Welcoming Our Newest Venture Partners

One of our principles at BGV is to take the long view.  We invest early, recognising that building a hugely successful business to solve a real-world problem for millions of people takes time and a vast amount of effort.  We also recognise the value of networks and community in helping exceptional founders build those very businesses.  In particular, we’ve learned that at early-stage; actionable, pragmatic, tangible advice tailored for available resources and specific context makes a huge difference.

That’s why we’re incredibly excited to be expanding our Venture Partner group to include three fantastic new mission-driven commercial experts.  Amy, Dhevesh and Tom bring diverse experiences and specialisms combined with laser commercial focus.  They will work with our portfolio companies from Pre-Seed to Series A to hone their sales & pricing strategies, build sales functions that deliver, and achieve the metrics that matter.  

Amy Manning MBE is an exited founder who began her career on the frontlines of social care, supporting individuals with severe and enduring mental illness. As a social worker, she gained a formative introduction to the world of social services, the NHS, and multidisciplinary teams, and an unvarnished look at the realities of organisational culture.

“I saw an opportunity to innovate in the space between health and social care, where responsibility often sits across the NHS and Local Authorities. Together with my co-founder, we built a company that scaled to 85% of England, achieving 100% contract retention.”

“I focus on supporting founders to move faster by avoiding the pitfalls I experienced and sharing the lessons I learned on how to define USP, prioritise, sell effectively, and bring others with you.”

Dhevesh Mewawalla spent a decade at Citi working with Series A to pre-IPO clients, gaining a front-row seat to what separated the winners from the rest, how investment decisions were really made, and how the best companies built traction internationally. Those years sharpened a rare combination of skills: finance, strategy, sales and people leadership. What followed was a desire to work with more mission-driven companies across Europe as GTM leader, helping them nail product-market fit, expand into new markets, and position themselves to become, as he puts it "ridiculously investable".

“I'm delighted to join BGV as a Venture Partner. A VC that deeply cares about the mission and the people behind the businesses. Founders deserve partners who'll do the unglamorous foundational work with them properly, before the shiny marketing campaign, and tell them the truth about what's actually moving them closer to a business that lasts longer than the mission moment.”

Finally, Tom Ricca-McCarthy deeply understands the art and science of commercialising technology. He brings over 30 years of experience operating across multiple industries and countries.  He has a deep understanding of buying behaviour, willingness to pay, stakeholder politics, procurement dynamics and how deals actually get done.

“Helping founders and teams navigate sales, marketing, pricing, dealmaking, procurement and contracts is hugely rewarding. WhenI help a team save £100K — or six months of wasted effort — by avoiding something that simply won’t work, that’s valuable.“

Amy, Dhevesh and Tom join our existing Venture Partner line-up of product specialists, uMe and George, and M&A expert, Darren. Applications for our next cohort are now open, you can find out more and apply here.

‍