01 – Return
Commercial performance
Risk-adjusted returns from durable businesses and productive assets. The commercial case is the first gate, not the last.
Approach
Underwritten for returns first.
The commercial case is the first gate. Strategic relevance is a filter we apply on top of one, never a substitute for it. Four tests, one standard, and a process where the order is the argument.
The mandate
Four tests every investment has to pass.
All four, not three. Fail one and we say so in week one, not month four.
02 – Capability
UK capability
Sectors where long capital unlocks science, infrastructure and industrial capacity that would otherwise stall – or leave.
03 – Place
Regional growth
Skilled jobs, supply chains, regeneration. Weighted hard towards everywhere that is not London and the South East.
04 – Horizon
Enduring platforms
Operating capability that outlives us. Not passive exposure that leaves nothing behind.
Our view
Britain rarely runs out of ideas. It runs out of patience – usually somewhere between the prototype and the second factory.
The research is strong. The engineering is strong. The patience is what runs out – through consenting, through a first-of-a-kind build, through a decade-long offtake.
So assets get sold the moment they turn interesting. Teams get bought out from abroad. Value that should have compounded here compounds somewhere else. Not dramatic – just a reasonable decision by an investor whose fund ends before the asset matures.
Our answer is structural, not sentimental. Dedicated vehicles instead of a fixed-life fund, so no exit clock sets the strategy. Operators on the boards. A British base because it pays – proximity to a cluster, a regulator, a workforce, a grid connection – not because it flatters.
And a straight trade. Patient capital is not cheap capital. Own something for ten years and you underwrite it ten times harder on day one.
How Nebula operates
Central capital discipline. Sector-led execution.
Capital enters at group level under a single standard, is deployed against approved activity into the sector businesses that originate and deliver it, and lands in the dedicated structures that hold the asset. Accountability moves down with it; the standard does not.
01
Group
Capital is introduced and held at group level, which retains treasury control, capital allocation authority and investment approval. Nothing is signed off by the people who found it.
02
Sector
Capital is deployed against approved activity into the sector businesses that originate and deliver it, each with its own management and specialist advisers.
03
Vehicle
And down into the dedicated structures that hold the asset – alongside management teams and partners, where accountability finally lands.
The structure preserves clear accountability without over-centralising day-to-day decisions – and lets Nebula assemble the right mix of capital, technical expertise and operating leadership for each opportunity.
Governance
Approval sits apart from origination.
Capital is introduced and held at group level. Group retains treasury control and capital allocation authority regardless of where funds are operationally deployed, and every material commitment is approved centrally.
Investment approval sits apart from origination. The people who find an opportunity do not sign it off. Approval runs through the Investment Committee, which brings group directors together with non-executive advisers and the sector specialists relevant to the transaction under review, so each decision faces both executive scrutiny and independent external challenge.
Delivery is delegated; discipline is not. Sector businesses and project entities run their own operations and report into group under a single framework for capital allocation, risk oversight and reporting. Arrangements between group entities are conducted on an arm’s length basis, with costs and revenues allocated accordingly.
Central capital allocation
Treasury and capital allocation authority are retained at group level, wherever funds are operationally held.
Approval separated from origination
Material investment decisions are approved centrally, by people other than those who sourced them.
Investment Committee
Group directors sitting with non-executive advisers and the sector specialists relevant to the transaction under review.
Arm’s length internally
Services and assets shared between group entities are priced on commercial terms, with costs and revenues allocated transparently.
From first call to tenth year
How an opportunity moves through Nebula.
Six stages, and the order matters. We settle how a thing will be owned before spending money deciding whether to own it.
01
First conversation
Before anything formal
No NDA. No data room. No deck. Tell us what you are building, what money alone cannot fix, and what has to be true in ten years. Most conversations end here – and we say so in week one, not month four.
No NDA required
Typically one meeting
Answer either way
02
Screening
The four tests
Four tests, all of them. We also settle which platform owns the relationship and which specialist reads the file – a chemist, an aerospace CFO, a banker. Never a generalist.
Mandate fit
Platform assigned
Specialist adviser engaged
03
Structuring
Deciding how it should be held
Shape before spend. Which vehicle holds it, who else belongs on the register, what management keeps, where decision rights sit. Co-investment, joint venture, regional rights, project financing – tailored, never templated.
Vehicle and ownership
Decision rights defined
Partners identified
04
Diligence
Where the work is
Commercial, technical, legal, regulatory – run by sector specialists, not one panel firm applied to everything. Consenting, certification and grid risk get priced explicitly. Where there is a partner, risk goes to whoever can actually carry it.
Sector-specific advisers
Shared with partners
Risk allocated, not averaged
05
Approval
One standard, centrally applied
Group approves, deliberately separated from the platform that found the deal. The people who source it do not sign it off. Same standard for a reactor, a factory or a clinical programme.
Group investment approval
Origination separate from sign-off
Consistent across platforms
06
Ownership
The long part
Where patient capital either means something or does not. Board seats, support for the team already there, follow-on capital ready so phase two is not a fresh fundraise. Good outcomes are usually quieter than the model.
Board and operating support
Follow-on capital available
Held through cycles
A commercial return, and a Britain that can still build.
If you are building something that needs an owner rather than a counterparty, we would like to hear about it.