Praetura Announces Director Appointment as Growth Drive Continues

• Social Chain alumnus joins as marketing director and kickstarts recruitment drive
• Appointment follows news that Praetura provided more than £75m of funding to SMEs in Q1

Praetura, the financial services group that provides ambitious companies with growth funding and support, has announced the appointment of Ben Davies as group marketing director and kickstarted its search for a video editor and copywriter to join the team.

Ben joins the firm from Social Chain, one of Europe’s fastest-growing social media agencies, where he helped the agency to amass more than 80 million followers and reach 1.8 billion people every month. He was a core member of the team that saw Social Chain list on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2019 and led a number of industry-first research projects that looked at the relationship between social media and food, gaming and sport.

Prior to joining Social Chain, Ben worked for a variety of innovative and disruptive businesses, including the ‘anti-café’ chain Ziferblat. As head of marketing and a founding member of Ziferblat UK, Ben firmly established the business as a place where innovators and those pushing boundaries in their respective industries could come together to collaborate and drive growth.

In his new role Ben plans to bring his experience of working with innovative, trailblazing brands to support Praetura on the next stage of its growth journey. This includes immediately investing in its in-house marketing team with the recruitment of a video editor and copywriter to tell Praetura’s story in a more engaging and interactive way.

Commenting on his appointment, Ben said: “Praetura is a fascinating business that really delivers on its promise of providing ambitious entrepreneurs with more than just funding. With a straight-talking, genuine approach it has firmly established itself as an integral part of the financial and start-up communities – not only in Manchester, but across the North of England. The prospect of supporting the next phase of their growth journey is an opportunity that really excites me.

“Praetura has strong beliefs about what a finance company could and should be, and part of my role is to build a team that can help the group to better communicate that message through industry-leading content. There’s a real opportunity to support businesses post-Covid, and Praetura’s role is to help fuel, fund and facilitate that growth. I’m looking forward to being a part of that.”

David Foreman, co-founder of Praetura Group and managing director of Praetura Ventures, added: “Ben’s experience makes him the perfect candidate to build our marketing team from the ground up, not only helping us to differentiate Praetura from other financial services businesses, but ultimately helping us to tell the success stories of the businesses and entrepreneurs we back.”

Ben’s appointment follows the news that Praetura provided more than £75m of funding to SMEs in the first quarter of 2021, with its lending division – which comprises Praetura Commercial Finance and Praetura Asset Finance – hitting its highest quarterly lending levels since the group was founded in 2011.

Praetura Ventures, the group’s venture capital arm, had an equally strong quarter following its investments in pioneering drug company Maxwellia, Manchester-based communications platform PixelMax, and tech for good platforms Transreport and Enthuse. Praetura Ventures also appointed four industry heavyweights – including Social Chain co-founder Dominic McGregor –  as operational partners to bring significant experience to support the founders and entrepreneurs it backs.