The ‘shining light of UK tech’ that was bought for £9 after £118m investment
TheBusinessDesk.com’s Rainmakers platform has an exclusive story this week about Bristol-based Huboo, which was rescued by a pre-pack deal just before Christmas:
“Never in my career in VC have I seen an investment opportunity with the scale prospects of Huboo,” said Ada Ventures partner, and Huboo director, Matt Penneycard.
It is December 2023, and the ecommerce fulfilment company had just raised another £29m, in an equity and debt funding round featuring HSBC and Blackrock, alongside follow-on investments from Ada Ventures and Maersk Growth.
Huboo’s total fundraising in its first six years had now gone into nine figures.
One year later, on December 23, 2024 – right at the end of the Christmas delivery period – the Bristol-based company appointed administrators and a pre-pack deal went through.
The new owners paid £9.
For the price of a glass of wine, an investor consortium led by Baaj Capital and Atalla Capital, had taken over a company employing 643 people in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
To get to that stage, it had been funded by £118m of equity and £20m of secured debt. And it had run out of money, and options…
