alva secures £2.5m growth equity from CIT Growth Capital

alva, the high growth reputation business intelligence company is pleased to announce a new growth equity investment from CIT Growth Capital.

The investment will accelerate the firm’s global expansion and support key strategic hires. The multi-million pound deal also represents a part-realisation for Cass, who led the first funding round in 2010 and will remain a minority shareholder.

CIT’s investment marks a notable milestone in alva’s growth. Founded in 2010 by Alberto Lopez, the company has grown on an average of 100% per year since its foundation. The company has developed proprietary technology to provide reputation monitoring and analysis services and works with numerous FTSE100 and Fortune 500 clients.

Alberto Lopez, Founder and Chief Executive of alva said,

“We are delighted to welcome Oliver Thomas and the team at CIT Growth Capital, and thank our customers, employees and early-stage investors for their continued support.

The reputation analytics space is fast-evolving and ever-changing. At alva we have developed a world-class technology and robust methodologies that help our clients link reputation to business performance.

This funding will help alva continue our growth performance, and remain at the forefront of reputation monitoring and analysis.”

Oliver Thomas, co-founder of CIT Growth Capital stated,

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to support Alberto and his team in building alva to its full potential. Corporate reputation data and analytics is a rapidly evolving area of business information and alva has already built a strong foundation as the best-in-class provider to a number of the world’s largest companies. We look forward to working alongside Alberto and the team as they deliver alva’s content and analytics to senior decision makers around the globe.”

Jane Reoch, Investment Director for the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, commented,

“It is fantastic to see the continued success of alva. Alberto and the team have built a first-class business and we are thrilled to have supported the company from start-up.

alva is extremely well poised to capitalise on its growth and first mover advantage, in the UK and the rest of the world. It is a true Cass entrepreneur success story.”

About alva

alva is a business information company that specialises in the monitoring and analysis of corporate reputation and reputational risk for global businesses.

Our complete end-to-end reputation intelligence solution consolidates multiple services including media clipping services, social media listening and bespoke reputation analysis.

alva’s real-time monitoring and analytics, coupled with vertical sector expertise, provides senior executives with premium intelligence via a single, real-time platform, daily alerts and monthly insight reports.

For more information please visit: www.alva-group.com

About CIT Growth Capital

CIT Growth Capital is building a portfolio of minority investments in rapidly growing, founder owned, profitable companies in three sectors- software, information services and online marketplaces.

CIT Growth Capital was founded in 2014 to bring the sector specialist approach of the world’s preeminent growth company investment firms to the founders of UK growth companies seeking £2m – £10m in expansion capital or shareholder liquidity.

For more information please visit: www.citgrowth.co.uk

About Cass Entrepreneurship Fund

The Cass Entrepreneurship Fund is a £10m early-stage equity investor based in-house at Cass Business School. As part of the Peter Cullum Centre for Entrepreneurship, the Fund invests in high-growth businesses across a wide range of sectors. The Centre more broadly offers a range of support services to educate, nurture and encourage entrepreneurs and support new businesses.