Growth Partner

Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Harpin sets the strategic direction and leverages his operating experience to evaluate opportunities. CEO Jason Mahendran, who previously worked at JPMorgan and Active Partners, leads deal execution and portfolio management. Partners Susie Stanford and Alex Marsh form the senior investment team. Investment committee decisions likely rest with Harpin and Mahendran, given the firm's concentrated, family-capital-backed model.

Growth Partner does not fit neatly into either category. It deploys Richard Harpin's personal capital and operates with the lean structure and long-duration mindset of a family office. However, the firm also brings in external co-investors — such as former Gymshark CEO Steve Hewitt — on specific deals, which is more typical of an independent sponsor or deal-by-deal fund model. It does not currently appear to manage commingled third-party funds.

The firm sources primarily through Sir Richard Harpin's network of UK entrepreneurs and operators. Harpin's membership in the Business Leader Community, a peer-to-peer group for mid-market CEOs, provides direct access to founder-led businesses. The investment team also relies on relationships with co-investors like Jeremy Middleton and Steve Hewitt to surface deals in consumer and services verticals.

Growth Partner is entirely separate from HomeServe as an operating business. HomeServe was sold to Brookfield Asset Management in 2023. Richard Harpin founded Growth Partner after the sale, using his personal proceeds and his experience scaling the company. There is no indication that the two entities share capital, investment staff, or a commercial relationship.

Growth Partner favors consumer brands with recurring revenue models, business-to-consumer services, and technology-enabled platforms. Its first known investment is in Passenger Clothing, a sustainable outdoor apparel company. Sir Richard Harpin's own background is in subscription-based home services, and the firm explicitly looks for companies that can apply similar recurring-revenue and customer-retention mechanics.