Alan Robertson

Alan Robertson is a Partner at Maven Capital Partners, based in Edinburgh. Maven lists his specialisms as Growth and IFS Maven Equity Finance, with Edinburgh and Aberdeen as his Maven offices and Scotland as his primary geographical focus. His role is to source and execute new equity investments, particularly development-capital investments in high-growth disruptive businesses, and to work with investee management teams on strategy and growth after investment.

Robertson joined Maven in July 2012. Before Maven, he worked at Quayle Munro, where he was recruited to help establish a Debt Advisory and Corporate Finance business in Scotland. Earlier in his career he spent seven years at RBS, predominantly in structured finance, financing mid-market private equity transactions and later managing a portfolio of corporate and leveraged clients.

He holds an Honours degree in Accountancy from the University of Glasgow and is a Chartered Accountant. Maven states that he qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland through the TOPP scheme while at RBS. He is also listed by UK Private Capital, formerly BVCA, as a member of its EIS-VCT Subcommittee.

Maven itself was formed in 2009 after a management buyout of the private equity business of Aberdeen Asset Management. The firm describes itself as a leading private equity and property manager and one of the UK’s most active SME investors, with a regional office network and a focus on backing entrepreneurial management teams.

• Robertson’s core focus is Scottish growth equity: Maven says he sources and executes new equity investments, with a particular focus on development capital for “high growth disruptive businesses.”
• Through IFS Maven Equity Finance, he is associated with a Scotland-focused mandate that invests £250,000 to £5 million in smaller companies based in Scotland or with significant activity there.
• IFS Maven Equity Finance is aimed at ambitious Scottish SMEs looking to start up, scale up, or stay ahead, with use cases including expansion, product or service innovation, capital equipment, skills development, hiring, export finance, working capital, and investment in new products.
• Maven’s wider growth-capital criteria emphasize UK-domiciled companies, revenues of at least £1 million per year, fast growth, a clear and credible strategy, and strong management teams with ambitions to grow shareholder value.
• Sector preference is not narrow, but Robertson’s stated sector experience is software, cyber security, and life science; his portfolio history also shows interest in technology-enabled and specialist manufacturing businesses.
• On IFS, Robertson has said that Scotland’s ecosystem has strong entrepreneurial management teams, but that access to finance is often “the key barrier” to pursuing growth.