No top dogs at public companies in this article. Good ole start-up founders.
by Andrew Curtin / Jan 3, 2023
You are fed up of looking at articles titled “Economic Outlook for 2023”.
It gets boring.
So here, I’ve picked two CEOs that I believe will make a big impact on the year ahead.
I haven’t picked top dogs at the biggest firms, far from it actually. I’ve picked start-up CEOs.
One is a contractor, the other is a procurement tech firm.
Honey
Mark Mitchell, former CEO of Avant left the £500m turnover firm to set-up a new housebuilding firm, Honey.
Based in Sheffield, Honey has already agreed to acquire two developments in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire for its initial projects. The company plans to deliver a total of 141 units for both developments, which will have a combined gross development value (GDV) of £40m.
“There is a clear gap in the housing market for the type of property we are going to build. The design of the house types was a real affair of the heart because we want to offer people homes that have been specially created for them and that set new standards. We now look forward to submitting our planning applications for our initial developments so that we can begin building Honey homes as soon as possible.” said Mitchell last year,
Honey is backed by Alchemy Partners, a private equity fund that manages more than £1.5bn of funds from investors.
“Having previously worked with Mark, we are fully aware of his talent, skill, and ambition. We look forward to supporting him and his team in growing Honey into a significant and well-respected home builder in the north of England and the Midlands” said Thomas Boszko, a partner at Alchemy Partners.
Yardlink
Neeral Shah founded YardLink in 2018. His company connects construction customers with their supply chain on a single digital platform, enabling contractors to manage their entire supply chain, streamlining procurement, helping them increase their profit margins.
And he believes it can be done in a more sustainable way.
“There is always a local supply chain that’s readily available. That helps to reduce prices and with logistics. But when you also consider the carbon footprint of having things delivered from hundreds or thousands of miles away and bringing it down to 10, 20 or 30 miles away, that makes a huge difference.” said Shah.
“Construction is one of the least digitised industries with over 95% of supply chain transactions still being conducted over the phone, email and pen and paper. Coordinating multiple suppliers and deliveries across time constrained projects is a real challenge that results in delays and costly project overruns”.
And Yardlink is growing…
They recently received £16m in Series A funding led led by Beringea, with participation from Amplifier and existing investors Speedinvest and FJ Labs.
With firms looking to tighten their procurement initiatives, the next 12 months could prove fruitful for Yardlink, estimating a rise from 55 to 110 in headcount.
