Three months on from its debut on the Aquis Growth Market, Connecting Excellence Group (XCE) is emerging as one of the UK\u2019s most unconventional listed companies \u2014 not because of the sectors it recruits for, but because of how it is choosing to store and grow its capital.<\/p>\n
The Leeds-based executive search group, built around its core operating brand Spencer Riley, floated in December 2025, with a clear and unusual proposition: it would operate as a traditional, revenue-generating recruitment business while simultaneously building a corporate treasury anchored in Bitcoin, positioned by the company as a long-term reserve asset within a disciplined balance sheet strategy.<\/p>\n
The \u2018significantly oversubscribed\u2019 IPO raised \u00a33.3m – \u00a32.8m via placing and \u00a3500k through a popular retail offer \u2013 giving it a market cap of \u00a38m. Since the IPO, XCE has announced a 20% increase in H1 revenue to \u00a31.2m end of December 25, record \u00a3250k revenue for January 2026 and increased its Bitcoin holdings to 52 Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
That strategy – still rare among UK-listed SMEs – is now being tested in real time.<\/p>\n
Since the float, Bitcoin has fallen approximately 25% – and XCE shares have traded down from their 2.1p IPO price to around 1.65p today, perhaps mirroring the underlying volatility of Bitcoin itself or reflecting the market\u2019s attempt to price a hybrid model \u2013 is it part recruiter, part Bitcoin proxy?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not a proxy,\u201d Ellam insisted. \u201cWe are an operating business with an active Bitcoin balance sheet strategy. The recruitment business is what allowed us to accumulate Bitcoin in a disciplined way from 2021. The Plc status now allows us to leverage performance-based share options to attract revenue generating staff and access capital to expand the Bitcoin balance sheet, to support long term value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has continued its characteristically sharp movements.<\/p>\n
Ellam has been open about that volatility. \u201cBitcoin’s price is volatile in the short term,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a fixed supply asset class that trades 24\/7 globally \u2013 so it is often the first to react to global events. But the four-year moving average of Bitcoin’s price has never declined. That trend is up. So, if your time horizon is over four years or better still, decades, the solution to the short-term volatility is a long-term consistent strategy.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Ellam believes the share price movements reflect a mix of global market sentiment, broader asset class uncertainty and Bitcoin volatility, as investors assess XCE\u2019s differentiated strategy and its hybrid operating and treasury model following its recent listing.<\/p>\n
He points out that the board and adviser team includes a chairman who led the first British pension fund allocation to Bitcoin, a hedge fund manager based in Switzerland who launched a 5,000-bitcoin hedge fund, an ex-Goldman Sachs executive. XCE also has investors like Adam Back who is about to float a \u00a33.5bn SPAC with 30,000 Bitcoin on the NASDAQ and credited with inventing one of the key technologies behind Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Therefore, he says, the company\u2019s share price should be \u201cviewed in the context of its focus on long-term value creation, underpinned by its scalable profitable operating business\u201d.<\/p>\n
For investors, the question is becoming clearer: is XCE a steady recruitment business with a differentiated treasury policy, or a leveraged bet on Bitcoin wrapped in an operating company?<\/p>\n
At the time of admission, the company held nine Bitcoin purchased between 2021 and 2025. Since then, it grown its holdings to 52 through a combination of cash deployment and a novel financing mechanism: Bitcoin-denominated convertible bonds.<\/p>\n
Instead of raising traditional sterling debt, the company has effectively borrowed in Bitcoin – a structure Ellam says aligns liabilities with its treasury asset while giving investors exposure, as part of what the company describes as a \u201cbroader capital markets capability supporting balance sheet growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is simple,\u201d Ellam said. \u201cWe wanted to build a scalable bond program that would appeal to investors looking for Bitcoin denominated returns, minimise downside risk for both parties and maximise upside return for bond holders, shareholders and the balance sheet The first bond was for 10 Bitcoin and fully subscribed<\/p>\n
The mechanics are unusual, they are interest free, issued at a premium to share price and they can be converted when XCE shares outperform Bitcoin. Investors can subscribe to bonds that may be repaid either in shares or in Bitcoin, depending on performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives investors a choice,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey can participate in the upside of the equity, or they can take their Bitcoin back with a small premium. From our perspective, it\u2019s a very efficient way to grow the balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
In effect, the structure allows XCE to accumulate Bitcoin more rapidly without immediately diluting shareholders and increase shareholders \u2018Bitcoin per share\u2019 upon conversion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thinking long term,\u201d Ellam added. \u201cThis is about building an operating business and balance sheet that compounds in value over time – with robust governance practises and public sector transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
What makes the model distinctive is that, unlike pure Bitcoin investment vehicles, XCE is generating operating income, with its recruitment business forming the platform for operational growth.<\/p>\n
Spencer Riley continues growing, attracting executive recruiters and placing more senior executives across sectors including life sciences, logistics, professional services and Ai technology, with clients spanning the US, Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe operate in niche markets within high growth sectors, at the senior end,\u201d Ellam said. \u201cThat\u2019s where you can build strong relationships and consistent revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cExecutive recruitment is uniquely suited to this model. The revenue is driven by the recruiters so the opportunity for performance-based equity participation and long-term upside in a public company is a unique tool for attracting and retaining talent. The balance sheet allows us to store the value they create long term, in what we believe will be the best performing asset class\u2019\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the centre of the company is Ellam himself, whose journey from a one-man recruitment startup in 2014 to leading a listed business has shaped the strategy, with the Bitcoin approach developing from first-hand experience.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on that progression, he said: \u201cWhen I started Spencer Riley, it was just me, a phone and a niche market. The executive recruitment team have built a platform for growth in a competitive fragmented industry, and the Bitcoin strategy is what transforms the model.\u201d<\/p>\n
His conviction comes from years of studying the asset and experiencing its volatility. \u201cI\u2019ve seen Bitcoin go through big drawdowns over the last ten years but that\u2019s to be expected with a new asset class,\u201d he said. \u201cThe more you study the asset and hold it, the more you start to understand Bitcoin through a wider lens than just the market cap and build your long-term conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about the next 12 months,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about where the world is heading over the next 10, 20, 30 years and the economic environment that will increase the demand for a scarce, neutral, digital asset that is based on energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three months after listing, XCE remains an outlier in UK public markets. Its core business is well understood, but its treasury strategy is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving proven the strategy privately for four years, it felt like the right time to publicly demonstrate how Bitcoin can be integrated into businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve watched the US embrace the asset across public markets, but it feels like the UK needs to see it integrated into a real operating business before progress will be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Bitcoin continues to fluctuate, the company\u2019s performance will be judged on both its operational execution and its balance sheet strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are focussed on growing the operating business, executing on our Bitcoin strategy and expanding our investor base internationally,\u201d Ellam said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building a real business,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we\u2019re also building it on what we believe is the strongest monetary foundation available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether that conviction proves prescient will depend not just on placements and profits, but on the trajectory of Bitcoin itself \u2014 an asset Ellam describes in simple terms:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no limit to the number of pounds and dollars that will be created but there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in circulation. That\u2019s the starting point for everything we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leeds-based Connecting Excellence Group is taking an unconventional path in the UK public markets by pairing a growing recruitment business with a Bitcoin-focused treasury<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271992,"featured_media":2152572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53262,120781],"coauthors":[137100],"class_list":["post-2152569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-markets","tag-featured-story","tag-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n