Gradwell | Deals Case Study

Gradwell Communications is a Bath based VoIP provider and long term client of Shaw & Co. The journey started as far back as 2011 when we helped Gradwell secure its first private equity investment from Altitude Partners.

In a journey of 100 steps 99 is half way, says the Chinese proverb. Our journey with Gradwell reminds us of that wisdom and when the deal with Altitude completed in 2012 our work with Gradwell was far from done, five years later we helped Gradwell secure its next investment from Chiltern Capital.

Finalists for the 2015 ITSPA award for Best Business ITSP (Small Enterprise) and the Comms Business Good to Great 2015 award, Gradwell has a 70+ UK-based strong team that is dedicated to delivering innovative products and the best possible customer experience to over 22k SME clients. We helped Founder and CEO Peter Gradwell to articulate his vision for the business by developing a rigorous business plan and financial model, against which capital for growth was secured from private equity in 2012. In 2017, further investment was required and we helped Peter secure backing from Chiltern Capital so to drive the next phase of growth in the business. In 2017 Peter was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at Insider South West’s 42 Under 42 dinner.

Building Value

We've had the pleasure of working with Peter on a number of projects to help develop Gradwell over the years, to include:

Business Plan

We worked with Peter to explore his objectives for the business, to understand where he wanted to take it and what he wanted to achieve. Important in any planning we do is also understanding the personal objectives of our clients. We then got to work with putting a plan together that would see him fulfill his goals.

Financial Model

…Of course no business plan is complete without the numbers behind it to show how it works. We worked with Peter and the team at Gradwell to understand the mathematics behind the business, linking this tightly to the business plan to fully plot where growth would come from, when and how much.

Private Equity

We have worked with Gradwell Communications to complete two deals since we began working with them. First to secure private equity backing from Altitude in 2012, and then by Chiltern Capital in 2017.