To give 9amBusiness readers an understanding of how they can best position themselves to attract the funding they need to scale, we caught up with Hannah King from BGF. 

Tell us more about your career to date?

I began my career training as an audit trainee at Grant Thornton before moving into advisory and corporate finance, supporting businesses with restructuring, growth and equity raises. That experience gave me a strong grounding in how companies operate under pressure and the dynamics of scaling ambitious businesses.

In 2019 I joined BGF, one of the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investors. My role is to source and drive investments across Wales and the South West. What I love about BGF is the chance to build long-term relationships with management teams, working alongside them from first meeting to exit – often over many years – and seeing the real impact of growth. It’s great to be part of that journey, helping businesses scale and see the impact of their growth over time.

You meet lots of entrepreneurs and management teams across the region – what are some of the key challenges they are facing?

People are often one of the biggest challenges: scaling businesses need the right skills at the right time, from senior leadership to operational support. Many are also weighing up how much to invest in new headcount versus automation.

Technology and AI are other major themes. Some businesses are fully embracing tools such as CoPilot, others are still experimenting with ChatGPT, while many are unsure where to start. At BGF we run workshops to share real-world use cases, helping companies see where AI can genuinely create efficiencies and unlock opportunities. [HK1]

Other common challenges include developing a clear go-to-market strategy, particularly for B2B businesses and ensuring processes and systems are fit for scale. Too often companies focus on growth without building the operational foundations to support it and that creates hurdles later down the line.

What’s interesting is that these issues arise across all size of businesses across all sectors – from tech to business support services to healthcare to built environment businesses, many of the common themes are the same.

What can founders and leadership teams do to ensure they are best placed to attract investment?

For founders and leadership teams, the starting point is a clear focus on strengths and sector positioning. Investors want to see that a business truly understands its market — not just its overall size, but where it wins. Too often, companies try to be all things to all people across sectors, geographies and customer types. In reality, this signals a lack of focus.

A sharper strategy, centred on the customers and markets where a product or service is most relevant, builds confidence in the team’s competitive advantage.

A strong growth strategy should show both ambition and sustainability. At BGF, we look for this in different ways: top-line growth, bottom-line profitability, or foundational improvements such as professionalisation, building systems, developing processing and ESG. Even if these don’t show immediately in the numbers, they can unlock significant long-term value.

Equally important is the ambition of the leadership team itself. As a minority investor, we back businesses that are open to collaboration, clear on their growth plan, and committed to delivering it. Those qualities make a business far more likely to attract the right investment to take it to the next stage.

What are the key investment trends you are seeing at the moment?

The tech sector remains strong, especially across Wales and the South west, but it’s also a more competitive space now than ever before. Good businesses with a clear strategy are still performing well but in some sectors, including areas of technology, the volume of players has made it harder to achieve the exceptional growth rates of previous years. That tells us there’s opportunity but also a need for real differentiation.

Overall, the market is certainly less buoyant than previous cycles, but the fundamentals are still there: good businesses with strong growth stories continue to attract investment. The difference is that investors are more discerning, and competition is sharper, so companies need to be even clearer about their value proposition and growth trajectory.

Are you seeing more women in leadership roles in companies?

There has definitely been progress here, but we certainly have more work to do to ensure more female representation in leadership roles. We know the pool of female leaders is still smaller than it should be, so part of our role is to help nurture the next generation of talent.

At BGF we support female leaders through initiatives like our board observer programme, mentoring and portfolio-wide networking events. These create opportunities to build experience, expand networks and share learnings.

We’re also proud supporters of the Investing in Women Taskforce, and have recently announced our commitment of at least £300m over the next five years to female-powered businesses through the programme. It’s important we create structures for female leaders to connect, learn from one another and expand their networks in safe and comfortable spaces, as well as giving them the strategic support to raise funds and grow their businesses

What have been some of the stand-out deals you and your team have worked on?

Two deals stand out for me, both in Wales which makes them even more special. The first is my very first Welsh investment at BGF, investing in fast growth digital agency, UNRVLD. From the very first meeting with the management team, through the investment process and then onto the board as an observer I’ve been part of that journey for more than five years.

We’ve supported them with acquisitions, platform diversification and team building and the business has grown significantly in that time. The long-term relationship and seeing the company multiply in scale has been incredibly rewarding.

The second is our investment in Cardiff-based PureCyber, the first investment I led and joined the board of as an Investment Director. The company is performing well and is positioned for strong growth, and our relationship with the senior leadership team is collaborative and rewarding.

For me, our investment in PureCyber reinforced what I value most in this role – being able to work alongside ambitious teams, help unlock growth and see the businesses flourish over time.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My role spans sourcing new investments and supporting portfolio companies. On the investment side I stay close to the market – speaking to advisors, meeting entrepreneurs, relationship-building and spotting opportunities. Whether it’s sharing insights from other sectors, running forums on common themes like scaling culture or pricing strategies or simply being present in the local business community every day is about making sure we’re adding value beyond capital.

Live deals can involve multiple diligence workstreams, which means coordinating advisors and supporting management teams throughout. Post-investment the focus is very much on support and value creation. That can mean attending board meetings, having regular catch-ups with management on areas like people, strategy or go-to-market plans and connecting them with BGF’s wider resources. It’s about being proactive in spotting growth opportunities and helping address challenges before they escalate.