Bridges recently sold the Babington Group, a leading UK provider of apprenticeships and traineeships, to RJD Partners for £22m, representing an internal rate of return for Bridges of 33%. We backed the business in 2009, as part of our Education and Skills impact theme. Since then, Babington has increased revenues eight-fold, while supporting over 32,000 […]
Read moreThe Bridges Property Alternative Fund and joint venture partner HUB have received a resolution to grant planning permission for a redevelopment project in Wembley, London. The project will see what is currently a disused office block converted into two 21-and 26-storey towers. The building will contain a total of 239 homes for sale or rent; […]
Read moreBig Society Capital has created two short films highlighting the impact being made by two social sector organisations that have benefited from Bridges’ investment. HCT Group, a social enterprise bus operator that uses its profits to provide community transport services and training, raised a pioneering £4m round of investment from a group of social investors […]
Read moreViva is a chain of low-cost gyms with 16 sites across 11 Spanish cities It improves health outcomes by broadening access to gym facilities This is Bridges’ first investment in mainland Europe, and the eighth from Bridges’ Sustainable Growth Fund III It builds on the expertise the firm developed in this sector as co-founder of […]
Read moreWe are delighted to announce that our research paper, ‘Choosing Social Impact Bonds: A Practitioner’s Guide’, created in partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has come in joint first place at the 2015 Sustainable Investment Awards. The report was the first piece of research that looked globally across the first wave of SIBs to […]
Read moreMichele Giddens, partner and co-founder at Bridges Ventures, and Patrick Armstrong, chief investment officer at Plurimi Investment Managers, discuss the U.N. COP21 summit on climate change and what it means for the markets and investments. They speak to Bloomberg’s Guy Johnson on “Countdown.” Michele on Bloomberg
Read moreWholebake, a manufacturer of great-tasting gluten-free energy bars under its brand 9BAR, has been included in this year’s Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100, a highly-regarded ranking of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies by sales. Wholebake, which is backed by Bridges Sustainable Growth Fund III, has enjoyed annual revenue growth of 45% over the last […]
Read moreJames Ashwell, founder of Unforgettable, the ‘go-to’ online resource for anyone dealing with dementia, is featured in City A.M. Dementia affects over 44m people around the world, including more than 850,000 people in the UK. In ‘The social changemaker’, James discusses his experience of caring for his mother when she was diagnosed with dementia, and […]
Read moreAlina Homecare is an innovative homecare business which delivers high-quality care across the South of England It is backed by Bridges Ventures, the specialist sustainable and impact investor Extra Mile Care, based in North London, is its third acquisition Alina Homecare (“Alina”), the innovative homecare business, has completed its third deal with the acquisition of […]
Read moreView the report here: (Screen Version) (Print Version) Each year Bridges publishes headline figures on some of the social and environmental impact achieved across its platform of funds, alongside its key commercial highlights The focus of this year’s report is on what Bridges has learned about using an impact-driven approach to create value at […]
Read more‘The Bridges Spectrum of Capital’ is our attempt to map out the broad range of risk/return strategies that exist within sustainable and impact investing – and to explain how that relates to the capital markets more generally. Our thesis is that these categories fit into a broader spectrum of capital, ranging from traditional investment on […]
Read moreMichele Giddens, Bridges partner and co-founder, discusses how private capital is becoming increasingly important in the fight against our biggest social and environmental challenges – since government and philanthropic capital alone will not be sufficient. Michele argues that companies will be more valuable in the future if they focus on their impact, using Bridges’ own […]
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