Puma Private Equity expands into Scotland and rebrands

Puma Private Equity, a provider of growth capital to small and medium-sized businesses, has expanded into Scotland and rebranded to Puma Growth Partners.

The team in Scotland will be led by investment director Ben Leslie, who has relocated back to Scotland after spending six years helping to grow the Puma business in London.

Scotland is fast becoming a hub for innovation and technology. In the last five years, Edinburgh alone has attracted more than $1 billion of investment and the number of new technology companies in Scotland jumped by more than a fifth last year.

The firm led Aveni’s £11 million Series A round, one of the largest into a Scottish business this year.

The investment team, based at new offices at Queen Street in Edinburgh, will be focused on backing management teams across Scotland who have a clear vision for building successful, expertly run businesses. 

Puma sees significant opportunity in sectors such as FinTech, AI and energy transition, fed by a concentration of academic institutions. 

The investment team will be built out with several new hires in Scotland over the coming months.

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The business is also announcing a rebrand from Puma Private Equity to Puma Growth Partners, which it says better reflects the team’s commitment to partnering with the scaleup companies that it has backed across the UK and supporting them with all aspects of their growth journey.

“For too long Scottish businesses have struggled to raise funds within their own market, often having to go much further to receive the backing they need to grow,” said Leslie.

“At Puma, we are committed to supporting scale-up businesses in Scotland and we’ve been really encouraged by the potential investment opportunities we’ve seen to date.

“There’s a strong ecosystem of active early-stage investors in the Scottish market… we’re excited to see what’s next as we build relationships with growing businesses across the region.”

Recent new portfolio companies include Lucky Saint, the UK’s number one dedicated alcohol-free beer brand; Transreport, the UK’s fastest-growing accessibility technology company; and Pockit, the digital account provider for under-served communities.

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