Portfolio M&A Associate

About Us 

At Octopus, we’re entrepreneurs and we’re investors, on a mission to back the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. 25 years in, we’re still 80% owned by our founders, a B Corp and packed with colleagues that believe that business, done well, can be one of the most powerful drivers of change in the world.

To help us deliver this mission, we’re building a team of talented generalists to help us grow our portfolio of financial and legal services businesses (Octopus Money, Octopus Legacy, Seccl and Guardian Angel).

We’re on a mission to help customers in even more ways. We want Octopus to be the first brand you think of when you want to make the right decisions at moments in your life. So, we’re obsessed with making it easier, cheaper and more exciting to get help. We succeed where others have failed by really engaging customers and taking the admin burden off their shoulders – not just educating them. We do that through 4 entrepreneur-led businesses:

• Octopus Money, which is on a mission to turn your dreams into reality with 1-to-1 money help from a real person.
• Octopus Legacy, which uses technology and real-life experience to make sure death is not any tougher than it needs to be.
• Seccl, which provides embedded investments to help more people invest, and invest well.
• amicable, which is the trusted legal service for divorcing and separating couple

What is this role about?

We are seeking a M&A associate to own and drive strategic acquisitions across our four entrepreneur-led businesses. In particular, you can expect to:

• Manage the deal process for several transactions at any given time (note that our deal processes are much faster than what you might find in private equity or investment banking), including due diligence, preparation of transaction documents, and closing
• Engaging and negotiating with potential targets
• Coordinate across a variety of stakeholders to ensure successful transactions, including:
  • Internally across the Inorganic growth team at Octopus Money on the necessary financial, commercial, and strategic inputs
  • Leadership at our other entrepreneur-led businesses (e.g. Octopus Legacy) on transactions for their businesses
  • External legal counsel to prepare and revise transaction documents
  • Counterparty for each transaction

In the future, there is scope to grow responsibilities in the above areas (e.g. lead negotiations), as well as develop a deal pipeline by sourcing, evaluating and prioritizing potential deals.

What’s in it for you?

This role is instrumental in shaping and delivering an ambitious growth and expansion plan over the next 5 years across the Octopus Group. It comes with a high degree of autonomy and ownership and the opportunity to hone the full range of transaction skills in a highly commercial context. At Octopus, we have a strong bias to delivery and believe that employees thrive when they obsess about outcomes, not inputs. We want to provide a unique opportunity to help you hone a broad range of general management and delivery skills. Specifically, we expect that you would find:

• Opportunities to take ownership and deliver new commercial propositions
• Opportunities to source and lead transactions.
• The opportunity to learn from team members, Board members and our broader network across:
  1. M&A
  2. Commercial development
  3. Product development
  4. People management
  5. Leadership

The team:

You’ll work day-to day in the Inorganic growth team within the Octopus Money Group (which also covers Octopus Legacy, Seccl and amicable).

• Passion, and the confidence to believe that we can change established industries for the good of the customer.
• 2-3 years experience working on corporate transactions, which could come from a variety of sources (e.g. Consulting, Advisory, Corporate M&A or Law)
• Resilience and comfort working with ambiguity at pace, including the willingness to bring your own approach to unstructured processes
• A proven ability to own multiple initiatives simultaneously and to make change happen
• A quick learner who is comfortable learning on the job and upskilling where needed
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong organisation and planning skills.
• Good analytical abilities, with basic experience in financial modeling a plus
• An individual who can think laterally, loves ambiguity and gets satisfaction from delivery

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box. What’s the worst that can happen? 

Perks & Benefits

Make a difference

We're on a mission to help millions of people improve their finances. Seeing the impact we can make on our client's lives is deeply rewarding, and motivates the whole team to keep doing more to improve our service. Our client feedback is extremely positive, with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Vouchedfor.

Flexible working

We currently operate a hybrid model which is a mix of office and remote. You'll have the option of working from home 2 days per week (Monday and Friday) with the remainder from our central London office in Holborn.

Work from anywhere

We give an 18 day work from anywhere allowance to swap out the on site days or take some time working from another country. We give an 18 day work from anywhere allowance to swap out the on site days or take some time working from another country. Due to regulations this does not apply to individuals that give regulated financial advice.

Join a great team

We're a diverse team with decades of experience in financial services and a proven track record. We don't like office politics, and believe in treating everyone with transparency and respect.

Rapidly grow your career

We believe in hiring people who are better than us, and giving them opportunities to achieve great things. As we continue to scale up, there will be opportunities for ambitious new joiners to demonstrate their skills and take on bigger roles.

Share incentive plan and team bonus

Being part of Octopus we benefit from the group share incentive plan. In addition, for those who are not commission based we offer a team bonus provided we meet our team goals.

Pension, enhanced parental leave, private medical insurance & other benefits

As an Octopus Money employee you'll get access to a company pension, enhanced parental leave, PMI and other benefits to make sure you're healthy and happy, now and in the future! 

Our Values 

At our core, we believe that how a company behaves is just as important as what it does. That’s why we chose to become an accredited B Corp (the equivalent of a Fairtrade coffee stamp but for companies) and to change our Articles of Association so that the interests all our stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, environment and shareholders – are considered in every decision we make.   

We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive employee experience for all. We promote equal opportunities for growth and development regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, or socio-economic background. We believe strongly that teams are at their best when every member of the team feels safe to bring their whole self to work.