• Our Real-World Insights Empower Founders To Scale With Confidence
• Founders Category Design Masterclass: 21st April 2026 (Central London)
• Recent Client Success News

The Landscape for SMEs has grown increasingly challenging, with 2025 marking a sobering milestone in UK business closures.

According to research from Beauhurst, a record 768k companies closed their doors last year; 80k more than in 2024. It pains a stark picture of the pressures facing Britain’s entrepreneurial community.

Our Real-World Insights Empower Founders To Scale With Confidence

Navigating today’s challenges requires more than entrepreneurial passion; founders face complex decisions around cashflow management, cost control, strategic pivoting and identifying new revenue opportunities, all while managing day-to-day operations.

An experienced advisor brings battle-tested perspective, having guided businesses through previous downturns and understanding which strategies genuinely work when conditions tighten.

Our PACP Partners are multidisciplinary industry experts and leaders, who have successfully started, grown, led and existed businesses. Their perspectives are invaluable to founders, whether on strategy development and transformation, business growth and expansion, capital raising and acquisitions, succession planning and exits.

Despite challenges highlighted by Beauhurst, we’re delighted to share recent client success news below, demonstrating how working with PACP partners can make a real and tangible difference to a founder’s business success. Also details of our first Founders Masterclass…

Stop Competing. Start Dominating

Master Category Design and Capture 80% of Your Market

21st April 2026: Half Day In-Person Founders Masterclass, Central London

The Brutal Truth: 90% of Start-Ups fail. 75% of VC backed businesses fail. Less than 50% make it to Year 5.

Category Kings? They capture 70-80% of entire market value.

Stop trying to be “better” than the competition. Create a new category where you have NO competition. Learn the strategic capability behind AirBnB, Salesforce and Stripe – and how a UK founder used it to build a business that’s been Category King for over 25 years.

Led by PACP Partner, Martyn Dawes, who created Coffee Nation (now costa Express), defining an entirely new category that captured the space between vending machines and coffee bars.

Email steph@pa-capitalpartners.com to register your interest in attending this half day in-person Masterclass in Central London. Places are limited – register early.

Recent Client Success News

For more info about these Female Founder clients and their current fundraises, contact greg@pa-capitalpartners.com

RACHEL RILEY – Founder: Rachel Riley

Award-winning premium childrenswear brand.

Rachel Riley delivered a standout year on 2025, achieving its planned sales target as well as exceeding its margin targets, with the US market driving exceptional growth.

The US continues to be Rachel Riley’s strongest growth engine, with total sales increasing +20% YoY. Drop ship and marketplace sales more than doubled while wholesale expanse now includes Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Maisonette and Amazon, with Macy’s launching in 2026.

Plans for the future: Rachel Riley is focussed on scaling high-return initiatives:

• Launching the high-quality US YouTube channel with paid campaigns
• Expanding baby product offerings on Bloomingdale’s Baby Registry and Macy’s in Q2
• Developing new licensing collaborations for Eloise collections
• Exploring Middle East expansion with a capital-light model

With a strong 2025 performance and exciting growth initiatives underway, Rachel Riley is positioned to continue delivering exceptional results in 2026.

NIFT – Founder: Simone Oloman

Unique category defining combination of marketplace and SaaS platform that can deliver to customers in under 20 minutes.

NIFT’s strong growth continues into 2026 after delivering another exceptional Q4 in 2025.

NIFT has seen impressive growth across the board, with MRR on track to surpass £30,000 in December, following strong growth in both October and November. These achievements reflect a combination of digital marketing success with +8x ROAS and organic user growth.

BY TEDDY – Founder: Delphi Reid

Re-defining pup leisure: an innovative brand dedicated to designing beautiful products for a new generation of dog owner.

By Teddy saw explosive growth in Q4 2025 with multi-channel success:

• Seeing John Lewis selling out
• DTC breakthroughs including TikTok shop
• High-profile collaboration with womenswear sensation Old Muse

Plans for 2026 include 60 products launching in Pets At Home, brand extension in over 160 Pets Corner stores and revenues breaking through £1.5M.

GRÁ CHOCOLATES – Founder: Gráinne Mullins

An award-winning brand of exquisite artisan confections blending the finest raw ingredients with native Irish flavours.

Grá Chocolates’ 2025 performance saw multi-channel growth and traction.

Achieving 100% of planned revenue targets while significantly exceeding gross margin targets through improved factory efficiency and procurement strategies.

The brand further solidified its position as a category leader in Ireland’s top-tier retailers, as well as successfully entering the UK market, securing a strategic listing with Mahalo, a UK distributor, unlocking access to their network of 700+ independent stockists, including Selfridges and Harrods.

2026 Strategy – Export Scale and Brand Equity: UK “Hero” launch in Selfridges Chocolate hall (Q2 2026), positioning Grá as a global luxury brand.

Launching a month-long brand activation residency at Raye The Store (Covent Garden) to drive direct consumer engagement and bran awareness in London.

International expansion in the UAE with a capital-light market entry model to secure high-end retail and hospitality partners.

Investment and Capital Structure: Successfully secured a strategic funding round to finance this expansion phase.

Funding secured already in this round of €325k has unlocked a further €300k Enterprise Ireland HPSU (High Potential Start-UP) match funding, with €400k of the round still available in this rapid growth, luxury brand.

For more info about these Female Founder clients and their current fundraises, contact greg@pa-capitalpartners.com