Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology · Riding Unicorns Productions

Growth Equity, VCTs and Exits with Rupert West, Managing Director @ Puma Growth Partners

September 24, 2025·42 min·1 clip

The 2008 crisis hit right when I got to Barclays—it taught me how to operate under uncertainty.

Rupert West joins Riding Unicorns as founder and managing director of Puma Growth Partners. He starts with a clear description of Puma as a UK-focused, predominantly Series A early-stage growth capital provider. The firm writes primary cheques of four to ten million. It backs companies in consumer brands, software and technology, and scalable business services. Rupert also notes that the team works out of London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. The discussion then turns to what Series A means in practice. He explains that the answer is not the same for every business type. Milestones look different in consumer, software, and services businesses. That difference matters because Puma wants to judge companies on the right evidence for their model. Rupert spends time on the firm’s diligence approach. He describes it as comprehensive and focused on both the business and the people behind it. The goal is to build confidence before the money goes in. He says seeing the business from the inside helps the team understand where the real risks sit. That work is meant to catch issues while the business is still relatively early. Fixing them early keeps those problems from becoming much larger later. Rupert also talks about the trust between the top people running a business. He values confidence, but only when it is self-aware rather than blind or arrogant. Another theme is exit readiness. Puma wants to leave a business ready for the next round and also ready for a future exit. He frames the role of an early-stage investor as helping a company think like later investors will think. That means spotting diligence issues now instead of leaving them to the next fundraise. The conversation keeps returning to practicality. It is about matching capital to the business. It is about understanding what the next stage will demand. And it is about making sure a company can absorb growth without turning small risks into larger ones.

As heard by us

A practical look at how a growth investor weighs people, risk, and exit readiness.

Rupert West lays out how Puma Growth Partners thinks about UK growth equity without dressing it up. The frame is clear: a four-to-ten-million primary cheque, a multi-sector lens, and offices in London, Manchester, and Edinburgh.

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear map of how a UK growth fund sizes up Series A deals.

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