Next Wave Partners

Name

Next Wave Partners

Legal name

Next Wave Partners LLP

Website

https://nextwavepartners.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Equity / Growth Capital Investment

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Other Financial Investment Activities (5239)

SIC

Investors, Nec (6799)

akta.pro primary industry

Multi-Sector / Generalist Growth Equity (FSANACAO)

Keywords

• Growth capital investments
• Private equity firm
• Portfolio management
• Transformational growth
• UK mid-market investing

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Management fees and carried interest: Next Wave Partners generates revenue through management fees and carried interest (performance fees) from its private equity funds. The firm has raised institutional funds since 2007, investing over £210 million of equity into private companies across multiple fund vintages.
2. Portfolio company value creation: Returns are generated through operational improvements, bolt-on acquisitions (over 28 completed), international expansion, and eventual exits via trade sales, financial investor sales, or IPOs. The firm targets superior returns through revenue growth, margin enhancement, and business expansion rather than financial engineering.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Next Wave Partners is a London-based growth-focused private equity firm that invests £15–75 million of equity into UK companies with enterprise values of £25–100 million. The firm backs owner-manager businesses, family-owned companies seeking succession, non-core corporate carve-outs, and entrepreneurs operating in industries facing technological disruption. It generates revenue from management fees and carried interest on its institutional private equity funds and supports portfolio companies with operational improvements, bolt-on acquisitions, and international expansion.

Product overview

Next Wave Partners is a growth-focused private equity firm that does not develop or sell its own products or services. The firm invests in portfolio companies, each of which operates its own distinct business with its own products and services. The portfolio includes companies across diverse sectors including sovereign AI technology (Whitespace with its Collective platform), technology-enabled security services (Clearway Group), e-commerce logistics (The Delivery Group), post-production media services (Molinare, Pip Studios), retail and Post Office services (UOE), consumer technology (Swytch), educational technology (Sam Labs), packaging technology (Petainer), and other business and consumer services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Growth Capital Investment (Equity)
• Portfolio Operational Support
• International Co-Investment Network Access

Quantifiable outcome

• Over £2 billion of growth capital transactions transacted (over 70 transactions)
• +9 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Ministry of Defence (MoD)coreOthers · 1 November 2025Whitespace is one of four SMEs awarded an enterprise agreement by the UK Ministry of Defence — a framework designed to streamline collaboration and procurement with trusted UK technology companies across the defence ecosystem. Whitespace's technology is already operational within UK Defence.
• AccenturecoreOthers · 1 February 2024GemSeek, a leading customer experience analytics provider, was acquired by Accenture in February 2024. NWP and co-investors Beechbrook Capital and Access Capital engaged Silverpeak to manage the exit. The acquisition underscores Accenture's ongoing investments in data and AI capabilities.
• ShipStationminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2023The Delivery Group was added to ShipStation's carrier services in the UK, allowing ShipStation merchants to select TDG as their carrier of choice for domestic and international deliveries. This is a distribution partnership expanding TDG's e-commerce reach.
• Centroid and Atomic ArtsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Molinare entered partnerships with industry-acclaimed international partners Centroid and Atomic Arts to expand its services in performance motion capture, VFX and animation, broadening its offering in Games and reinforcing its leadership in premium Film, Drama and Factual post production.
• Parcel Monkey GroupminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020The Delivery Group entered a joint venture with Parcel Monkey Group to launch ETrak, a new e-commerce international delivery solution. ETrak provides end-to-end shipping from collection through to customs clearance and final-mile delivery via a cloud-based platform. TDG later acquired ETrak Logistics Limited from Parcel Monkey in November 2021.
• Next15's SavantaminorOthers · 1 January 2020Savanta, a Next15 data and insights group, acquired the UK business of Future Thinking from Next Wave Partners. Future Thinking France and GemSeek were not part of the deal. The acquisition brought Future Thinking's UK team of 61 staff in Oxford and London offices into the Savanta group.
• BDT Capital Partners / Lew's Holdings CorporationcoreOthers · 1 January 2019NWP fully exited Fox International in 2019 to BDT Capital Partners (Lews Holdings Corporation acquired Fox). NWP achieved over 6x return on its investment, with EBITDA growing 100% under NWP's ownership.
• FedExcoreOthers · 1 January 2018Next Wave and The Delivery Group successfully sold a division of TDG to FedEx for approximately £100 million, achieving over 4x distribution on invested capital. This was a landmark transaction for the portfolio company.
• FRP Advisory / FRP Corporate FinanceminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2018FRP Advisory acted as debt advisor to The Delivery Group in connection with recapitalisation. Tom Cox, partner at FRP Corporate Finance advised on the upsizing of TDG's banking facilities.
• KKRcoreOthers · 1 January 2016Next Wave exited Petainer to KKR in April 2016, achieving a 2.2x return for the fund. Under NWP's ownership, revenue grew from €64m to over €100m and EBITDA from €6.4m to €16.2m.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Market position

Strengths5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NextWavePE
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/next-wave-partners

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A5 records

Investments15 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Next Wave Partners