Unessa partners with founders, owners, management teams and families when the next chapter requires more than capital.
We bring counsel, operating discipline and capital to moments of growth, transaction and transition, and we stay for the chapters that follow.
Strategic advisoryPrivate capitalOperating support
Who we are
Capital alone rarely changes the outcome. Advice only matters when it can be executed. We also invest our own capital alongside our advice, aligning our interests with those of our clients.
Unessa brings senior judgement, private capital alignment and hands-on operating support into one model. We work beside clients and management teams where the objective is clear: build value, execute well and move through important decisions with discipline. We are not only called at the transaction moment. We work before, during and after major inflection points: preparing the business, running the process and supporting the next chapter.
We review opportunities as a group and put the partner group with the most relevant judgement, experience or relationships closest to the work. The door is open: come in through whichever of us you know best.
Tim Brookes
Partner · Transactions & Private Capital
M&A, transactions and private capital execution.
Bernie Brookes AM
Managing Partner · Operating Chair
Former Myer CEO; governance, retail and operating leadership.
David Columbro
Partner · Finance & Structuring
Corporate finance, capital structure and reporting.
Cam Murchison
Partner · Commercial & Growth
Growth strategy, marketing systems and scaling.
Behind the partnership sits an operating team that supports finance, talent, commercial, transaction and governance work where the mandate requires it.
We take the operating and board seats to deliver the roadmap, not only build it.
We arrange the capital to bring ambition to life, and deliver the plan and the results.
The people you trust are the people that deliver the plan.
There is no layer between you and the judgement and execution that makes the difference.
Beginnings matter, and so does everything after.
We are there from the first round, through growth and acquisition, to exit, and to preserving and growing wealth beyond it.
When to call us
We are most useful when there is a genuine inflection point: a raise, acquisition, sale, succession, governance reset, operating transition or step-change growth opportunity.
You are raising capital, entering a new stage of growth, building out the senior team or preparing the business for institutional investors.
We help shape the story, model the opportunity, introduce discipline and support the founder through the process.
You are considering an acquisition, sale, recapitalisation, succession plan or strategic change in direction.
We help define the options, prepare the business, manage the process and support decision-making through execution.
You are evaluating direct opportunities, co-investments, portfolio strategy, governance or succession across private capital.
We provide discreet advice, transaction discipline and access to opportunities that require judgement as much as capital.
You need an aligned co-investor, operating partner, transaction adviser or relationship-led partner with private market experience.
We bring senior judgement, operating capability and a network built across businesses, boards and transactions.
What we do
Unessa works across capital, transactions, operating support and private advisory. Each capability is delivered with the rigour of an institution and the continuity of a private office.
Origination, structuring and execution of direct and co-investment opportunities. We focus on control and meaningful minority positions in established, cash-generative businesses, and we invest and co-invest alongside institutional partners on larger transactions.
Buy-side and sell-side advisory across the full transaction: origination, valuation, due diligence, structuring, negotiation and completion. Mandates range from single-asset transactions to complex, multi-party portfolio sales, including competitive processes, data room and vendor due diligence management, and direct engagement with private equity and strategic acquirers.
Early and growth-stage investment and advisory. We back founders with a compelling read on a market and the team to act on it: building the investment case, reaching the right investors, and putting in place the governance that institutional capital expects. We work from seed through Series A and B, and stay on as the business scales.
Bespoke advisory to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and family offices, spanning investment strategy, portfolio construction, governance, succession, and access to proprietary deal flow. Delivered with the discretion the work demands.
How we work
Most firms make clients choose between senior judgement and functional depth. Unessa is built to provide both.
The partner with the most relevant judgement stays close to the opportunity. Backed by an operating capability that does the foundational work: models, materials, governance, diligence, introductions, reporting and execution cadence.
A clear path from the first conversation to a lasting operating cadence, five stages, each run with institutional discipline.
We start by clarifying the objective, constraints, stakeholders and decision path. The first task is to know what result matters and what must be true to get there.
We help develop the investment case, transaction logic, financial model, capital structure, board materials or strategic plan required to support a serious decision.
Where a raise, acquisition, sale or strategic process is required, we help manage it with institutional discipline: preparation, diligence, counterparty engagement, negotiation and completion.
Strategy needs a rhythm. We help establish priorities, owners, metrics, reporting, board packs, decision rights and operating meetings so progress becomes visible and accountable.
We are built for continuity. Where appropriate, we remain involved as investor, adviser, board participant or operating partner, with roles and responsibilities agreed up front.
The operating capability that sits behind the partner, deployed as modules, wherever the mandate needs them.
Critical role definition, candidate mapping, senior introductions and hiring support.
Financial models, cap tables, investor materials, reporting packs and capital strategy.
Positioning, customer narrative, sales materials, growth priorities and strategic introductions.
Board rhythm, decision rights, risk review, KPI reporting and accountability cadence.
Capital, operators, advisers, acquirers, customers and opportunities that may not reach the open market.
What we look for
We are not bound to a single stage or sector. We are consistent about the ingredients that make an opportunity right for Unessa.
The common thread is a family, business or founder with substance, credible people, an edge and a path to material value creation, and the ambition to be surrounded by experience and focus.
We look for opportunities grounded in real revenue, real assets, real customers or a credible path to them.
Committed operators with the judgement, resilience and discipline to do the difficult work.
A genuine insight, relationship, structure, asset, capability or market position that others have missed or cannot easily copy.
A clear route to materially higher value through capital, acquisition, sale, governance, growth or operating execution.
We are not the right partner for passive investment-only opportunities, unsupported ideas with no path to validation, or situations where there is no role for senior judgement, operating contribution or transaction discipline.
Focus areas
We go where the right people, business and opportunity are. Our depth sits across sectors where capital, governance, operating capability and relationships can materially change the outcome.
Clinical services, diagnostics, telehealth, longevity and medical technologies where commercialisation, distribution, governance and capital strategy matter.
Performance technology, body composition, analytics, recovery and partnerships across elite, professional and consumer markets.
Payments, treasury, regulated infrastructure and compliance-led technology, including anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing applications.
Operating assets and multi-party transactions where structuring, stakeholder management, capital discipline and execution capability are central to value creation.
Go-to-market strategy including packaging, line extensions, branding, distribution strategy and trade engagement, pricing strategy and new market entry.
We remain open to exceptional opportunities outside these areas where the people, structure and value-creation path are compelling, or can be made so.
Contact
Have an opportunity, transaction, growth challenge or private capital matter to discuss? Share a short note with the partnership.
Please do not submit highly confidential information until an appropriate confidentiality framework is in place.
