Leading HR consultancy LACE Partners has today announced a significant investment from private equity business Mobeus. Co-founders of LACE, Aaron Alburey and Cathy Acratopulo, said it will help to ‘supercharge’ the business ahead of increasing demand for strategic HR services from businesses across all sectors.
This represents the first external investment for LACE, which has grown rapidly since the end of the 2020 global pandemic. It will enhance its offerings to People functions across all industries and support the ongoing growth strategy of LACE. Co-founder Aaron Alburey said it enables LACE to help CPOs and CHROs and their teams to deliver increased people productivity and engagement. Speaking of the investment, Aaron explained, “Since Cathy and I founded LACE, we have seen the market for strategic HR services expand rapidly. The impact of Covid and the need for our Enterprise clients to change their approach to better enable their people by investing in experiences and technology has created a significant opportunity for us. This investment will help us to deliver on this at speed and to expand through organic and non-organic growth.”
Cathy Acratopulo added, “People functions have made massive strides in recent years. They are front and centre in driving value for the businesses they support through maximising the engagement and productivity of their people, against a backdrop of increasing economic pressure and hot talent markets. Organisations are looking at how they can differentiate to attract the right people and deliver amazing employee experiences to retain the talent they need for future success. We’ve secured this investment because we want to support more HR leaders with their strategic priorities. We are so excited to be working with Mobeus to take forward our growth agenda”.
Mobeus will be a minority partner in LACE Partners. The investment process was led by Mobeus’ Freddie Bacon, Investment Director, with support from Chris Price and Samira Aminzare. Mobeus Portfolio Partner, Guy Blackburn, will join LACE Partners’ board while Samira Aminzare will join as a board observer.
Freddie Bacon added, “Mobeus is delighted to be partnering with LACE, a high-quality platform in a market where businesses increasingly require strategic advice and delivery capability across the HR spectrum. Since our initial conversations, we have been enthused by the ambition of founders Aaron and Cathy and the calibre of talent across their wider team. Mobeus is eager to support these plans by leveraging our recent experiences of the wider consultancy sector, which delivered two successful exits last year.”
