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Lawrence Investment HoldingsPrivate investment firm since 2008

Private investment office, London

Capital and operating leadership for early stage technology.

Lawrence Investment Holdings backs founders in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA. We take equity for cash and for the operational work most funds cannot do, then stay close enough to reduce overheads, avoid expensive mistakes and hold the line on revenue.

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Wire
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Mandate

What we bring to the cap table

Three things, in this order. Capital is the easiest of them to find elsewhere.

Financial investment

Seed and early stage cheques, written directly and alongside venture and private equity co investors for access to higher quality flow.

Operating leadership

Board appointments, corporate governance and hands on COO level support. Founders keep building product while we take the administrative weight.

Technology and trade network

Engineering capacity and a working network across the start-up and global trade industry, used to open commercial doors rather than to make introductions for their own sake.

Portfolio

Positions

Current and historic holdings. Equity acquired for cash, for services, or for both.

Every position, with detail

Selected holdings

What we have backed

A closer look at four of the companies in the group.

Method

How we work

We are a family investment office, not a fund with a clock on it. That changes what we can hold and how long we can hold it.

More about the firm

The offices at 36 Spital Square, London
36 Spital Square, London E1. Registered office and where the work is done.

  1. We write the first institutional cheque

    Most of our entries are at seed, before a company has the reporting discipline an institutional round will demand. We build that discipline with the team rather than asking for it up front.

  2. We invest services at cost

    Finance, governance, hiring and engineering are supplied from the holding group and priced into the equity. It lowers cash burn in the months where burn matters most.

  3. We hold, and we exit deliberately

    No forced sale at the end of a fund life. Positions are marked, reviewed annually and exited when the buyer, not the calendar, is right.

The wire

Investor news

A running feed of venture, private equity and technology financing news, gathered automatically from the sources we read. Headlines link through to the publisher.

All investor news

Straight answers

Questions founders ask first

What do you invest, and at what stage?

Seed and early stage, with follow on capacity through to a growth round. We invest cash and services together, so the headline number on a term sheet is rarely the whole of what arrives.

Do you lead rounds?

Sometimes. We are comfortable writing the first cheque and setting terms, and equally comfortable coming in alongside a venture or private equity lead where that gets the company a better round.

Which sectors do you look at?

Financial services and payments, logistics and global trade, healthcare and clinics, and software across TMT. If the business is not technology led we are usually the wrong holder for it.

Where do you invest geographically?

Europe and the USA since 2008, and Africa and Asia more recently. We need a route to governance in the jurisdiction before we commit.

What does the operational support actually mean?

A named board appointment, monthly reporting we help build, and access to the holding group for finance, engineering, hiring and corporate governance work. It is real work delivered against a plan, not advisory hours on a retainer.

How long does a decision take?

A first read within a week. Where there is a fit, three to six weeks to a signed term sheet depending on how ready the data room is.

Raising, or looking for an operator on the board?

Send the company. One page is enough to start. We read everything and reply to what fits the mandate.

Submit a company