Optima Partners receives fresh backing from Growth Capital Partners
Business and AI consulting specialist Optima Partners has received a major new investment from Growth Capital Partners. As the firm ramps up its UK and European expansion ambitions, this has also seen the exit of BGF, which has partnered Optima since 2022.
Alan Crawley, founder of Optima Partners, said, “Since its launch, Optima has gone from strength to strength, expanding our capabilities, growing our team and deepening our impact across a range of critical sectors. The launch of our health data science division, bioXcelerate AI, has been a major milestone, reflecting the scale of opportunity we see as organisations look to make better use of data and advanced analytics. This investment from GCP marks the start of an exciting new chapter. It gives us the momentum to build on our success, accelerate our plans and continue developing the capabilities that will define the next stage of Optima’s journey.”
Launched in 2013, Optima Partners is a business consultancy working across the financial services, energy and telecoms sectors supporting its customers in strategy and engagement, design and transformation and advanced data science and engineering. In February 2025, experiencing double-digit revenue expansion, the firm said it expected to hit a record income of £12 million by the end of the financial year – with interest in AI consulting services in particular booming. The company is supported by bioXcelerate AI, its dedicated health data science arm, to that end.
Looking ahead, Growth Capital Partners’ investment will fuel several strategic growth initiatives designed to scale Optima further. This includes “investing in customer success, enhancing its service and innovation propositions, expanding strategic marketing, accelerating talent development, and growing its position in the UK and European markets”, according to a release from Optima.
Richard Shaw, a partner at GCP, commented, “As organisations increasingly seek to harness their data and accelerate AI adoption, Optima is uniquely positioned to help them tackle mission-critical challenges and unlock meaningful commercial outcomes. The business has already demonstrated impressive momentum and scale, supported by strong leadership, deep technical skill sets and robust industry expertise. We are delighted to partner with the team at this exciting stage of their journey and are looking forward to working together to enhance go-to-market capability, strengthen organisational infrastructure and scale delivery capacity in a rapidly growing and strategically important sector.”
BGF exits
The move comes after years of accelerated growth – beginning in 2021, when Crawley partnered with Dr Chris Foley, an academic in advanced mathematics that underpins cutting-edge machine learning and AI applications. The partnership helped to establish Optima as a trusted applied data and AI transformation partner for its blue-chip clients.
Further boosting performance was strategic investment from BGF in 2022. An active growth capital investor in the UK and Ireland. Following the backing of Bambino Mio, Polar Technology, and The Chemistry Group, BGF handed Optima Partners a £2.3 million injection. Following that, Optima has increased headcount by more than 90% in the last two years, with additional offices opening in London and Bristol.
Upon the completion of the new deal, BGF confirmed its exit from its initial investment – which delivered a 4xMM return, and an IRR of more than 50%. This is not the end of its relationship with Optima, though. As part of the transaction BGF has reinvested alongside GCP, and will continue to support the company as a minority shareholder.
Michael Berger, portfolio at BGF, added, “This transaction represents a very successful exit for BGF and a strong endorsement of what Alan, Chris and the team have built at Optima since our investment in 2022. The business is now firmly established as a leader in applied data and AI, and we’re delighted to have backed this period of its growth, while also reinvesting alongside GCP as Optima moves into its next stage of development.”
