Hazel Moore OBE is a mergers and acquisitions and venture capital specialist. Hazel Moore is the co-founder and chairman of FirstCapital, an investment bank which provides mergers and acquisitions, private equity and growth capital advice to high growth technology companies. [1]
Moore studied Natural Sciences at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, graduating in 1990. After a short period working as an engineer for GEC Marconi, Moore went to Hong Kong and joined WI Carr as an equity analyst. [2]
Returning to the UK in 1995, Moore went on to co-found FirstCapital in 1999 with current CEO Jason Purcell. [3]
From 2012-2018 Moore was a Governing Board member of Innovate UK; [4] the UK's national innovation agency.
In June 2019 Moore was appointed as a non-executive director to the Board of British Patient Capital; [5] a £2.5bn fund of funds investing in venture and growth capital funds.
Moore received an OBE in the 2017 New Year's Honours list for services to Entrepreneurship and Innovation. [6] She was given her OBE by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on 17 February 2017.
Moore was named as one of the most influential women in mid-market M&A by Mergers and Acquisitions in February 2019. [7]
In the field of finance, private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies that they invest in.
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Social venture capital is a form of investment funding that is usually funded by a group of social venture capitalists or an impact investor to provide seed-funding investment, usually in a for-profit social enterprise, in return to achieve an outsized gain in financial return while delivering social impact to the world. There are various organizations, such as Venture Philanthropy (VP) companies and nonprofit organizations, that deploy a simple venture capital strategy model to fund nonprofit events, social enterprises, or activities that deliver a high social impact or a strong social causes for their existence. There are also regionally focused organizations that target a specific region of the world, to help build and support the local community in a social cause.
A private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. Private equity funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years. At inception, institutional investors make an unfunded commitment to the limited partnership, which is then drawn over the term of the fund. From the investors' point of view, funds can be traditional or asymmetric.
Permira is a British global investment firm specialised in buyout, growth equity and credit funds. Founded in 1985 as part of Schroders, it became independent in 1996. Operating as Permira since 2001, the company became one of the largest buyout specialists. As of today, Permira advises funds with total committed capital of €77 billion, which have invested in more than 300 companies worldwide. The company employs over 470 people in 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia.
An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors often provide support to startups at a very early stage, once or in a consecutive manner, and when most investors are not prepared to back them. In a survey of 150 founders conducted by Wilbur Labs, about 70% of entrepreneurs will face potential business failure, and nearly 66% will face this potential failure within 25 months of launching their company. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital and provide advice to their portfolio companies. The number of angel investors has greatly increased since the mid-20th century.
The history of private equity, venture capital, and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks.
Arcapita founded in 1997, is an asset management firm. Headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, Arcapita also operates from its offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. The firm serves a group of investors in the Middle East region including investment firms, family offices, high net-worth individuals, and sovereign wealth funds. Arcapita completed over 100 investments in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia for a total transaction value exceeding $30 billion. The board of directors contain nine members, mainly from the Gulf Cooperation Council. Members are chairs, previous chairpersons, or current Chief Executive Officers of sovereign wealth funds, regional investment firms or global financial services firms.
Sir Kenneth Aphunezi Olisa is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the first mixed heritage Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He founded and led the AIM-listed technology merchant bank Interregnum and now leads Restoration Partners. Ken Olisa is Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and has served and serves on several boards of philanthropic, educational and regulator organisations. Sir Kenneth with his wife endowed the Olisa Library at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage." Examples of CVCs include GV and Intel Capital.
Needham & Company, LLC is an independent investment bank and asset management firm specializing in advisory services and financings for growth companies. Needham & Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Needham Group, which also operates a private equity investment business and an investment management business.
Jonathan Andrew Kestenbaum, Baron Kestenbaum is the chief operating officer of investment trust RIT Capital Partners plc, and a Labour member of the House of Lords. He is a great-grandson of Joseph Breuer, and a great-great-great-grandson of Samson Raphael Hirsch and of Eliezer Liepman Philip Prins. He is a former Chief Executive of the innovation foundation the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). He was founding Chief Executive of the non-profit "action tank" The Portland Trust. Kestenbaum was created a life peer in 2011 as Baron Kestenbaum of Foxcote in the County of Somerset, and sits on the Labour benches. In 2013, Kestenbaum was installed as Chancellor of Plymouth University.
Optiv Security, Inc. ("Optiv") is a privately owned information security company based in Denver, Colorado. Optiv is a solutions integrator that delivers end-to-end cybersecurity services globally.
Jonathan Philip Pryce Goodwin is a British banker and investor. He is partner, head of Merchant Banking at Alvarium Investments. His appointment followed the merger in March 2019 of Lepe Partners, the merchant bank he co-founded in 2011, with Alvarium which works across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, supervising $15bn+ of assets. With Brent Hoberman, Goodwin also co-founded Founders Forum, a network of digital entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and senior investors.
OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the company launched in February 2013, and has since opened overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, and the UAE.
Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Austin, and London. The firm is considered one of the world's premier venture capital firms.
Technology Development Board (TDB), is a statutory body established by Government of India under Technology Development Board Act, 1995, to promote development and commercialization of indigenous technology and adaptation of imported technology for much wider application. The board consists of 11 Board members. The Government reconstituted the Board in March 2000. The Board plays a pro-active role by encouraging enterprises to take up technology-oriented products. The board provides equity capital or loans to industrial concerns and financial assistance to research and development institutions. The loans carry a simple interest rate of 5% per annum.
BGF, established in 2011 as the Business Growth Fund, is an investment company that provides growth capital for small and mid-sized businesses in the UK and Ireland.
Venture capital in Poland is a segment of the private equity market that finances early-stage high-risk companies based in Poland, with the potential for fast growth. As of March 2019, there is a total of 130 active VC firms in Poland, including local offices of international VC firms, and VC firms with mainly Polish management teams. Between 2009–2019, these entities have invested locally in over 750 companies, which gives an average of around 9 companies per portfolio. The Polish venture market accounts for 3% of the entire European ecosystem of VC investments, mainly in the digital space.
Sir Rohinton Minoo "Ron" Kalifa is a British entrepreneur. He is the chairman of Network International, and formerly served as the chief executive officer of Worldpay Group from 2002 to 2013, continuing as vice chairman. Kalifa was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2018 New Year Honours for his work in financial services and technology. He was later knighted in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours.