We’re delighted to say that Bridges has completed the sale of AgilityEco, the pioneering home decarbonisation business, after a highly successful partnership.

The sale, to M Group Services, delivers a money multiple return of 3.4x and an IRR of 40% on Evergreen’s original investment.

AgilityEco is a home decarbonisation delivery platform with a strong social and environmental purpose. It provides whole-of-house energy efficiency solutions to some of the most vulnerable low-income households in the UK, offering independent advice, nationwide installation capabilities, reliable delivery and quality outcomes. To achieve this, AgilityEco partners with energy companies, local authorities, social housing providers, private social enterprises, utility companies and a broad network of dedicated installers.

Bridges Evergreen is the UK’s first long-term, impact-focussed equity fund and invested in AgilityEco in 2019. Since then, AgilityEco’s revenues have grown in lockstep with its social and environmental impact outcomes. Turnover has increased more than threefold to well over £100m and the number of employees has doubled.

AgilityEco worked with over 36,000 households in 2022/23, delivering energy efficiency measures that will save over £2,600 for each home on their lifetime energy bills. Those measures will also save over 113,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Evergreen has worked closely with the Board and the wider management team to embed impact best practice within the business, which has been recognised in the form of numerous industry awards and the business’ achievement of B Corp status.  Evergreen also worked with the Board to design and implement an employee share ownership scheme which means that around two-thirds of the company’s employees are also shareholders and have shared in the financial success of this sale transaction.

In 2021, Evergreen recruited Sharon Johnson to lead AgilityEco as CEO. The business now has an experienced, ambitious and highly regarded management team who are ideally placed to deliver on AgilityEco’s enormous future growth potential.

Tom Biddle, Partner at Bridges and Head of Bridges Evergreen, said:

“AgilityEco is exactly the type of business that Evergreen wants to partner with. It exists to tackle two of the greatest challenges facing the UK today: decarbonising our housing stock and lifting people out of fuel poverty. It is a fantastic example of the Just Transition in action.

“AgilityEco has also been a blueprint for Evergreen’s strategy of providing patient capital to support growing, highly impactful businesses to scale their outcomes and deliver attractive commercial returns. This sale transaction is a significant milestone for Evergreen and our investors. We are very proud to have been shareholders in the business and to have supported Sharon, Shueb, Anthony and the team to deliver such phenomenal growth.

“We wish the business, its team and its new owner every success in the future.”

Sharon Johnson, CEO of AgilityEco, said:

“We would like to thank Tom, Luke and the Bridges Evergreen team for their role in the development of AgilityEco into the diversified, national energy efficiency services platform that it is today. Our mission is to play a major role in eliminating fuel poverty and to help towards net zero. Evergreen’s investment has been key to accelerating our progress towards achieving that.

Evergreen has provided strategic support and investment, as well as bringing invaluable experience of scaling businesses which are taking institutional capital for the first time and supporting successful founder transitions. The combination of that support, together with Bridges’ market-leading impact expertise, has really facilitated AgilityEco’s growth and success.”

The Bridges Evergreen team consisted of Tom Biddle, Luke Edwards, Olivia Prentice and James Hicks.

The shareholders’ corporate finance advisors on the transaction were Arrowpoint Advisory. CMS acted as legal advisors and Baringa and KPMG provided vendor due diligence services. Management was advised by Liberty and CMS.