“Finerva’s vision is to see the UK as home to the fastest growing companies in the world. We do this by bringing together fast-growing businesses with a trusted network of specialist advisers in finance, accounting, tax and beyond.”
Our purpose is to give clients the best possible advice in the form of simple, clear and actionable recommendations.
It’s based on what the legendary investor Michael Moritz, wrote in an email to Adam:
“… don’t go to business school, don’t go to an investment bank. Get involved in the rough and tumble of the real world.”
That’s what we did! Finerva encapsulates our vision of what a modern accounting and financial advisory business should be.
Our purpose is supported by our four core values:
- RESPONSIVE – we respond to the needs of our clients in professional and timely ways.
- COLLABORATIVE – we work as a team with clients, colleagues and associates, listening and supporting and being flexible around family life.
- SIMPLE – we keep our advice clear and straightforward, so our clients can focus on what’s important.
- OPEN – our costs and timelines are visible and we do not to shy away from the delivery of good or bad news.
We believe this creates business relationships based on trust. We aim to do this in ways that are refreshingly different to what others might expect from an accountancy firm.
The reward is seeing the businesses we advise grow and thrive. Not only is this great for everyone involved, it’s fantastic for the UK economy.
Start-ups and Scale-ups don’t get the level of support they need or deserve from traditional accountancy firms. There is a huge amount of entrepreneurial energy in the UK and a great deal of this is invested in technology innovation and commercialisation. Things that we are both believers and advocates of.
We want to help our clients achieve their vision. That requires building an ecosystem for them that makes professional services faster, smarter, and more rewarding for SMEs and professionals alike.
What is Finerva’s story?
Adam and Ben trained together as graduates at PwC London from 2005 to 2008. On qualifying, their paths diverged – Ben via management consulting, and senior finance roles and BskyB and Bupa; Adam in boutique mid-market M&A and then as CFO of an InsurTech business, which grew and successfully sold to a NYSE InsurTech group.
In 2017 they co-founded Finerva. Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategy and so Finerva is the fusion of this with our financial expertise.
Our clients are innovators and rapid growth, scalable businesses, mostly in the tech, life science and consumer sectors. Most are backed by Angels and or Venture Capitalists. The Founders we work with are ambitious to build big businesses, fast!
Initially, we developed our business model around flexible working which was unfashionable pre-Covid, but we found some exceptional specialist advisers who wanted to work part-time or as consultants from home.
What is Finerva most passionate about?
Of course, we get excited about seeing our clients grow and reaching their full potential but we don’t believe this is possible unless they are advised by colleagues who feel valued and respected. The two go hand in hand.
Our ability to be responsive and proactive with our clients is based on the confidence and wellbeing of our team. We know they are excellent at what they do, so what we are passionate about is the level of care and support they give our clients.
It’s something we constantly monitor and we’re always looking at how to improve our level of service. We believe that our continued business growth is due to the treatment and respect that is given to both advisors and clients.
What excites you about UK business in the age of Covid-19 and Brexit?
The global financial crisis of 2008/9 produced a series of positive global disruptors e.g. Airbnb and Slack. Like them all of our clients are innovators, and visionaries. While there will be challenges, it’s an opportunity for ambitious UK tech and tech enabled businesses.
