Pelican Capital

About Pelican Capital

Pelican Capital LLP is an independent UK lower-mid-market private equity firm headquartered at Nova North in London. The firm was founded in 2020 by Anthony Francis (formerly EY and Director at ContactEngine pre-exit to NICE) and Richard Morrison (formerly PwC, Rockpool Investments and Lincoln International). The firm is FCA-authorised. Assets under management as of December 2024 are not publicly disclosed. The structure is a direct-investment model rather than a blind-pool fund. The firm has expanded from a two-partner founder team to four partners by 2025 with Roy Mani (formerly Bowmark and CapVest) joining in 2025 and Troy Harris-Speid joining in 2025, plus a broader investment team. Heather Duncan joined as Chief Operating Officer in 2024 with 23 years of PE experience. The founding partners cite combined experience of 60-plus private equity transactions and 20-plus years in PE. Pelican operates as a deal-by-deal investor for family office capital.

Investment thesis

Pelican Capital pursues a lower-mid-market buyout and growth equity strategy in profitable UK businesses needing change-of-ownership capital. The firm backs management teams through management buyouts, management buy-ins, succession transactions and partial-exit growth situations. Sector focus is generalist with a preference for B2B services, technology and tech-enabled services, with portfolio bias toward software, cybersecurity, cloud services, mobility data, ed-tech, legal services tech and compliance services. Geographic scope is UK-focused. Ticket size is up to GBP 50 million in equity per investment, with target companies having sustainable profits exceeding GBP 1 million. The capital base is family offices channelled directly into each deal rather than committed to a fund, providing flexibility on hold periods, deal sizing and follow-on. Value creation operates through strategy development, professionalisation, governance implementation and fast execution, with the founders positioning the model around alignment for long-term conservatively-levered partnerships.

Recent activity

Recent investments include Capacitas in cloud technology (June 2025), Finders International in tech-enabled legal services (June 2024), Unseen Group in ed-tech (May 2024), Sentry Bay in cybersecurity (January 2024) and ECA in mobility data and software (April 2023). Recent exits include Atech in cloud technology (October 2024), Your Parking Space in parking technology (July 2022) and Wheel House Advisors in compliance services (August 2022). The platform continues to deploy family-office capital across UK lower-mid-market B2B services, technology and tech-enabled services. The high realisation cadence (three exits across 2022 to 2024 from 8 cumulative investments since founding in 2020) reflects the family-office direct-investment model where holding periods are deal-specific rather than fund-mandated. Detailed buyer names and multiple data available on Pro at €29/month.