OPERATOR-LED SUPPORT FOR PE FUNDS
Crescere Partners supports funds and portfolio companies through critical moments of investment, execution, and leadership transition.
One operator, Leon Hurst.
Three Four moments where fund value is most at risk.
Pre-deal, before committing capital
When the VCP is off-track
Moments of leadership transition
Where AI is disrupting, irrelevant of stage
When the deal, the plan, or leadership
can’t afford to go wrong.
Leon Hurst
CEO across PE-backed SaaS, data, tech-enabled services, insurtech, and mobility.
Most advisers are brought in to analyse. I am an operator brought in to act. Crescere Partners exists to give PE funds and their portfolio companies access to operator-level judgement and execution at the three stages in the investment cycle where getting it wrong is most expensive: before you commit capital, when the plan is not delivering, and when leadership changes hands — and where AI disrupts irrelevant of stage.
Each engagement is fixed-fee, time-bound, and built around a specific outcome.
SUPPORTED SECTORS AND SITUATIONS
VERTICAL SAAS
£10-50M ARR
TECH-ENABLED SERVICES
PRIMARY / SECONDARY
DATA PLATFORMS
ROLL-UPS
INSURTECH
LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
MOBILITY
REGULATED
Where I work.
Have a live deal?
PRE-DEAL DILIGENCE
When conviction is not yet strong enough to underwrite
The IC decision is only as good as the operator input behind it. I work alongside deal teams to pressure-test the investment case, underwrite the VCP, and price leadership and AI risk — before you commit capital.
VCP off track?
VCP INTERVENTION
When growth or execution is off plan
The plan was credible at IC. Delivery has slipped. I identify the specific constraint holding back the VCP and fix it — directly, quickly, and without destabilising the wider business.
Transitioning?
INTERIM CEO / COO
When the leadership gap cannot remain unfilled
Founder exits, CEO replacements, and post-acquisition integration all create a window where value drifts. I step in with full accountability from day one, and stay until the business is stronger than I found it.
The operator behind the work.
Built for this.
Not trained for it.
I have spent twelve years operating investor-backed vertical SaaS and tech-enabled service businesses — scaling them, fixing them, and transitioning them. I understand what IC requires, what boards need to hear, and what actually changes performance at the portfolio company level. When I am in a deal, I am credible with the deal team, the management, and the board simultaneously.
£85m
LARGEST P&L
OPERATED
£80m
INSURTECH
SCALED TO EXIT
£250m
GROSS PROFIT
DELIVERED
5
VCPS BUILT AND
DELIVERED
Twice
GROWTH TAKEN
FROM 0 TO 25%
8
M&A PROCESSES
BUY, SELL, ROLL-UP
WHAT PARTNERS SAY
“
We’ve worked with Leon pre-deal, helping sanity-check investment cases and execution risk (CDD, VCP, etc.) and his insights and work have been very high quality.
£3BN AUM MID-MARKET BUYOUT AND GROWTH CAPITAL FUND