Private Equity Readiness: Marketing That Wins UK Deals

UK private equity isn’t short of money. It’s short of convincing growth stories.

By the end of 2024, UK-based private capital funds were sitting on £190 trillion in “dry powder” (unspent capital), according to the source article’s cited figure. Yet KPMG’s reporting on the mid-market shows deal momentum in early 2025 cooled, with transactions taking longer to complete amid economic uncertainty. Translation for founders: the capital exists, but investors are pickier, diligence is deeper, and your narrative has to survive scrutiny.

This matters even more for climate and net zero businesses. In the Climate Change & Net Zero Transition space, private equity investors aren’t only underwriting revenue growth—they’re underwriting regulatory risk, supply chain resilience, decarbonisation roadmaps, and customer demand shifts. If your marketing isn’t doing the job of proving credibility, you’ll feel it in valuation pressure, painful deal terms, or a process that drags on for months.

How private equity really works (and what marketing needs to prove)

Private equity (PE) typically invests institutional capital (pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds) into private companies, often taking a majority stake, backing management with capital and strategic support, and targeting an exit in roughly 3–7 years.

Here’s the part founders underweight: PE doesn’t buy “potential.” It buys a repeatable value-creation plan—and marketing is one of the easiest places for investors to test whether your plan is real.

Marketing evidence becomes diligence evidence. If you claim you can scale, PE will look for:

• Demand proof: pipeline quality, conversion rates, churn, retention.
• Positioning clarity: why you win, why now, why you’re not a commodity.
• Category credibility: third-party validation, press, partnerships, analyst mentions.
• Pricing power: segmentation, willingness-to-pay signals, margin structure.

For net zero and climate transition companies, you also need to prove you’re not selling vibes:

• Impact integrity: emissions accounting approach, auditability, greenwashing risk controls.
• Regulatory awareness: how you handle standards, procurement requirements, reporting.
• Buyer reality: who signs, budget sources (opex/capex), payback logic.

If PE is going to hold the business for 3–7 years, they need confidence that your marketing can keep producing buyers through economic cycles.

The UK private equity market in 2025–2026: what’s changed for founders

The source article references KPMG’s view that the UK rebound in 2024 stalled in the first half of 2025, with volatility driven by geopolitical events and tariff nervousness, while appetite remained stronger in business services, healthcare, and TMT.

Coming into January 2026, that pattern has an implication: “Great business, messy story” is punished harder. If you operate in climate, energy transition, or sustainability-linked supply chains, you may also face longer technical diligence. That’s not a reason to avoid PE—it’s a reason to show up prepared.

The competitive environment cuts both ways

Competition among PE firms can help you find a partner that fits culturally and strategically. But it can also push some investors to use more leverage (debt) to make returns work.

Marketing plays a quiet role here: the more predictable your growth engine looks, the less an investor has to “financial-engineer” the deal.

A sentence I’ve found holds up in PE conversations:

If growth depends on heroics, investors price it like risk. If growth depends on a system, investors price it like an asset.

Your job is to make your growth system obvious.

The PE-ready marketing stack: 3 strategies that de-risk your story

PE investors don’t need your brand to be “cool.” They need it to be credible, differentiated, and commercially measurable.

1) Turn your positioning into a diligence-grade argument

A lot of founders pitch PE with a product description and a big TAM slide. Most companies get this wrong.

Your positioning should read like a buyer’s decision memo:

• Problem: the costly, urgent, regulated, or operational pain you fix
• Who it’s for: narrow ICP (industry, role, size, trigger events)
• Why you: proof of differentiation (data, speed, compliance, integration, outcomes)
• Why now: market timing (policy shifts, carbon reporting, grid constraints, procurement)
• Economic logic: payback period, margin impact, risk reduction

For climate and net zero transition firms, include “anti-greenwashing” specifics: what you measure, how you verify, and what standards you map to.

What PE hears: you understand your market and can keep winning when budgets tighten.

2) Build an “investor-proof” demand engine (not just lead gen)

Leads don’t impress PE. Unit economics and predictability do.

Create a simple funnel view that you can defend:

• Traffic sources by intent (brand, non-brand, partner, outbound)
• MQL → SQL → win rate, by segment
• Sales cycle length and reasons deals stall
• CAC by channel and by segment
• Net revenue retention / churn patterns

Then pressure test it with a “recession scenario” and a “growth scenario.” PE teams love companies that have already done the uncomfortable maths.

For net zero businesses, segment demand by buyer type:

• compliance-driven buyers (reporting deadlines, procurement requirements)
• cost-driven buyers (energy savings, waste reduction)
• growth-driven buyers (green product lines, customer requirements)

Each buyer type needs different messaging, proof and content.

3) Make trust visible with proof assets buyers and PE both respect

The source article’s case studies highlight a recurring theme: PE partners back companies that look professionalisable—with governance, systems, and credible plans.

Marketing can speed this up with proof assets that pull double duty:

• Customer case studies with numbers (savings, throughput, emissions reduced, defects cut)
• Referenceable logos in priority sectors
• Third-party validation (certifications, awards, reputable partners)
• A tight thought-leadership POV (not generic “sustainability” posts)
• A clean data room for marketing/sales (pipeline reports, cohort analysis, channel performance)

In climate transition markets, proof has to be auditable. Avoid vague claims like “reduced emissions significantly.” Put ranges, methodologies, timeframes, and boundaries.

Lessons from real PE-backed growth stories (and what marketers should copy)

The source article includes three useful examples of PE-backed growth that map neatly to marketing and go-to-market work.

Innovate: scale works when the mission is commercial, not cosmetic

Innovate built a disruptive model for school catering and raised £8.5m for a majority stake deal, using capital to strengthen systems and win more contracts.

The marketing lesson: their story isn’t “better food.” It’s a market shift: higher uptake, improved experience, scalable service delivery. If you’re in net zero, the equivalent is moving from “eco-friendly” to “operationally better” (lower cost, higher resilience, fewer compliance headaches).

ZyroFisher: PE accelerates expansion when the strategy is already coherent

ZyroFisher used PE backing to expand into France via acquisition. The CEO emphasised that non-financial resources—contacts and know-how—matter as much as money.

The marketing lesson: PE wants a partnerable story. Show that you know which geographies, which segments, and why. For climate transition firms, tie expansion to policy and infrastructure realities (planning cycles, grid capacity, subsidy regimes).

David Phillips: the real change after investment is professionalisation

David Phillips raised £8m and used it to invest in inventory, IT systems, processes, plus sales and marketing, while scaling through acquisition.

The marketing lesson: if your growth plan includes PE, start acting like a PE-backed company earlier—clean reporting, consistent messaging, disciplined channel choices, and content that supports sales conversations.

A practical PE readiness checklist for UK founders (marketing-led)

Use this before you start serious conversations.

Narrative readiness (2 weeks)

• One-sentence positioning that a buyer would agree with
• A “why we win” page that lists your real differentiators (not features)
• A clear view on substitutes and competitors
• A climate/impact claims policy (what you will and won’t claim)

Commercial readiness (4–6 weeks)

• Pipeline dashboard by segment and source
• CAC and payback estimate by channel
• Win/loss themes documented with examples
• A pricing story (how you price, why it’s sustainable)

Proof readiness (4–8 weeks)

• 3–5 case studies with quantified outcomes
• Customer references lined up
• Partner ecosystem mapped (installers, integrators, channel partners)
• Evidence of impact measurement (methodology + boundaries)

Diligence readiness (ongoing)

• Marketing and sales definitions aligned (MQL/SQL rules)
• Clean CRM hygiene and attribution logic
• A data room folder for GTM metrics

If you can’t produce these, PE will assume you’re improvising.

Where this fits in the net zero transition

Private equity will play a big role in scaling climate solutions across the UK—retrofit supply chains, sustainable transport services, grid and storage enablers, circular economy operations, and decarbonisation software. But the winners won’t be the companies with the loudest sustainability language. They’ll be the ones with commercial proof that decarbonisation is a business advantage.

That’s why marketing isn’t a “nice to have” during fundraising. It’s the translation layer between your operational reality and an investor’s model.

If you’re planning to raise private equity in the next 12–24 months, start now: tighten your positioning, make your proof auditable, and treat your demand engine like a product.

The forward-looking question to sit with: If an investor removed you from the pitch deck, would your customers still be telling a clear story about why you win?