Adding Value provides specialist financial support to socially-trading organisations (STOs), helping them grow and make better financial decisions. Based in Merseyside but working nationally, its reputation has been built purely through client recommendations and word of mouth and its rapid growth reflects a real demand for services. The team is a trusted advisor, known for its values-led approach and commitment to long-term partnerships.
Many STOs struggle with financial management because mainstream accountants focus on profit-driven businesses and often charge high fees when clients are struggling, and need their expertise the most. This creates a cycle where organisations lack financial confidence and struggle to scale effectively. Investment from Kindred gave Adding Value the working capital to employ additional staff ahead of new business: “Kindred’s support has helped accelerate our growth by investing in staff before we’ve won work from clients. The alternative is operating hand-to-mouth and never being able to do that development,” founder and chief executive Matthew Brown
Adding Values offers a different model – specialist financial support tailored to STOs, with flexible, fixed-fee pricing. Their services include financial planning, cashflow management, business coaching, and investment support. Focusing on long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions, helps clients move beyond day-to-day financial firefighting and into strategic decision-making and their own journey mirrors that of their clients.
Resilience is central to the Adding Value model, which works as a cross-covering team. If one team member is unavailable, others step in – making them a more stable, knowledgeable option for STOs. Clients report increased confidence in managing their numbers, making better strategic decisions and securing new funding. By offering business coaching alongside financial services, they empower STOs to achieve sustainable growth.
Kindred investment has supported them to grow revenue by over 40% per annum for the last five years. More recently, they acquired a book of accountancy practice work with support of a loan from Key Fund in order to diversify sources of income. However lack of working capital is a constraint to high-growth organisations.
Looking ahead, Adding Value’s future growth is focused around supporting more STOs with their finances, developing social value reporting structures, exploring broader corporate support services for STOs, creating training pathways for new accountants, and developing a financial education offer for STOs.
Other plans include achieving B-Corp status to reinforce its commitment to ethical business practices and to become a powerful advocate for the social economy, giving it a voice nationally. Adding Value’s ambition is to become one of the UK’s top 100 accountancy firms, demonstrating that finance can be a force for good in the social economy.