Hill Dickinson advises private equity firm Arete on significant investment in facilities hire firm

Hill Dickinson has advised Liverpool-headquartered Arete Capital Partners on its significant investment into Vivify, a Manchester-based scale up.  

Arete was advised by Matt Noon, partner, and Katy Oakes, senior associate, of Hill Dickinson’s Liverpool Corporate team.

Vivify, founded in 2020, is a digital booking system where under-utilised school facilities can be listed for hire. The digital platform allows schools to make the most out of unused facilities in order to proactively generate revenue. 

The investment from Arete will allow Vivify to raise awareness of its platform among underutilised schools across the UK, enabling more people to get involved in social and physical activities. 

Vivify will now look to expand operations across the UK and significantly grow its client base. 

Simon Lord, joint managing partner at Arete, said: “We really believe in Vivify’s vision and their platform will help schools to engage and build relationships with people in their community.

“With feelings of loneliness and mental health problems at an all-time high, this engagement can have a hugely positive impact on the wellbeing of people across the UK.

“It’s exciting for us to work with an entrepreneurial management team who have developed technical differentiation via Vivify’s booking platform to put schools right at the heart of its business model.

“We are looking forward to adding value to Vivify with our existing knowledge of scaling similar types of businesses and helping them to grow the market and all the social and economic benefits that brings”.