GP Bullhound

As dealmakers in technology, GP Bullhound provides independent strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions and private placements to entrepreneurs, companies and investors. By combining a true passion for innovation with great access to global buyers and capital across Europe, US and Asia, GP Bullhound has completed transactions for many category leaders, recently selling Fetch to Dentsu Aegis, Flowfact to ImmobilienScout24, Textlocal to IMImobile, Pingdom to SolarWinds, Cambridge Technology Partners to Atos, Pozitron to Monitise, Tunigo to Spotify, and Fjord to Accenture. The firm was founded in London in 1999.

GP Bullhound has an international team of 35 experienced corporate financiers focused on the technology sector, and as a firm they have closed over 170 successful transactions since 1999.

History

GP Bullhound was founded in 1999 and is headquartered at 52 Jermyn Street in London, with additional offices in San Francisco (USA), Stockholm (Sweden), Berlin (Germany) and Manchester. The firm has a strong foothold in Europe and offers clients a global reach to investors and the financial markets. GP Bullhound is a research centric investment bank and publishes monthly sector reports in the areas of Digital Content, eCommerce, software and hardware and has completed over 170 successful M&A and Private Placement transactions since it was established.

In 2014, GP Bullhound was awarded Best M&A Firm at the Bully Awards, and won the Award for Financial Services Deal of the Year at the M&A Advisor Dealmaker’s Awards with the sale of Pozitron to Monitise. Co-founding partner Hugh Campbell was named one of North West 42 Under 42 by Insider Media. In 2013 the firm was awarded two awards at Acquisition International's M&A Awards 2013; UK Boutique Investment Bank of the Year and Leading Advisers of the Year. Co-founding partner Manish Madhvani was named Dealmaker of the Year at the M&A Advisor 40 Under 40 Award. In 2010 the firm was awarded four separate awards; Corporate Finance Boutique of the Year, M&A Boutique Investment Bank of the Year, Deal of the Year and Green Deal of the Year, for the being the sole M&A advisor on the sale of Concentrix Solar.

Recent M&A transactions include; Great Fridays (sold to EPAM), Fetch (Sold to Dentsu Aegis), Flowfact (sold to ImmobilienScout24), Textlocal (sold to IMImobile), Pozitron (sold to Monitise), Klarna, Fjord (sold to Accenture) and Tunigo (sold to Spotify). Recent private placements include CiteeCar, Somo, MyOptique Group, PlayOn! Sports, Bambuser, Planetveo and Mathem.

Expert commentary and Events

The firm is an established thought leader and is regularly asked to provide commentaries on CNN International, CNBC Europe and BBC World as well as print media, keynoting and moderating industry conferences. GP Bullhound takes an active role in the technology entrepreneurial ecosystem by participating in industry conferences and has also founded and continues to manage important industry events such as Investor Allstars, GP Bullhound Summit featuring the Media Momentum Awards and Northern Tech Awards. GP Bullound is also one of the backers of SUP46.

Investor Allstars was founded in 2002, and is with 600+ attendees an established event for the European venture capital community, The awards recognise Europe’s leading investors and risk takers and have been labelled the “Oscars” for the European venture capital community. The 11th annual Investor Allstars in 2013, presented by GP Bullhound and Vitesse Media, celebrated a year of great investments, fantastic exits and entrepreneurship. Shirin Dehgan of Arieso won Female Entrepreneur of the Year and Alexander Ljung of SoundCloud was crowned Male Entrepreneur of the Year; Pär-Jörgen Pärson of Northzone was voted Investor of the Year, and DFJ Esprit won VC Fund of the Year. The year of 2013 also saw the introduction of the Europe's Allstar Challenge, with Believe Digital, Fly Victor, Klarna, MedicAnimal, Rovio, Secret Escapes and Zoopla fighting it out to win the accolade of Europe’s Most Exciting Investor Backed Company of the Year. After an interactive voting session, the prize went to Zoopla.

With the general scepticism and reluctance to invest in tech start-ups following the Dot.com meltdown in 2000-2002, the firm wanted to showcase and celebrate the exciting developments happening in this sector and in 2004, the firm launched Media Momentum. The event has developed into the GP Bullhound Summit, a prominent invitation-only event hosting 100 of the leading entrepreneurs and business leaders from across the European digital scene. The Summit and awards take place in a different tech hotspot each year. The event is free, run as not-for-profit and financed by GP Bullhound and a small group of sponsors wishing to support entrepreneurship in Europe. Sponsors for 2014 included Berenberg, London Stock Exchange, Invus, TeleCity Group, Olswang,MTGx, Scottish Equity Partners, Gimv, Barclays, Frog, Idinvest, NasdaqOMX, Harbert European Growth Capital Fund, General Atlantic and Mutual Benefits.

In 2013, GP Bullhound took over the Northern Tech Awards, recognising the fastest growing companies in the North of UK. The event is an established annual gathering for CEOs and Founders to network and the awards provide a platform for technology companies to achieve recognition for their success. Sponsors for 2013 included Brabners LLP, Business Growth Fund, EV Group, HG Capital, London Stock Exchange, Panmure Gordon & Co, Silicon Valley Bank and UBS Wealth Management. The BVCA and Manchester Grammar School also provided significant research support.

Research

Since being founded, GP Bullhound has written extensive and independent technology sector research focused on the areas of Digital Content, eCommerce, software and hardware. The firm’s research is distributed to an exclusive group of leading institutional investors in both Europe and the US before being made available more widely.

Recent research has covered Online Payments, Real Time Bidding, Big Data Analytics, The Connected Car, Online Fashion and Turkish Internet.

References

• GP Bullhound, Research Division, March 14, 2011
• Research Reports, June 12, 2014
• Boutique Investment Bank of the Year, December 9, 2010
• Boutique Investment Bank of the Year and Leading Advisers of the Year, July 5, 2013
• GP Bullhound Summit & Media Momentum Awards 2014, May 16, 2014
• Transactions, Placements, June 12, 2014

External links

• GP Bullhound Official Homepage