Coaching | Investing | Collaboration
About Us
Compliance Ventures is a private investment group lead by experienced compliance and legal professionals with over 20 years experience in compliance, integrity and technology development.
Compliance Ventures is funded to invest in small companies that need capital and expertise to grow and be successful. The investments can be in a range of industries but they typically will be in an area in which the investors have the expertise and where they can add value to the business. These areas are typically technology applications to the legal and compliance industries and data, intelligence, and analytics solutions for the management of risk.
From time to time, we may invest in other industries if there is alignment between expertise and the skills and experience of our team. We also expect to continue funding our own entrepreneurial activity in creating new businesses where we feel we have the opportunity to own a space and be widely successful.
We are hands-on investors and coaches. We are not traditional private equity nor engaged in that way. We are different and focused on our core strengths. Early-stage companies that are up and running, building up, but need some expertise to get them through those tough years through skills, experience, capital, and coaching.
Unlike a private equity firm, we are investors and operators. We run the companies that we invest in, either ourselves or with the management teams and founders should they wish to remain with the business. We are open to collaboration and working with other investors and founders. In short, we want the business to be successful and produce amazing returns.
Our Philosophy
We are the shareholders. It’s our money that we are investing and it is our money that we are putting at risk. We don’t take on that responsibility lightly.
We are operators. Our team also gets involved in running the businesses in which we invest. We are not passive investors. We are actively involved in the business and work alongside existing management or in their place.
We focus on the customer and the product. We believe that a customer is at the centre of our universe and should be the centre of the universe in every company in which we invest and operate. We believe that getting the customer a better product, a better solution and a better experience is the number one focus of our business.
We don’t have a fixed time horizon. We enter and exit at times that make sense for the business. We have no fixed period. Much of this will be determined by the product, the customer and the market.
We are not fixated on returns and numbers. While important, we are also focused on how our businesses operate, our contribution to our people, our stakeholders, our community, and our clients. It is not all about the money. It’s about the business and the customer. if we do right by the business, it will do right by us.
Having been entrepreneurs and investors but know exactly what young companies are going through and how to move you through those tough times. Our focus is to get each of our businesses through those times and move them towards the next phase of their development which may be an exit or maybe a further sale to a larger private equity group or to an industry player. Whatever works for the business and the customer is our focus.
Too many private equity investors focus on themselves, their horizon, their funds, their multiple, their timing, their capital. We focus on the customer and the value that we are bringing to them. The customer is the centre of our universe.
Our Core Skills
EXECUTION IN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
We have built businesses from the ground up. We have met the challenges of developing products, of growing a client base, of expanding Internationally, of managing people and cash flow. We run business that are entirely focused on customers and always driven to exceptional customer service and quality. We execute, make quick decisions, and react quickly.
legal, risk, compliance and ethics expertise
We have specific expertise in the legal, compliance, ethics and corporate governance industries by the background of our founders and partners. We have strong domain expertise in these areas and the overall management of risk of organizations that operate globally.
Technology acumen
We have a background in developing technology assets. WE know how to build technology, how to scale it to an Enterprise level and how to build it with a customer driven approach. We believe that technology has to be the cornerstone of all of our businesses and everything needs to be developed around that technology.
data and content management
We have built data rich content and we know how to research data, build it, aggregate it, risk rate it and produce it to an audience that can absorb it to help build their businesses. We like data rich business and truly believe that data is ‘the new oil’. However, the more refined that product, the more it is of value and the more it is worth.
Investment
We look for Businesses that need that extra help to really grow and prosper.
Compliance Ventures looks to acquire companies in the ethics, compliance, data and technology industries that are already building robust customer bases, growing quickly and have a compelling value proposition for their customers.
Our model is a buy and operate. We are not just pure investors. We are investors and operators. We are actively involved in management and leadership of all our investments, depending, of course, of the percentage of our investment. That doesn’t mean that a founder or current management team is not able to be involved or be a part of the new company at all, it just means that as owners we are involved in operations and management and will work hard to make the company a success.
Our Investment criteria is totally flexible but could include companies in the following areas:
$0.5 million – $5 million annualized revenue
15%+ historical and near term revenue growth
Blue-chip customer relationships that often generate recurring revenue
Technology or data-driven companies are strongly preferred
Collaboration
Our aim is to build strong long-term businesses. We are actively involved in the business and add value across the organization. Some of these areas might be as simple as the following:
Sales force development and digital marketing support
Business development and strategic partnerships
Budgeting. accounting, revenue management and financial functions
Technology and infrastructure scaling
Expansion strategy
We are not passive investors that give instructions from the sidelines.
In some cases, we are not involved to take over your business or drive you out of it – far from it. It’s the opposite. We want to free you up to take the load to be successful and give your guidance when you need it. Think of us a coach with some skin in the game.
In other cases, we are involved to support you as a founder to take a gradual exit. We know that the fabric of these business are often intertwined with the founder, so striking that right balance is important to both of us to get this business to work and tp realise the inherent value in the business.
Coach
For those companies that are not yet ready for investment, we can deliver an alternative solution for driving growth.
Our team provides coaching and consulting services with superior access to sector-specific knowledge, deep operational acumen and vast professional experience built by team over decades. We are flexible about how we charge for our services and how you can engage us. We prefer to provide our services in return for equity of options on the success of our improvements. We know how important cash is to most companies and how you should hold onto it and not spend it on consultants.
Through coaching, we can give you access to:
Invaluable customer and market feedback
Idea vetting and validation
Market intelligence in sectors of interest
This interplay between our team and those being coached makes us unique in how we manage our relationships.
Our People
Chief Executive officer, chief customer advocate and investor
Scott is the leader of Compliance Ventures and his focus is on building a portfolio of companies that adds value to the Firm and its customers. He is focused on building and running the portfolio companies and supporting their management teams to achieve exceptional levels of customer loyalty.
Scott’s focus is always on the Customer and loves his additional title as Chief Customer Advocate. “It is the Customer that is the center of our universe at Compliance Ventures and everything that we do focuses on that one single theme: Customer First. There is nothing that we will do that draws our attention away form having an extraordinary customer experience, with amazing products that are provided at exceptional value for money”.
The questions that he demands answered are : Would a customer love this product? What would the Customer want that is better? How can we make it better? What features or functionality would leapfrog what the customer is even thinking? How do you convert the features to a benefit to the Customer and a resultant Value?
Scott has degrees in Technology, Law and is an execution driven entrepreneur having build and run successful businesses for most of his career.
David Youngson is the finance and accounting lead on all investments, acquisitions and disposals across the Firm. David has experience in creating, leading and disposing of private companies and has worked and lived in the UK, Hong Kong, PRC, and Japan. He is an experienced leader in helping companies build robust finance systems, develop financial metrics and develop accounting practices that reflect their assets and expertise.
David and Scott have worked together for ten years and have strong management discipline and expertise.
Our Portfolio Companies
Speeki is a platform designed for business to convert their manual ESG practices to Ai driven technologies. We believe that technology has to be the heart of any ESG program. Covering 19 key risk areas, Speeki is focused on helping companies manage key ESG risks with technology together with our experts.
From whistleblowing to governance, gender equality, and environemntal management, Speeki has a raft of product and solutions to help companies manage ESG programmes.
ETHIC Intelligence is the World leader in Compliance audits, specifically around anti-bribery and corruption requirements. It is an accredited body to certify companies under the ISO 370012 Anti-Bribery Management Systems standard. It is based in Paris, France. From 1 April 2022, ETHIC Intelligence has been merged with Speeki and is now known as Speeki Europe SAS.
www.speeki.com
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