£12m confidential invoice discounting frees working capital for care recruiter's acquisitions
This article covers Diverse Recruitment Group, a London-headquartered recruiter, receiving a £12 million confidential invoice discounting facility from Bibby Financial Services. The facility frees up working capital across five group entities to support day-to-day growth, further acquisitions and the group's supply of temporary staff to the health and social care sector and local government.
Bibby Financial Services has provided a £12 million confidential invoice discounting facility to Diverse Recruitment Group, the London-headquartered recruiter that supplies temporary staff to the health and social care sector and local government. The deal frees up working capital across five entities in the group, supporting both organic growth and further acquisitions at a time when care-sector staffing pressure remains acute.
Why it matters
Recruitment businesses that place temporary staff often face large cash flow gaps because they must pay workers before client invoices are settled. For firms operating in the care sector, that pressure is intensified by persistent demand for staff and frequent fluctuations in contract volumes. A dedicated invoice discounting facility can stabilise cash flow and allow a recruiter to increase client limits, take on larger contracts, or pursue acquisitions without diluting equity.
For the wider market, the transaction is a sign that specialist SME lenders remain willing to back labour-intensive service providers. It also highlights the role of non-bank funders in enabling consolidation among recruitment groups serving public sector and care customers.
Inside the product
The facility is a confidential invoice discounting line, meaning invoices are used as security but clients are not notified of the funder’s involvement. BFS structured the £12 million package across five legal entities within the Diverse Recruitment Group to increase individual customer funding limits and release working capital tied up in receivables.
That structure helps the group manage multiple trading brands and legal entities — Diverse Recruitment Limited, Imperium Resourcing Limited, MCM Medical Limited, Amare Health Limited and Social Work First Limited — which together report around £100 million in annual turnover. The facility follows BFS support for an associated acquisition earlier in 2025 and is intended to underpin both further acquisitive activity and day-to-day growth across the UK care sector.
Who are the investors?
Lender: Bibby Financial Services, an independent SME funder, provided the £12 million confidential invoice discounting facility. The deal was introduced by Matthew Stacey at Antares Finance and executed by a BFS deal team led by Christian Nolan.
BFS positioned the facility to increase individual customer funding limits and to operate across five entities in the group, addressing the operational complexity of a multi-entity recruitment business and the working capital demands of temporary staffing.
In the announcement, Christian Nolan, Corporate Business Development Manager at BFS, said:
We’re proud to partner with Diverse Group, a business playing a vital role in meeting staffing needs across the care sector.
Our team worked collaboratively and at speed to structure a confidential invoice discounting facility that supports both their immediate requirements and long-term ambitions. We look forward to supporting the Group as they continue to grow.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Tommy Love, Managing Director of the Diverse Group, said:
BFS supported at a critical time for our business.
Their ability to respond quickly, understand the complexity of a multi-entity structure and increase our facility within tight timeframes made all the difference. The new funding line provides the working capital headroom we need to continue scaling across the UK care sector and to pursue future acquisition opportunities.
Love’s comments underline that the funding was sought not only for day-to-day liquidity but to secure headroom for expansion and consolidation across the group’s specialist brands that serve hospitals, care homes and local authority contracts.
The bigger picture
This transaction sits within two broader trends: growing demand for capital solutions tailored to labour-intensive service businesses, and continued consolidation among recruiters focused on the care economy. For lenders, recruitment groups with diversified public sector exposure and multiple trading entities present both complexity and opportunities for revenue growth.
The deal also echoes increasing interest from HRtech investors and lenders in businesses that can help address workforce shortages or scale staffing services efficiently. For the UK market, maintaining the flow of tailored debt facilities will be important if recruiters are to meet demand without resorting to risky balance-sheet strategies.
More broadly, as the UK and European care sectors continue to strain under staffing shortfalls, transactions that free up working capital for specialist recruiters play a practical role in ensuring services can be delivered while companies pursue growth or consolidation.
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