South West Dealmakers Awards 2025 – Highly Commended
Cattaneo Corporate Finance is proud that one of its high-profile transactions has been recognised at the prestigious Insider South West Dealmakers Awards that took place at Bristol’s Marriott City Centre Hotel on 26 July 2025.
The £5.6m investment by Mercia Ventures into Heidi, the fast-growing online tour operator specialising in flexible ski holidays, was awarded Highly Commended status by the judges in the category of small deal of the year (sub £10m). Led by Mercia, the deal also included an investment by Active Partners and was supported by a team of professional advisers which, alongside Cattaneo as corporate finance advisers to Heidi, included PKF Francis Clark (financial and tax due diligence), Data Shigoto (IT due diligence), Ten Tenths Consulting (technical due diligence), The Continuum (management due diligence), Philip Hare & Associates (tax advisers to Mercia), Shoosmiths (lawyers to Heidi), Muckle (lawyers to Mercia), CMS (lawyers to Active Partners) and Claritas Tax (tax advisers to Heidi) ,
The transaction was picked out for special recognition from a very competitive category which contained a short-list of eight deals in the region with the MBO of Devon Contractors being crowned the winner.
Heidi was founded in 2018 by brothers Marcus and Alexander Blunt who, with most operators only offering Saturday departures, spotted a gap in the market for an online operator that could offer greater flexibility. The business has grown rapidly, with revenue having quadrupled in the past two years making Heidi the UK’s third largest ski holiday operator carrying over 34,000 passengers in the most recent season. The funding will enable the Bristol-based company to further enhance its platform, expand its customer service teams and create more than 20 new jobs in the short term.
Martyn Pilley commented:
“We’re delighted that Cattaneo played a key role in advising Heidi on the investment from Mercia and Active Partners. Both the business model and management team are extremely credible which was reflected in a highly competitive process. We’ve advised on a number of deals in the leisuretech space and Heidi is an excellent example of technology being used to address a genuine market need. They are a fantastic company with a very exciting future ahead and we look forward to seeing what they can achieve with this backing.”
