Mark Cappell

Mark Cappell is a veteran software-industry chief executive who joined Next Wave Partners as a Senior Adviser in October 2017. He is best known as the former CEO of SmartStream Technologies, a financial-services software company that was private-equity backed and sold to DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) for approximately £250 million in 2007. SmartStream is today led by a different CEO (Akber Jaffer), but Cappell's tenure there established his reputation as an operator capable of building and exiting enterprise software businesses.

Following SmartStream, Cappell continued as a serial chief executive, leading five further private-equity-backed companies and, by the firm's account, adding over £300 million in value for investors across those roles. Profiles of his career describe roughly 25+ years of experience in the IT and software sector, with a CEO-level focus throughout.

Beyond operating roles, Cappell has worked extensively alongside private-equity investors on the transaction and value-creation side, managing a significant number of due-diligence and turnaround engagements for PE firms. This blend of CEO leadership and hands-on PE advisory work is precisely what Next Wave Partners drew on when bringing him in: he was appointed to give the firm's portfolio companies strategic business advice, with particular emphasis on their sales and marketing plans.

At Next Wave Partners, Cappell sits among the firm's advisers and operating partners rather than acting as a primary capital provider. The firm itself — based on Baker Street in London — backs entrepreneurs to "scale and transform their businesses," targeting fast-growing UK service and manufacturing companies and reporting over 30% weighted-average revenue growth across its portfolio.

• Operates as a Senior Adviser to a growth-capital PE firm, not as a check-writing angel; his "yes" is expressed through where he chooses to lend operating expertise rather than personal capital.
• Firm thesis (Next Wave Partners): "transformational growth capital for fast-growing UK service and manufacturing companies", backing entrepreneurs "to scale and transform their businesses."
• Sector affinity reflects his own track record: enterprise/financial software and technology, plus the firm's broader appetite for services, manufacturing, media, and (recently) sovereign AI.
• Value-add centers on commercial scaling — sales and marketing strategy, international expansion, margin improvement, and turnaround/due-diligence rigor drawn from his PE-backed CEO experience.
• Looks for businesses where operational transformation and disciplined growth (rather than early-stage product-market fit experimentation) can drive a step-change in value.