Community transport operator HCT Group has secured £17.8m funding to “accelerate growth, providing working capital to continue the rapid expansion and to provide the funds to acquire commercial bus operators and turn them into social enterprises.”
Founded in 1982 and led by CEO Dai Powell, social enterprise HCT Group is now the UK’s ninth-largest operator, running 732 vehicles from 13 depots.
Big Issue Invest – the social investment arm of The Big Issue magazine – led the round, which consists of a refinance of legacy debt and an injection of new capital.
It is the largest fundraising by a UK social enterprise so far in 2018.
City Bridge Trust, Esmée Fairbairn, HSBC, MFS, Phone Co-op, Social and Sustainable Capital, TriplePoint and four high-net-worth individuals from the ClearlySo network – an impact investment bank – also participated.
