Kevan Shaw

Kevan Graham Shaw is Managing Partner of Castle Square Corporate Finance, the Sheffield and Leeds-based independent boutique corporate finance adviser. Companies House lists him as an active director of Castle Square Corporate Finance Limited, appointed on 21 September 2009.

Castle Square’s team profile says Shaw has led corporate finance transactions since 2000, when he started a corporate finance division at one of the region’s largest accountancy practices and built that specialist team into one of the largest in South Yorkshire. He later became a partner at Strategic Corporate Finance, helping develop it from a sole-trader operation into an independent corporate finance boutique.

Shaw created Castle Square Corporate Finance in October 2009. The firm says he has advised on mergers and acquisitions, management buy-ins and buy-outs, development capital fundraisings, disposals, and private-equity transactions. LinkedIn lists his education as Sheffield Hallam University from 1983 to 1987.

The supplied stub labels Shaw as an angel investor focused on seed rounds, but I found stronger primary evidence that his public role is corporate finance adviser and fundraiser rather than a conventional VC or disclosed personal angel portfolio investor. Castle Square states that its funding-market network includes private equity funds, banks, asset-backed lenders, debt funds, peer-to-peer lending, and business angel funding.

• Shaw’s public activity is best characterized as capital advisory and deal execution: Castle Square develops funding propositions, reviews business plans and projections, advises on debt/equity mix, approaches funders, negotiates terms, and project-manages transactions through drawdown.
• Castle Square focuses on mid-market companies requiring “Development Capital” for growth objectives, including project finance, working capital, scale-up and expansion capital, capex, refinancing, and acquisition finance.
• The firm’s funding network includes private equity funds, family offices, clearing/challenger banks, asset-backed lenders, institutional debt funds, peer-to-peer lending, and business angel funding.
• Shaw appears especially relevant where a founder or management team needs a fundable transaction structure rather than a simple seed cheque: MBOs, MBIs, buy-and-builds, development capital, refinancing, and sale/EOT processes.
• His deal discipline is stated in Castle Square’s own article: “we won’t commit to a transaction unless we are confident that it can be delivered.”