of Blis US Alex Boras.

At the time the business turned over around £60m and employed 240 people.

With LDC’s support, Blis invested heavily in its technology platform, people and expanded its client relationships.

As a result, Blis’ turnover increased by 75% during its partnership with LDC and its headcount grew to more than 320 on the back of significant expansion across Europe, the USA and Asia.

LDC exited its investment in Blis to T-Mobile in March 2025 in a transaction that valued the business at $175million.

Talos360 is an award-winning HR technology company and one of the UK’s fastest growing providers of Talent Management solutions.

Founded in 2009, Talos360 has grown into a trusted partner for more than 800 businesses. Its Talent Management solutions help organisations attract, hire, manage and retain the best talent more effectively.

Talos360 has become a market leader in SaaS talent solutions through the quality of its product and the service its team provides. It has also built a reputation as a people-first business through its commitment to supporting employees, collecting many Workplace awards.

A partnership to support organic and acquisitive growth

LDC backed Talos360’s management team, led by CEO Janette Martin, in October 2022 to support their organic growth strategy and explore complementary acquisitions.
During the first year of our partnership, the business grew 87%.

With LDC’s support, Janette and the team will be able to further invest in product development, including advanced AI capabilities, to continue to evolve its proposition for the benefit of new and existing customers.

Social Value Report

Talos360 is recognised as one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ in both the UK and Europe and continues to demonstrate how people‑first technology can deliver meaningful social value. It launched its Social Value Report in 2026, which highlights the business’s commitment to creating fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable workplaces, both for its customers and its own people-first culture.

Red Helix is a leader in cyber security and network performance with a 40-year heritage in supporting UK businesses and infrastructure. Formerly Phoenix Datacom, the company expanded to address the increasing cyber security needs of small and medium-sized businesses, now providing unparalleled 24/7/365 threat monitoring for organisations. 

Headquartered in Buckinghamshire, Red Helix’s cyber security solutions provide enterprise-level technology that’s affordable for smaller businesses. Its network services support critical UK infrastructure and is trusted by network operators of all sizes.

Private equity partnership

LDC invested in Red Helix in 2021 to support the management team to expand the business’ suite of hardware and software products and related services to help its enterprise customers further enhance their cyber-security. LDC’s backing is also helping the team to explore complementary acquisitions.

As part of the partnership with LDC, Red Helix extended its banking facilities with its longstanding banking provider, Lloyds Bank.

Marion Stewart who was Deputy CEO/COO at the time of LDC’s investment took over as CEO from John Carson. John spent over 20 years building the Red Helix business and lead the LDC-backed management buyout of the business.

Encouraging diversity in STEM

Red Helix is on a mission to tackle the cyber skills shortage. The Red Helix Coding Club is providing primary school children in Buckinghamshire with exposure to the real-world applications of STEM.

Red Helix has launched the scheme in response to the chronic shortage of cyber skills in the UK, and to encourage more diversity in the sector, with a specific focus on aiding social mobility.

The Coding Club aims to enhance children’s education by giving them access to experts from Red Helix, that has decades of experience in the IT and security industry. It also supports the need to develop talent and a new generation of cyber-savvy individuals to bolster the UK’s cyber defences.

Strategic acquisition

In August 2025, Red Helix acquired security consultancy Risk Crew to expand its existing client offering with new cyber assurance capabilities. The acquisition is the latest milestone in Red Helix’s ambitious growth journey and will support its mission to help businesses build resilience against evolving cyber threats. Risk Crew provides information and security governance risk and compliance (GRC) consultancy and security penetration testing to businesses across the UK and Europe.

Zip World is the award-winning adventure park operator which features the world’s fastest zip line and has eight locations in Wales and England.

Investing for growth

In 2018 Zip World secured a significant minority investment from LDC, supported by the company’s existing banking partner, HSBC. The transaction valued the business at £45m.

LDC backed Zip World’s management team, led by founder Sean Taylor, who kick-started a growth strategy to enhance its sites with new rides such as Quarry Karts, the UK’s only mountain cart experience, and Titan 2, a new and improved quarry tour and zip lining experience, based in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Snowdonia National Park.

UK expansion

In 2023, Andrew Hudson was promoted to Chief Executive Officer to continue to expand Zip World’s portfolio of sites and experiences.

Today, Zip World operates 33 different adventures, including the world’s fastest zip line, Velocity, and a variety of other zips, climbs, drops and coasters, at its eight sites.

In addition to its adventures, Zip World has also continued to invest in its people, systems, merchandising and food and beverage. This includes the launch of luxury forest lodges and the renovation of its Tyn-y-Coed Hotel, further expanding its accommodation offerings in the region.

The company is also preparing to welcome visitors to Zip World London at the Queen Elizabeth Park in February 2025 and has plans to open a new site in Elterwater, Cumbria, later in 2025.

Positive impact

In 2024, an independent report from North Wales Tourism revealed Zip World has contributed £941m to the Welsh economy over the last decade. Zip World also announced its B Corp Certification, placing the business among a group of only 18 other adventure tourism organisations worldwide and one of just 47 B Corp-certified companies in Wales.

Exceptional growth

During its six year partnership with LDC, Zip World more than doubled the number of sites from its original three in North Wales, launched new adventure attractions and diversified into accommodation, including a hotel and luxury forest lodges.

As a result, Zip World increased turnover by 95% and grew headcount by 200% over the period.

In January 2025, LDC exited its investment in Zip World to direct equity investor Dolphin Capital, in a transaction that valued the company at more than £100m.

HSL Compliance (HSL) is a market leading UK environmental testing, inspection, certification and compliance (TICC) company. It specialises in water hygiene, water treatment and other compliance activities.

Headquartered in Herefordshire and founded in 1976, the business operates nationwide with 19 offices across the UK and Ireland. It employs approximately 650 people and serves more than 370 customers across various private and public sectors, including food and beverage, manufacturing, facilities management, healthcare and education.

Backing an ambitious team

In May 2019, LDC invested £20m to back the carve-out of SGI Holdings Ltd (SGI Holdings) from global testing, inspection and certification group Kiwa. SGI Holdings comprised SGI Compliance and HSL Compliance.

In August 2023, SGI Holdings sold SGI Compliance, its continental European business, to CERTANIA. HSL Compliance remained separate from this transaction.

Led by CEO Gavin Hartley, HSL Compliance went on to deliver a growth strategy that focused on further investment in its portfolio of services and a targeted buy-and-build strategy to add complementary service lines in the UK.

Exceptional growth

During the six-year partnership with LDC, HSL quadrupled pro-forma revenues to £77m and doubled headcount to 650 employees. It established itself as a high-quality business capable of meeting the needs of nationally or regionally complex estates seeking a full-service provider for water hygiene and treatment services, alongside fire and air compliance services.

With LDC’s support and follow-on funding, HSL also delivered a successful M&A programme and completed 11 bolt-on acquisitions, significantly increasing the breadth of its UK coverage and client base.

Precisify (formerly Precise TV) is a cross-platform media intelligence pioneer redefining how brands and agencies maximize return on ad spend.

Founded in 2015, Precisify operates globally with offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney and Salzburg.

The business helps brands and agencies plan and optimize digital media and achieve superior digital advertising outcomes by leveraging proprietary panels, AI models, intent signals and contextual data to deliver zero-waste precision across YouTube, Mobile Gaming and Influencer. Its technology maps real customers to the exact content that influences them.

Precisify works with agencies including Dentsu, Havas, WPP, Omnicom and Starcom, and brands such as ASICS, Salesforce, Betterment, Breville, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network.

Supporting US expansion

In January 2025, LDC made a £21m minority investment in Precisify, backing the existing management team, led by co-founders and co-CEOs Nadav Shmuel and Christian Dankl, Chief Commercial Officer Denis Crushell and Chief Technology Officer Peter Stöckl.

With LDC’s investment and support, Precisify plans to continue to build its AI capabilities and scale its presence in the US, as well as diversifying further into other markets, such as gaming.

Lomond is the UK’s leading network of sales and letting agents.

Unrivalled acquisitive growth

LDC invested in Yorkshire-based Linley & Simpson in 2018, before supporting its £100million merger with Lomond Capital to form Lomond in 2020.

Lomond is a leading property management services provider to the UK lettings and sales market and one of the fastest growing platforms in the UK. It has completed 65 acquisitions, growing from 22,000 to more than 70,000 properties.

From Aberdeen to Brighton Lomond’s impressive network of regional brands, estate agents, and lettings businesses span across the UK.

A workplace for its people

Lomond’s management team, led by CEO Ed Philips and Founder and Chairman Stuart Pender, has invested heavily in the business’ people, growing its team from 600 to 1,900 employees in three years.

With LDC’s support, Lomond was recognised in Sunday Times Best Workplace 2024 Awards for creating an inspiring and healthy workplace.

Power Saving Solutions provides high performance battery storage units and hybrid power systems for commercial use across the UK.

The Mansfield-based battery power specialist operates its Hussh Pod units in conjunction with a variety of power sources, including diesel generators, renewable energy and on-grid sources, to give customers a hybrid power solution that maximises site efficiency, reduces emissions, reduces noise pollution and cuts costs for fuel and maintenance.

Powering growth

In December 2024, LDC backed Power Savings Solutions’ management team, led by Andy Richardson and Tom Cummins.

LDC’s investment and support will help Power Saving Solutions to cement its leading position in the growing battery storage industry and deliver a growth strategy underpinned by product development and diversification into new end markets.

As part of the transaction, Gary Jacobson joined the board as Non-Executive Chairman, bringing with him more than 20 years of sector experience, and Mike Marrison, former CFO of equipment-as-a-service provider SRL Traffic Systems, joined as a Non-Executive Director.

LendingMetrics’ software and data solutions help hundreds of companies to make highly sophisticated automated and risk-based lending decisions.

Founded in 2010, the business’ client base includes building societies, online lenders, mortgage companies, credit card providers and commercial lenders.

In addition to its Auto Decision Platform (ADP), its cloud-based software suite includes LendingMetrics Exchange (LMX), a proprietary multi-bureau credit referencing product, OpenBankVision (OBV), a bank statement data platform which helps clients to build accurate affordability profiles in real time, and DeeJoop, a proprietary credit data deduplication tool to standardise high velocity multi-bureau credit files.

Powering smart finance

In November 2024, LDC backed LendingMetrics’ management team, led by co-founders Neil Williams and Commercial Director David Wylie.

LDC’s investment and strategic support will help the business to accelerate new product development within its core financial services sector and expand its network of partners in its consultancy and data services division. It will also enable LendingMetrics to explore complementary acquisitions and diversify its presence in new industries, such as telecoms, utilities and insurance.