Recruitment Partnership
Empowering Recruitment Entrepreneurs to Lead the Market
Strategic capital and proven expertise to overcome your growth challenges.
Building a Recruitment Business is Hard. Scaling One is Harder.
Growing a recruitment business brings big opportunities and real challenges. From finding top talent to scaling ops and managing costs, you need more than clients to grow: you need the right support behind you.
At Hamilton Bradshaw, we bring deep industry insight, hands-on experience, and smart capital to help you scale with structure, maintain quality, and lead with confidence. We know recruitment, and we back founders who are serious about building something exceptional.
Capital and a Recruitment Platform, Not Just an Investment
We invest in recruitment founders and give them the funding, back-office platform and sector expertise to build a business that scales beyond the founding desk, from first hire to eventual exit.
Who this is for: Recruitment consultants and directors ready to launch their own firm, and established agency owners planning the next phase of growth.
Recruitment is our home ground
Our founder built and sold recruitment businesses; the team has lived through the same billing, cash-flow and hiring cycles you are managing.
Funded from day one
Capital covers salaries, working capital and placement funding, so growth is not limited by cash tied up in your invoices.
Back office handled
Ingenia provides finance, payroll, compliance and systems, the infrastructure that usually slows a young agency down.
A route to a real exit
We build businesses to be sold well: clean reporting, diversified clients and a management team that runs without the founder.
Working alongside recruitment entrepreneurs to build market-leading, talent-led businesses.
How We Support Recruitment Founders
Strategic Capital
Funding structured around your growth plan, not a rigid template.
Operational Support
Back-office, systems, finance and hiring infrastructure from day one.
Access to Network
Operators who have built and sold recruitment businesses of scale.
Scaling & Exit Strategies
Preparing the business, and you, for a well-timed realisation.
What We Look For
Founder-led recruitment businesses with proven billings
Clear specialism and defensible market position
Ambition to build beyond a single desk or office
Appetite for structure, reporting, and professionalisation
Cultural alignment with a long-term partnership
A realistic route to significant scale
Selection of Businesses We've Backed
Recruitment
SF Recruitment
Saira Demmer
UK-based specialist recruiter across finance, technology, and executive sectors, providing tailored recruitment services.
Current
Recruitment
Ignata Finance
Ben Searls & Vikki Searls
Launched in 2017, Ignata Finance is a leading executive search and finance recruitment business, acquired by US-based ZRG in March 2024.
Realised
Recruitment
Walter James
James Absalom
Co-founded in 2015, specialising in consumer/retail, life sciences and chemical sectors. Acquired by ZRG in December 2021.
Realised
Recruitment
Humana International
James Caan — track record prior to Hamilton Bradshaw
Executive headhunting firm co-founded in 1993, growing to 147 offices in 30 countries before its 1999 sale to CDI Corp.
Realised
Airport Infrastructure & Operations
Damicor
Daniel Ellis-Bland
Founded in 2022, a specialist recruitment partner providing tailored workforce solutions in airport construction, engineering and supply chain.
Current
Recruitment
Placed Recruitment
A founder-led recruitment business backed to build out its client base and delivery capability ahead of exit.
Realised
Recruitment
Alexander Mann Solutions
James Caan — track record prior to Hamilton Bradshaw
Grown to a multinational group with revenues of £130m and 160 staff across 30 offices before its sale in 2002.
Realised
Executive Search
Adamson & Partners
Julian Adamson
A market leader in executive search, recruitment and M&A transactions for IP and Legal, headquartered in London with a second office in Munich.
Current
Recruitment
nGAGE
Formerly Human Capital Investment Group, the platform completed two acquisitions and launched nine start-ups before its 2014 sale to Graphite Capital.
Realised
Recruitment
Ingenia
Market-leading provider of recruitment business funding and investment. Since 2014, more than 32 founders have been backed to launch and scale.
Current
Your Path from Launch to Leadership
Proposal Submission
Start by submitting your business proposal, detailing your growth aspirations and the obstacles you're facing. We'll assess your needs and determine how we can best support you.
Initial Consultation
We then have a one-on-one consultation to understand your business model, goals, and challenges, so we can help you overcome your pain points and realise your vision.
Tailored Investment and Support
Once we understand your needs, we provide capital, strategic insights, and operational support to help you scale your recruitment business efficiently.
Realising the Value You've Built
Whether you're pursuing a sale, secondary buyout, or IPO, we guide you through the exit process, ensuring the value you've created is fully realised.
The outcome? You scale faster, lead your market, and exit on your terms, with a partner who's been there before.
Our People
Our Management, Experts & Advisors
Management & Board
James Caan CBE
Chairman & Founder
35+ years' experience
Specialism
Entrepreneurship, private equity and growth strategy. Four decades building, backing and exiting founder-led businesses.
Deepak Jalan
Chief Investment Officer
25+ years' experience
Specialism
Investment strategy, portfolio construction and deal structuring across the firm's platforms.
Greg Hollis
Chief Executive Officer, Ingenia
30+ years' experience
Specialism
Operational leadership and scaling professional services businesses.
Investment
Peter Searle
Recruitment Investment Partner
35+ years' experience
Specialism
Global staffing and recruitment leadership, scaling multi-country businesses, M&A and operational turnaround across the talent industry.
Chris Hickey
Non-Executive Director
30+ years' experience
Specialism
Board governance and international recruitment leadership.
Greg Parker
Investment Manager
10+ years' experience
Specialism
Deal origination, due diligence and portfolio company support.
Subject Matter Experts
Jeffrey Cervantes
Head of Communications
15+ years' experience
Specialism
Communications, brand positioning and public relations.
Chetan Kumar
Marketing Manager
10+ years' experience
Specialism
Marketing strategy, demand generation and digital performance.
Rob Dembitz
Investment Advisor
20+ years' experience
Specialism
Business growth advisory, commercial strategy and founder mentoring.
Chung Hau
General Counsel
15+ years' experience
Specialism
Corporate law, transactional documentation and portfolio legal support.
Pavlos Paschali
Employment & Legal Advisor
20+ years' experience
Specialism
Employment law, contracts and workforce matters, alongside commercial, regulatory and disputes advice for portfolio businesses.
Mark Baynes
Corporate Transactions Advisor
20+ years' experience
Specialism
M&A, buy-and-build acquisitions, investment documentation and transaction governance from term sheet to completion.
Build your recruitment business with real value.
Ingenia partners with experienced recruiters ready to build their own firm with the backing, infrastructure, and capital to do it properly.
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