About

What is a venture builder?

The founding team of a startup, with the ambition to disrupt an industry, has three main things to worry about - raising money, looking after business operations and building the product. Working with a venture builder means the first two are largely taken care of, leaving the team to focus on rapidly building a valuable product and taking it to market.

A science to building businesses
A venture builder brings together its resources, infrastructure, network and experience to help entrepreneurs take their ideas from conception to scale, maturity and exit. This shared ecosystem works to improve speed and likelihood of success. It differs from the classic venture capital model, where investors simply distribute capital among ideas and teams, hoping one in five or ten might make it big. Venture builders bring a lot more than just capital.

Hands-on support and services  
It’s a hands-on model where experienced entrepreneurs work side by side with the company’s founders, and all businesses have access to a central pool of shared services, such as legal advice, finance expertise, talent acquisition and online marketing (all provided by the Blenheim Chalcot Venture Builder Services team).

Commercial model for sustained growth, not quick wins
In exchange for all this support, entrepreneurs are expected to give up a higher share of their company earlier in the process. At Blenheim Chalcot we typically expect to take the majority stake of any company we build. This model has allowed us to stay nimble and create more valuable businesses that solve real customer needs, offering a higher probability of success for all involved.

We manage our investment through BCI Finance Ltd (BCI)*. BCI structures our investment, advises our portfolio companies on financing, supports sourcing of external equity and debt capital for the Group and helps provide the financial knowledge and discipline our companies need to grow.

*BCI Finance Limited is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 605912.

 

Our approach

We’re run by entrepreneurs.
Our Partners are entrepreneurs first, and are involved in every venture at every stage. Outside the boardroom they work side by side with the teams, sharing their experience and connections. Working this way since 1998 we’ve built businesses across IT, financial services, education, software, sport and media.

We accelerate ventures with in-house services.
Our ventures have direct access to the business support and professional services they need. These include technology, talent acquisition, talent development, community, finance and accounting, legal, property, digital services, marketing and sales.

We create the right environment for growth
Our early stage ventures work together in shared spaces, designed to encourage collaboration and innovation. Knowledge, networks and experience are continuously shared, with all the support they need under one roof.

We trust people.
Realising the potential of a business starts with seeing the potential in people. We develop talent by matching the right people with the right ventures and giving them the freedom to succeed. Learn more about our career programmes, such as the Portfolio Impact Manager and Pioneer opportunities.

We are patient.
When we believe in an idea, a business or a person, we persevere, going through as many iterations as needed to learn if it can work. We don’t have ‘fund schedules’ so we’ll keep our money invested and keep investing our money, as long as it takes.

We share our networks.
We connect ventures with our global network. These transformational partnerships open up new sales and development opportunities, helping to accelerate venture growth.

We are innovation partners.
We work with big businesses, providing the tools and the talent for them to innovate so they can be more agile, adaptive and better positioned to out-manoeuvre their competitors.

Some key people at Blenheim Chalcot

Founding Partners and Senior Team