Edinburgh-based AI and data consultancy Optima Partners said it has secured “significant investment” from Growth Capital Partners (GCP) as it ramps up its UK and European expansion.

Investor BGF announced a successful “exit” from Optima, but will remain a minority shareholder.

“The business has been acquired by Growth Capital Partners (GCP),” said BGF.

“The exit has delivered a 4xMM return and an IRR of more than 50% for BGF. As part of the transaction BGF has reinvested alongside GCP, and will continue to support the company as a minority shareholder.”

GCP’s investment will help several strategic growth initiatives designed to further scale Optima.

Founded in 2013 by Alan Crawley, Optima has grown rapidly across the UK. The company supports complex enterprise organisations across financial services, energy, insurance, telecoms and pharma/life-sciences to solve critical business challenges and deliver measurable value at scale.

Optima Partners’ growth accelerated in 2021 when Crawley partnered with Chris Foley, an academic in advanced mathematics that underpins cutting-edge machine learning and AI applications.

The partnership, in addition to a strategic investment from BGF in 2022, helped established Optima as an applied data and AI transformation partner for its blue-chip clients.

Alan Crawley, founder of Optima Partners, said: “Since its launch, Optima has gone from strength to strength, expanding our capabilities, growing our team and deepening our impact across a range of critical sectors.

“The launch of our health data science division, bioXcelerate AI, has been a major milestone, reflecting the scale of opportunity we see as organisations look to make better use of data and advanced analytics. The backing and continued support from BGF has been instrumental in helping us reach this stage of our growth.

“This investment from GCP marks the start of an exciting new chapter. It gives us the momentum to build on our success, accelerate our plans and continue developing the capabilities that will define the next stage of Optima’s journey.”

Optima Partners CEO Chris Foley said: “Our focus is firmly on enabling the next phase of Optima’s growth. GCP’s investment is a strong endorsement of our mission to help our clients turn their data, analytics and AI strategies into measurable outcomes at speed.

“This funding allows us to accelerate our growing track record of innovation, invest further in our people, and strengthen the infrastructure required to support our clients at greater scale.

“With this partnership, we can move faster to help organisations understand, adapt and enhance human- and data-led decision-making supported by AI, bridging academic foundations with industry-focused and value-based impact.”

GCP partner Richard Shaw said: “Alan, Chris and the wider Optima team have built a highly differentiated business at the intersection of advanced data science, machine learning and enterprise transformation.

“As organisations increasingly seek to harness their data and accelerate AI adoption, Optima is uniquely positioned to help them tackle mission-critical challenges and unlock meaningful commercial outcomes.

“The business has already demonstrated impressive momentum and scale, supported by strong leadership, deep technical skill sets and robust industry expertise.

“We are delighted to partner with the team at this exciting stage of their journey and are looking forward to working together to enhance go-to-market capability, strengthen organisational infrastructure and scale delivery capacity in a rapidly growing and strategically important sector.”

Richard Pugh, Investor, BGF, said: “Since our initial investment in 2022, Optima has seen exceptional growth and development, both in terms of its team and its abilities to revolutionise organisations’ use of data and advanced analytics.

“This is a fantastic result for both BGF and the Optima team. Our backing has supported Alan’s ambitious vision and combined with Chris’ expertise and direction, the business is in an ideal position to gather pace and seize the huge opportunities arising in AI and data.

“It has been a pleasure working with Alan and Chris over the years and we look forward to continuing our backing as a minority shareholder, supporting the business as it embarks on this next phase of growth alongside GCP.”