Smarter Capital is delighted to welcome Richard Brady as an Adviser to the Board and a member of the Investment Committee, adding four decades of financial services, corporate finance, fundraising and M&A experience as we advance our funding base to accelerate the Group's growth and pursue larger acquisitions across the UK.
Joining at a deliberate moment in the Group's growth
Richard joins at a deliberate moment. Having grown the Group through a series of successful acquisitions, our next phase is about raising additional debt and equity to move faster and buy bigger.
Richard has spent his career on that side of the table. He understands what institutional investors and lenders look for, how they price risk, and what a group of our size needs to have in place to attract capital on the right terms.
Four decades across financial services and international growth
Richard has held Executive Director roles with HSBC, AIG, Zurich and CPP Group Plc, in both the UK and Asia, carrying full commercial responsibility for growth, performance and P&L.
He spent nine years living in Shanghai and Hong Kong, establishing operations in six countries across the Asia Pacific region, the kind of multi-market build that demands clear strategy, disciplined execution and the ability to make things work a long way from head office.
An operator as well as an adviser
Richard is also an operator: someone who has built, run and sold businesses himself, and who has held Non-Executive Directorships across printing, property, financial services, training, recruitment, construction, commercial cleaning and technology.
That combination matters. Funding a buy-and-build strategy is not a purely financial exercise; it depends on being able to show a credible operational plan behind the numbers.
Deep transaction and valuation experience
As Chief Executive Officer of Fairmountain Capital Ltd, Richard advises business owners on both buy-side and sell-side transactions.
He is also the Founder of The Valuation Team, whose analysts have now valued over 750 UK companies, giving him a rare command of what the market will genuinely pay and why.
“Richard knows how capital thinks. As we raise to accelerate, having someone who has sat on both sides of that conversation, and who asks the questions that make everyone in the room think harder, is exactly what takes us into bigger deals.”
Karl Paul, Chief Acquisitions Officer, Smarter Capital
Strengthening the Investment Committee
On the Investment Committee, Richard will bring that judgement to bear on the opportunities we assess, testing the strategic logic of each deal, the quality of the earnings behind it, how it is best funded and the plan for growth beyond completion.
“Smarter Capital has built something genuinely different, a group that gives founders an ambitious and friendly route to real value rather than simply a transaction.”
Richard Brady, Adviser to the Board
Putting the right capital structure behind the next phase
Richard said the Group has proved the model. What comes next is putting the right capital structure behind it, and he is looking forward to helping the team build something considerably bigger.
Deepening the experience available to founders and management teams
Richard's appointment follows a period of sustained expansion for Smarter Capital and further deepens the experience available to our management teams and the founders we partner with.
We are looking to acquire profitable businesses in the E-commerce, Health and Wellbeing, Marketing, Packaging, Software Development, Nature, and IT Services & Support sectors which have growth potential.
If you are an owner of a business that fits our criteria and are considering your exit now, or you are looking to maximise the value of your exit in the next few years, we would love to start a conversation.
About Smarter Capital
Smarter Capital is a UK-based investment firm expanding through strategic mergers and acquisitions.
The Group partners with ambitious entrepreneurs and management teams to accelerate growth and unlock long-term value through hands-on support, strategic insight and a commitment to sustainable success.
Learn more about Smarter Capital