BGF appoints portfolio manager to London team

BGF has welcomed Daria Polunina to its team in London as Portfolio Manager.

Daria joins BGF from Saphir Capital Partners, where she spent almost ten years as Director of their London office. Daria also brings experience of managing and sitting on boards of UK-based portfolio companies as well as providing M&A advisory on buy-side mandates for external clients.

In her role at BGF, Daria will be working closely with CEOs and business owners in the company’s portfolio and liaising with the portfolio’s management teams. She will also sit on the boards of portfolio companies including Apex Housing Group, Cass Art, Crêpeaffaire, Oliver Sweeney and Sophia Webster.

We’re delighted to have Daria play such a key role in the management of our portfolio team.

 Jane Vinson, Head of BGF Portfolio for the South

“Daria will be vital in maintaining relationships with our portfolio companies and establishing new opportunities. With her time at Saphir Capital Partners and experience working with UK boards we are confident that Daria will be a valuable member of our portfolio team by bringing the understanding and knowledge needed to help our investees scale.”

Recent deals led by the London team include the successful exit of cloud computing software company Virtual1, which has been acquired by TalkTalk Group. BGF also recently invested $3million with into ARuVR, formerly VRtuoso, creating the world’s first turnkey extended reality (XR) SaaS platform.

Daria commented: “It’s great to be joining BGF as a company that I really admire. Their approach of taking minority stakes in companies and not setting strict exit timelines are factors that I believe are fundamental in allowing a founder’s vision to be maintained whilst also providing businesses with the necessary support and flexibility to grow. With the impressive and expansive list of companies that BGF has scaled in the past, I’m excited to work with this legacy and carry it forward.”