Bluegem Strengthens UK Presence and Enters the Irish Market

London, May 2026

We are pleased to share the next chapter in Bluegem’s pan‑European development: a significant step‑up in our UK origination effort and our formal entry into the Irish market.

The UK and Ireland represent two of Europe’s most attractive ecosystems for the real‑economy businesses at the heart of Bluegem’s strategy. Both markets combine deep entrepreneurial communities, mature professional infrastructure and a strong pipeline of founder‑led companies operating in our core real economy sub‑verticals with B2B and B2B2C upstream manufacturing, underpinned by resilient end‑demand. Building a dedicated, locally‑led presence allows us to originate proprietary opportunities, deepen relationships with founders and advisors, and accelerate value creation across our existing and future portfolio.

To lead this effort, we are delighted to welcome Janice Cargo as Operating Partner. Janice brings more than 25 years of experience in private equity and investment banking, with a deep specialism in UK and Irish businesses. She will focus on sourcing and executing new investments and supporting portfolio monitoring across the UK and Ireland, working closely with the investment team.

Janice joins us from Active Partners and, prior to that, Change Capital Partners, where she sourced and executed numerous investments and held board positions driving strategy, growth, management evolution and successful liquidity events. She began her career at Merrill Lynch in the Consumer and Retail Investment Banking team, advising on M&A, financing and IPOs. 

Janice combines an investor’s discipline with deep, on‑the‑ground relationships across both markets. Her appointment reflects our long‑held conviction that the UK and Ireland warrant a dedicated, senior‑led effort, and we are confident she will be instrumental in building the next generation of Bluegem investments in the region.

We are also pleased to welcome Mark Grinshpan to the investment team as Investment Analyst.  Mark joined Bluegem in 2025 and has been promoted to Investment Analyst following an outstanding contribution as an intern. He focuses on deal sourcing and portfolio monitoring across Europe, with a particular emphasis on the DACH region and France, and is currently active across investments including N Lab, Pinard and Petromax. Prior to Bluegem, Mark was an Analyst in Corporate Structured Finance at UniCredit, working on acquisition financing and leveraged finance transactions across Europe. He holds a BSc in Business, Economics and Social Sciences from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and a Master in Finance from ESSEC Business School, and speaks English, German, French and Russian.

Both appointments reinforce a defining feature of Bluegem: a genuinely international team, today representing ten nationalities and 13 languages, operating as one cohesive platform from our London headquarters and with offices in Madrid, Milan and Luxembourg. 

With Janice leading our UK and Ireland coverage, and Mark strengthening our broader European execution capability, we are well positioned to continue building leading pan‑European platforms through disciplined buy‑and‑build strategies in real economy non‑discretionary sub verticals.