About Us

Equity Plus is a joint venture between three organisations – Community Innovation UK, Celarben Ventures and Resonance – that have considerable experience in supporting organisations to access finance and develop and grow their commercial and social enterprise activities.

Community Innovation UK is a social enterprise consultancy organisation that provides fundraising, business development, strategy and financial management services and training to a wide range of organisations including charities, social enterprises, regeneration agencies, local authorities, housing associations and start-up businesses. With close links to government, public sector agencies and a number of funders, Community Innovation UK is well-placed to assist organisations in developing business plans, tendering for contracts, managing their finances and achieving significant organisational growth. For more information about Community Innovation UK please click here.

Celarben Ventures provides specialist business advisory services in the areas of business strategy, corporate finance and financial management. Having worked with both third sector organisations and private sector businesses over many years, the team at Celarben Ventures combines expertise found in leading accountancy and consultancy practices with a commitment to develop ongoing personal relationships with the management teams of the clients they work with. This enables them to offer real insights into the opportunities and risks that organisations must grapple with and ways to deal with them. For more information about Celarben Ventures please click here.

Resonance works with values-based businesses in the areas of investment, business development and property-based project management. Resonance provides professional advice and consultancy services to investors that are seeking to make a blended value investment and works extensively with social enterprises, particularly through its business development and property-based project management services, enabling the team at Resonance to effectively match investors with investment opportunities that meet their specific investment criteria. For more information about Resonance please click here.

Equity Plus Team

The Directors of Equity Plus are: Daniel Brewer, Chris Carr, Tim Reith and Martyn Williams.

Tim Reith is a Director of Equity Plus and the Founder/Director of Community Innovation UK. In this role, Tim oversees the consultancy provided to social enterprises in the areas of business planning, accessing finance and financial forecasting, strategy, management and business development. Tim has extensive experience of the social enterprise sector and works with leading organisations such as the Social Enterprise Coalition, Adventure Capital Fund, Futurebuilders and the Charities Aid Foundation. Much of Tim’s work involves brokering finance between social enterprises and investors.

Martyn Williams is a Director of Equity Plus and Head of Financial Management Services at Community Innovation UK where he oversees a wide range of financial management services provided to social enterprises, charities and start-up businesses. With 25 years of retail banking experience with Lloyds TSB, Martyn has considerable expertise in comparing financial products and helping organisations access appropriate finance as well as developing effective financial management systems to enable organisations to manage their finances effectively and demonstrate investment readiness.

Chris Carr is a Director of Equity Plus and the Founder/Director of Celarben Ventures. Chris has considerable expertise in the area of raising private investment for small and medium enterprises and has been involved in finance raising and mergers and acquisitions with deal values from £250,000 to over £100 million. A chartered accountant, Chris has worked with both for-profit and third sector organisations and has held a number of senior positions with leading accountancy practices including Baker Tilly where he was a corporate finance partner immediately prior to founding Celarben Ventures in 2003.

Daniel Brewer is a Director of Equity Plus and Founder/Director of Resonance. Daniel has considerable experience of working as an agent for private investors in property acquisition and development-based projects that support growing social enterprise businesses. He has undertaken consultancy for a number of leading organisations in the social enterprise sector including the Development Trusts Association and Charity Bank. By training, Daniel is an engineer with a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Cambridge University.