Fast-growing UK fund management company Octopus Investments (Octopus) has backed SCM World with a new investment, the parties have announced.

The debt and equity investment will be used to support the exit of one of the founders of SCM World and will provide Octopus with a minority stake in the business.

SCM World combines practitioner content, primary research and peer networking learning programmes for supply chain professionals at some of the world’s most prominent companies.

With headquarters in London and an office in Boston, the company has an offering that has enabled it to grow its market share and develop a broad and loyal blue-chip client base.

SCM World has differentiated its offering from other programmes through the creation of a collaborative learning environment, rather than the traditional instructional training format.

Grant Paul-Florence, head of the intermediate capital team at Octopus, praised SCM World’s “exceptional position in the market”.

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“[This] means that it has strong defensive characteristics and significant potential for ongoing growth,” he said.

“The market opportunity is large, and we are excited to be backing the management team as they continue to take the business from strength to strength.”

Oliver Sloane, CEO of SCM World, added that it is “an exciting time for our business”.

“We’re pleased to have Octopus on board for this next stage in our growth journey,” he continued. “We will continue to build on our progressive, interactive and unique learning model, to accelerate the collective learning and innovation of supply chain.”

Following the investment from Octopus, Jonathan Bennett, founder-shareholder of the company, will step down from his role as Chief Operating Officer. Oliver Sloane will retain his position as CEO and Ian Potter and Grant Paul-Florence of Octopus will join the board of SCM World.

Octopus was advised by Shakespeare Martineau (legal), Wilkins Kenney Corporate Finance (financial due diligence), Armstrong (commercial due diligence), Bluefin (insurance due diligence), Intuitus (IT and Technical).

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