Foresight Group, a leading listed regional private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has announced a £3.5 million investment into Manchester’s Red Flag Alert Technology Group Limited.
Red Flag Alert, with a team of over 50 based in Manchester, has developed a proprietary SaaS business intelligence platform with modular capabilities spanning credit security compliance, sales prospecting, risk management and financial health assessments sold into a growing corporate customer base.
Its success has been founded on the excellent service levels it provides, with continual investment in its product to deliver new functionality for customers. The company recently launched its third-generation platform with much improved user interface and functionality which accelerated growth with ARR increasing by 25 per cent in the last year alone.
Foresight’s investment will support the company’s growth ambitions – providing the capital to continue to invest in product development, create high-quality, sustainable jobs and to expand its commercial capabilities and reach.
John Lord will join the board as Non-Executive Chair under the deal. Lord’s background includes eight years as group managing director of listed data provider GB Group and six years as managing director of Dun & Bradstreet (UK&I).
He also founded a leading customer onboarding platform which he exited to LexisNexis. His expertise will help the company grow and significantly increase its market share.
Richard West, CEO of Red Flag Alert, said: “In the fast-paced world of financial risk and data insights, innovation and disruption are vital. From the beginning of our conversations with Foresight, they understood Red Flag Alert’s mission and our value in the industry. We are proud to work alongside them to grow our market share and continue our journey.”
Fiona Hatch, senior investment manager at Foresight, added: “Red Flag Alert has built an impressive product and customer base. With our investment and support, the team will be in a great position to benefit from the potential market opportunities. We look forward to working with Richard and the rest of the team to enable the next phase of their growth.”
Foresight continues to be one of the most active investors in smaller companies, having completed more than 90 investments into SMEs in 2022, alongside a number of strong exits. In the same year, Foresight’s Private Equity team announced three new funds, a ventures fund acquisition and expanded its regional office network, opening offices in Dublin and Leeds.
So far in 2023, Foresight has invested into 35 SMEs, announced it will open an office in Newcastle, and has announced a number of successful exits, including Datapath (11.7x money), Mowgli (3.5x money) and GovGrant (4.5x money).
