• Appointment bolsters team predominantly looking after the £100 million Foresight East of England Fund
• The Foresight East of England Fund is an evergreen fund, supporting promising SMEs across the East of England
Foresight Group (“Foresight”), a leading listed regional private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has announced the appointment of Alastair Dean as Investment Manager. Alastair will predominantly support the deployment of its £100 million Foresight East of England Fund (“the Fund”).
A native of the region, Alastair has worked on a range of deals in the area during his career to date and will use his local knowledge to help identify new investment opportunities for the Fund.
After studying economics at the University of Edinburgh, Alastair joined Deloitte as a graduate before spending five years in Rcapital’s investment team. He has also worked in a variety of private equity-backed businesses.
“Having grown up in Lincoln, I’m very proud to be joining the Foresight team that has had such a huge impact on the wider region in the past four years. Foresight has an excellent reputation in the East of England and I’m excited to help the Fund support more dynamic businesses and help the local economy prosper,” Alastair comments.
Earlier this year, saw the seventh investment from the Foresight East of England Fund – a multi-million pound investment into Cambridge-based designer of hardware, Cambrionix Limited. To date, the Foresight East of England Fund, and Foresight’s VCT funds, have invested more than £35 million in the region. Foresight’s Cambridge-based investment team, led by Director Matt McLoughlin, continues to actively search for new investment opportunities throughout the East of England.
Commenting on Alastair’s appointment, Matt said: “Since it was established in 2019, the Foresight East of England Fund has aimed to support economic growth across the region. Crucial to that is our team, which combines expert knowledge of the region’s strengths with the know-how of what is needed to take promising SMEs to the next level. We’re thrilled that Alastair is now part of that team and we look forward to drawing upon his local knowledge as the Fund enables promising business to go from strength to strength.”
The £100 million Foresight East of England Fund is an evergreen fund supporting SMEs, across all sectors and stages, with investments of up to £10 million. The Fund partners with promising SMEs across the East of England and beyond.
Foresight continues to be one of the most active investors in smaller companies, having completed more than 90 investments into SMEs in 2022, alongside a number of strong exits. In the same year, Foresight’s Private Equity team announced three new funds, a ventures fund acquisition and expanded its regional office network, opening offices in Dublin and Leeds. So far in 2023, Foresight Private Equity has invested into 35 SMEs and has announced a number of successful exits, including Datapath (11.7x money), Mowgli (3.5x money) and GovGrant (4.5x money).
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