Our Investment Model.
Intelligence-led, disciplined governance, and exit-focussed value realisation.
Creating Global Value, Together.
We work alongside founders, management teams, and capital partners who understand that exceptional outcomes are built through clarity, intelligence, and disciplined execution.
We are not a consultancy, and AURA, our proprietary intelligence system, is neither for sale nor licensable. We take meaningful equity positions, and deploy AURA directly into the businesses we partner with. Through this model, we deliver immediate and material value, identifying hidden or missed opportunities, removing operational friction, strengthening governance, and accelerating performance from day one.
Our involvement is active and impactful rather than controlling, and strategic rather than transactional. We work with leadership teams to transform businesses at scale, grow shareholder value, and lead organisations toward credible exit or liquidity outcomes.
Partnering With Established Businesses.
We partner exclusively with established, successful businesses led by motivated, ambitious owners who are ready to optimise performance and move deliberately toward an exit or liquidity event.
We do not invest in start-ups, turnaround situations, or concept-stage businesses. Our focus is on companies with proven operators, strong fundamentals, and leadership teams who want to professionalise governance, sharpen decision-making, and scale with control rather than chaos.
In every partnership, we take equity and work alongside management to unlock value already present in the business, improving clarity, execution, and institutional readiness. We expect disciplined operators, openness to challenge, and a commitment to building a business that strategic buyers trust.
Our role is to deploy AURA, and accelerate what already works, identify the value centres, remove friction that limits scale, and transform strong businesses into exit-ready assets.
Our Investment Profile.
We are a disciplined, exit-focused investor with a clear mandate and repeatable model. We are most effective in sectors where consolidation, operational discipline, and institutional credibility drive disproportionate returns. In particular, we are drawn to businesses with strong revenue visibility, long-term contracts, and predictable performance profiles, where value can be unlocked through structure and decision quality rather than headcount growth. Typical characteristics of our investments include:
Enterprise Value
We only consider opportunities and partnerships where an enterprise value of minimum £50m is demonstrable. Our typical profile targets a range up to £150m.
Growth Stage
We target established, well-managed and scalable businesses with solid leadership and management. We partner with great operators, looking to scale.
Time Horizon
Return on time is our most critical KPI. We're medium term partners looking to connect with exit-focussed owners, and guide to an exit/sale.
Immediate Value Add.
Partnering with The Carling Group is never just a capital raise or advisory engagement. It is a deliberate decision to bring intelligence, governance, and execution capability directly into the business. Owners who partner with us exchange equity for immediate value creation, continuous decision support, and a clear, disciplined path to exit. What follows are the core advantages our partners gain by embedding The Carling Group, and AURA, into their business.
Intelligence-led Governance at Scale
Our hybrid Board of Direction introduces always-on, AI-powered governance across finance, compliance, commercial decision-making, and intelligence oversight. This ensures the business is continuously monitored, aligned, and controlled as complexity increases.
Immediate Value Realisation
From day one, AURA is deployed directly into the business, creating instant efficiency gains, clearer insight, and faster decision-making. Hidden value is identified early, operational friction is removed, and performance improves immediately — not years into a transformation.
Institutional Readiness without Cultural Disruption
We strengthen structure, discipline, and decision quality without replacing leadership or undermining culture. The business becomes more robust, predictable, and trusted — while founders and management retain authority and momentum.
Decades of Deal & Exit Experience
We bring deep experience in acquiring, scaling, and preparing businesses for sale. Owners gain a partner who understands how buyers think, what they diligence, and how to build credibility, resilience, and value ahead of an exit or liquidity event.
Access to a Global Advisory Network
Partners benefit from our established network of leading global advisors across strategy, finance, legal, and transactions. This network is activated as needed to support growth, governance, and exit execution.
Aligned Capital & Long-Term Partnership
We invest our own capital, take equity, and remain aligned through the full value-creation journey. Our success is directly tied to growing shareholder value and delivering a credible, well-executed exit.
How We Create Advantage.
Our advantage does not come from access to capital alone; it comes from how we think, decide, and execute consistently, across the entire Group. We have deliberately engineered our governance, intelligence, and operating model to eliminate preventable failure, surface reality early, and enable our teams to move decisively without losing control. That foundation allows us to move faster than competitors without becoming reckless, scale businesses without diluting standards, support founders through clarity rather than pressure, and protect downside while compounding upside. Everything else you see on this site flows directly from that operating philosophy.
