Harwood Private Capital
A hybrid capital provider backing founder and management-owned businesses with unitranche or subordinated debt and preferred equity, from £3m to £20m, structured to leave control with management.
What they do
Harwood Private Capital invests across the capital structure: unitranche and subordinated debt, preferred equity and minority equity, in whatever mix a situation needs. Its UK fund reached a first close of £70m, half of it committed by British Business Investments, and it sits inside the wider Harwood Capital group with around £1.7bn under management. Target businesses are founder, family and management-owned, typically with £2m to £10m of profit, and the stated purpose of the structure is to let owners retain economic and operational control.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Where a founder wants to take money off the table, buy out a shareholder or fund an acquisition without selling to private equity, hybrid capital of this kind is the middle path, more flexible than senior debt and less dilutive than an equity sale. In a £3–15m raise it typically sits as the junior layer beneath a senior facility, or as the whole of a smaller structure.
Where they are not the fit
This is not a pure lender, and any given transaction may be largely equity. A borrower looking strictly for debt should establish early whether a debt-only structure is available, because a preferred or minority equity component is often part of the deal. Profits below roughly £2m sit under the published band, and all-in economics are mezzanine-grade rather than senior.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- EBITDA floor
- From about £2m
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless or management-friendly - backs founder/family/management-owned businesses directly, enabling them to retain economic and operational control; not private-equity sponsor-led
- Where they lend
- UK and Europe; UK-focused in practice (BBI-backed UK SME fund) - model GB primary
- How they decide
- Small partner-led an investment committee
- Security
- A debenture over the company
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Harwood Private Capital lends through 2 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Harwood Private Capital lends, but which of these would own it.
Flexible capital — unitranche / subordinated debt
- Facility
- £3m to £15m
- Security
- A debenture over the company
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- Profits below ~£2m EBIT (bottom of published band); Structures may require a preferred/minority-equity component alongside the debt, not debt-only
Preferred / minority equity
- Facility
- £3m to £20m
- Security
- Unsecured or equity
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO
- Rules out
- Equity/pref leg - not a loan
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £20m; 20 of the 46 private-credit funds here go at least as high.
- Like 31 of the 46, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 46 private-credit & direct-lending funds in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Harwood Private Capital write?
Published facilities run £3m to £20m. It looks for EBITDA from about £2m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
What security does Harwood Private Capital take?
On the published terms, a debenture over the company. What a lender takes on a given facility is set in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does Harwood Private Capital lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Harwood Private Capital lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does Harwood Private Capital lend?
UK and Europe; UK-focused in practice (BBI-backed UK SME fund) - model GB primary.
On the record
May 2025: Invested in Aratellus Offshore (Aberdeen subsea/seabed-investigation technology firm serving offshore wind) (Insider Media / PitchBook.
Sources: harwoodpc.com · british-business-bank.co.uk · business-money.com · privatedebtinvestor.com · citywire.com · oaknorth.co.uk
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.