What Albany Partners does

Albany Partners is a London-based executive search firm founded in 2012 by James Goodrich, specialising exclusively in the placement of technology and product leadership — primarily CTOs, CPOs, CIOs, and CISOs — into investor-backed companies across Europe. The firm operates on a retained basis, engaging directly with venture capital and private equity funds as well as their portfolio companies at every stage from pre-revenue/angel through to growth capital and mid-market private equity. Albany has executed over 350 placements across 500+ searches in its history and cites a typical 10-12 week timeframe for senior-level engagements. Named client engagements span FinTech (Pleo, Monzo, Curve, SECCL), HealthTech (Numan), eCommerce (Bloom & Wild, Paddle), enterprise data (Dunnhumby), and other verticals (Goodnotes, Glovo, Sennder, What3Words, Elliptic, Thermondo, TWAICE), with engagement outcomes disclosed at the placement-name level.

The business is structured as three wholly-owned divisions operating under a unified Albany brand: the core Albany Partners executive search offering for permanent C-suite placements; Albany Growth, established in 2021, which extends the offering to scaling product and engineering teams beneath placed executives; and Albany Interim, launched in 2023 and led by Partner David Mackey, which provides interim, fractional, and advisory engagements. The firm employs 20+ professionals across consultants, researchers, and operations based at its headquarters at 10 Bloomsbury Way, Holborn. Geographic reach spans EMEA, with particular emphasis on the UK, DACH, and Nordic markets.

Albany's revenue model is retained professional services fees, with engagements priced individually (specific fee structures are not publicly disclosed). The firm employs direct enterprise sales motion — engaging VC and PE funds on a retained basis — and uses content marketing (Albany Insights blog), an annual CTO Compensation Survey produced in partnership with CTO Craft, and a strategic partnership with Alphalist (a DACH-based CTO community) for top-of-funnel activity. There is no disclosed external funding; the company has grown organically with no parent entity, no institutional backers, and no acquisitions disclosed.

Name

Albany Partners

Legal name

Albany Partners

Website

https://albanypartners.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Albany Partners is a London-based executive search firm founded in 2012 that places CTOs, CPOs, and senior technology leaders into investor-backed technology companies across Europe, operating three wholly-owned divisions covering permanent, interim, and product/engineering team scaling engagements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Holborn

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

Revenue model

1. Executive Search Services: Retained executive search engagements for placing technology and product leadership (CTO, CPO, CIO, CISO) in investor-backed companies. Services include permanent placements, interim placements, and advisory engagements.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Albany Partners is a London-based retained executive search firm that places CTOs, CPOs, CIOs, and CISOs into investor-backed technology companies across Europe. Through its core brand and sister divisions Albany Growth and Albany Interim, it delivers permanent placements, fractional and interim executive engagements, team scaling, and advisory services to VC and PE funds and their portfolio companies from seed through mid-market private equity.

Product overview

Albany Partners operates as a unified executive search offering with three distinct but complementary divisions serving the investor-backed technology ecosystem. The core Albany Partners brand provides permanent executive search for CTOs, CPOs, and technology leadership roles. Albany Growth, established in 2021, extends the offering to help clients scale product and engineering teams beneath placed executives. Albany Interim addresses market demand for rapid, contract-based technology executive placements. Together, these divisions support the full VC and PE lifecycle from seed through to mid-market private equity.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Albany Growth: Recruitment service helping investor-backed businesses scale their product and engineering teams, established in 2021.
• Albany Interim

Products and services

• Albany Partners Executive Search Retained executive search services delivering permanent placements of CTOs, CPOs, CIOs, and CISOs into investor-backed technology companies across Europe (UK, DACH, Nordics), serving VC and PE funds and their portfolio companies from seed through mid-market private equity.
• Albany Growth Growth-focused recruitment service helping investor-backed companies scale and build product and engineering teams, operating as a generational growth partner with data-driven recruitment mechanisms for VC and PE portfolio companies.
• Albany Interim Interim and contract-based hiring division providing rapid placement of technology executives including CTOs, CPOs, and product and engineering talent available at short notice for PE and VC-backed businesses requiring bridge leadership or fractional support.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 350 placements and 500+ searches completed across Europe since founding
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers20 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

One partnership is on record.

• AlphalistcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 January 2024Albany and Alphalist (DACH-based exclusive CTO community with 800+ members) announced strategic partnership in January 2024. Albany will share insights on engineering leadership and investor-led tech market hiring with the Alphalist community. The partnership provides Alphalist members with career consultations and access to top-percentile engineering talent opportunities. Founded in 2017, Alphalist is a global community of CTOs leading teams of 20+ FTEs with a highly vetted Slack community (47% WAU).

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Stott and May: UK-based executive search and interim firm focused on technology leadership and product engineering hiring for venture-backed and enterprise clients. Directly comparable to Albany in geographic footprint, technology specialism, and growing interim/fractional capability.
• La Fosse Associates: UK-headquartered executive search and recruitment firm with a dedicated technology and digital practice placing senior leaders into VC and PE-backed businesses. Highly comparable to Albany given overlapping UK tech search specialism and the fact that Albany's Managing Partner Henry Draper previously led its technology practice.
• True Search: Global executive search firm focused exclusively on placing senior technology leaders at venture-backed and growth-stage companies. Closely comparable to Albany in terms of narrow specialism on CTO/CPO placements and investor-backed client base, with offices spanning the US, Europe and APAC.

Broad incumbents

• Korn Ferry: World's largest executive search firm with a substantial technology officers practice serving both enterprise and venture-backed clients. Comparable on technology leadership placements for VC/PE-backed businesses, but at vastly greater scale and with much broader service offerings including RPO and consulting.
• Egon Zehnder: Global executive search firm with a strong technology and digital practice placing CEOs, CTOs and product leaders across growth-stage and enterprise clients. Comparable on cross-border CTO and CPO mandates for investor-backed companies but operates globally with much larger partner headcount.
• Heidrick & Struggles: Global executive search firm with one of the largest dedicated technology officer practices serving VC and PE-backed clients worldwide. Comparable in that it places CTOs and CIOs for investor-backed businesses, but operates at much greater scale and offers broader functional coverage beyond technology.
• Harvey Nash: Global technology recruitment and executive search firm with deep relationships across the European venture and growth ecosystem. Comparable to Albany on technology leadership placements and EMEA footprint, but with broader services spanning interim, contract and permanent technology hiring.
• Spencer Stuart: Global executive search firm with a well-established technology, media and telecommunications practice that places CTOs and CPOs at growth-stage and public technology companies. Overlaps with Albany on technology leadership mandates but operates at much larger scale with broader industry coverage.
• Russell Reynolds Associates: Global executive search firm with a dedicated technology practice placing CIOs, CTOs and chief product officers into growth-stage and enterprise organisations. Overlaps with Albany on senior technology leadership mandates but operates globally with broader functional coverage.
• Odgers Berndtson: UK-headquartered international executive search firm with a dedicated technology practice and strong relationships across European venture and growth ecosystems. Comparable to Albany on geography and tech leadership focus, but offers broader functional and sector coverage at materially larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/albany-partners
• Xx.com/albanypartners

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Albany Partners