Steven Ferris

Steven Ferris is a chartered accountant and investment professional who spent much of his career at ESO Capital, a European special-situations investment boutique founded in 2006 with offices in London and Zurich. At ESO he was a Director in the Asset Management team, responsible for portfolio investments in ESO's institutional funds and for working with external parties on third-party valuations of existing and prospective investments. He subsequently rose to Head of Asset Management at the firm.

Before ESO, Steven worked in professional-services valuations and corporate finance. He was in KPMG Corporate Finance within its Valuations Group, and earlier at PwC within its Corporate Finance and Valuations teams, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. His academic background includes a B.Acc (Hons) in Accountancy from the University of Dundee, an MSc in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) Diploma.

ESO Capital itself invested across the capital structure in privately originated, "off-the-run" situations backed by the assets of European SMEs, financial assets and real estate. The firm deployed over $500 million since inception, managed money for institutional investors, and was authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and registered as an investment adviser with the SEC. ESO Capital's UK entity was wound up around December 2022.

Following ESO, Steven moved to Soho Square (Soho Square Capital) as a Partner, where he oversees portfolio management and valuation responsibilities and sits on multiple portfolio-company boards — a continuation of the asset-management and valuation work he led at ESO.

• Special situations across the capital structure, rather than conventional venture/angel investing — ESO focused on privately originated, off-the-run opportunities backed by real assets, cash flows, or distressed value.
• Three core investment categories at ESO: (1) senior secured debt backed by the cash flows of a performing corporate; (2) senior secured debt backed by assets such as real estate, plant and machinery, or leasehold portfolios; and (3) deep-value asset purchases (including undervalued/distressed loans and physical or financial assets).
• Check size of €10m–€40m per transaction, typically over a two-to-five-year horizon, for both corporate and real-estate projects.
• Downside protection first: ESO positioned itself as providing "flexible financing solutions across the capital structure with focus on downside protection," serving SMEs facing liquidity constraints — from high-growth businesses through to insolvency situations.
• Steven's personal lane is asset management and valuation: his role centres on managing deployed capital, valuing existing and prospective investments, and board-level portfolio oversight, rather than sourcing early-stage angel deals.