Andy Alderson
Founder & Managing Partner
Andy Alderson is beyond proud to be the founder and now former CEO of Vanarama, a business he started in a Portakabin on a used car site, and ended up selling to the FTSE 100 giant, Auto Trader for £200 million.
Under Andy’s leadership, Vanarama, became a beloved, household name, leasing more than 140,000 vehicles and employing more than 1000 people during his tenure. Despite being in an industry dominated by tech laggards, Andy and his team were able to build the best-in-class business, thanks to their relentless focus on brand building, customer experience, talent acquisition and development and harnessing innovation and technology at their heart of all they did. By doing all of this, Vanarama established itself as the clear leader in a field of more than 600 other business in its sector.
Sunday Times 100 Best Small Company To Work For in the UK in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The only vehicle leasing business to achieve an exit to a FTSE 100 giant.
£200 million
Andy was determined to revolutionise the vehicle leasing industry
Having built his company into the brand in its sector, Andy decided that in order to make the transition from being a “big small business” to a “small big business”, he wanted to raise equity funding from investors that he believed in, and who believed in him. He chose to partner first with Pentland Ventures, led by his now partner Elliot Conway, and then later with Rinkelberg Capital, which is the investment office of the founders of TomTom.
After choosing the right investors, Andy was then able to create a peerless C-suite and Senior Leadership team, invest money and focus on making the brand even better, and then implementing an ambitious digital transformation programme that would dramatically improve Vanarama’s ability to scale and defend itself from competitors.
Those decisions led to Auto Trader, the UK’s largest car buying platform (attracting just under 70m visits a month) identifying Vanarama as the company that it wanted to buy in order to enhance its online sales capability for its sellers and improve the overall experience of its buyers.
Recognised for his entrepreneurial achievements, Andy was named Tech Entrepreneur of the Year at the Go Tech Awards in 2022 and he was honoured as a Sunday Times Leader of the Year, highlighting his commitment to excellence and leadership.
As a born entrepreneur, Andy is insatiably passionate about building businesses. He thrives on mentoring others and wanting to play a central part in their success.
Now with his Partners, all of whom he has worked with very closely before, and who each played a role in Vanarama’s success, Andy could not be more excited to dedicate his time and money to supporting, nurturing and empowering the next generation of business leaders as founder and Managing Partner of Alderway Partnership Capital.
Elliot Conway
Founder & Managing Partner
Elliot brings more than two decades of diverse experience and expertise to Alderway. Most recently, he spent the past 12 years honing his skills within a prestigious multi-generational, multi-billion-dollar family office. He has also enjoyed extensive board-level responsibility across many sectors and built deep and long-standing relationships with top tier founders, investors and operators.
Elliot is very proud to have co-founded Alderway and looks forward to empowering more exceptional entrepreneurs to help them succeed in their life’s work.
20+ Years
Experience at the highest level spanning both the public and private sectors.
Our Team
Elliot Conway
Founder & Managing Partner
Elliot brings more than two decades of diverse experience and expertise to Alderway. Most recently, he spent the past 12 years honing his skills within a prestigious multi-generational, multi-billion-dollar family office. He has also enjoyed extensive board-level responsibility across many sectors and built deep and long-standing relationships with top tier founders, investors and operators.
Elliot is very proud to have co-founded Alderway and looks forward to empowering more exceptional entrepreneurs to help them succeed in their life’s work.