Phoenix is pleased to announce its latest investment in Squarcle, a UK-headquartered consultancy providing specialist supply chain, procurement and data services to highly regulated markets.
Founded by Gavin Emmerson MBE and Simon Perks in 2020, and joined by Nigel Allison CBE in 2022, Squarcle has scaled rapidly since its inception, supported by strong margins, recurring activity and an impressive list of multi-year customer relationships.
The business helps governments and infrastructure organisations improve supply chain resilience, programme delivery and operational performance through consulting, digitisation and proprietary software solutions.
Today, Squarcle serves customers including the Ministry of Defence (MOD), civil nuclear operators and NATO through a team of 140 consultants operating in mission-critical environments. Its capabilities are further strengthened by proprietary technology, including its control tower platform, PULSE.
Phoenix’s investment strategy focuses on founder-led businesses in high-growth niches where it has deep expertise. The transaction marks the twelfth investment from Phoenix’s current flagship fund and builds on the firm’s decades of experience in the specialist consulting, supply chain & logistics, and defence sectors, as illustrated by its successful investments in AVA and Logiq.
Phoenix’s partnership with Squarcle will help the firm deepen its talent base, scale its technology offering, and extend its reach across the UK defence and wider public sector, international markets and adjacent regulated sectors; all while preserving the excellent culture and high standards of delivery that have underpinned Squarcle’s success to date.
Gavin Emmerson MBE, Founder & CEO, Squarcle, commented:
“We were looking for a partner who would back our plans to scale and grow without asking us to compromise the very cultural values and tested methods that have powered our success to date. From the first meeting, Phoenix fitted the bill. They asked the right questions, and clearly understood the immense opportunity in the specialist supply chain and procurement sectors.”
“We put a long-term plan in place for Squarcle back in 2020, and with the combined resource of our expert teams and Phoenix’s steadfast support, we are in a strong strategic position to become a global leader in specialist consulting to highly regulated markets.”
Richard Hill, Investment Director, Phoenix Equity Partners, commented:
“Backing the right people is at the heart of what we do, and in Gavin, Nigel and the broader Squarcle leadership team we have found exactly that – a founder and group of operators who have built something genuinely differentiated from the ground up. We look forward to supporting them as they take the business to its next stage of growth.”
“This investment reinforces our strategy of backing dynamic, founder-led businesses with high-growth potential in regulated, mission-critical end markets.”
