finnCap Cavendish is pleased to announce it has advised on the agreement to sell Pure Cremation, to Epiris Fund III. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete before the end of the year.

Pure is the leading provider of prepaid, trust and insurance backed funeral plans in the UK, allowing people to plan and pay for their own end-of-life arrangements and thus relieve their families of the stress and expense of doing so. Pure is also a pioneer of the market for direct cremations, which are simple, unattended cremations without a contemporaneous funeral service and thus a low-cost alternative to a traditional funeral allowing a deceased person’s family and friends to mark their loss at a time and place of their choosing.

Pure is wholly owned by Bryan and Catherine Powell (founders), Richard Thomerson (Chairman) and Rob Murphy (CFO).  Industry veteran Dean Lamble, formerly CEO of SunLife Insurance, will join Pure as its Group Chief Executive and will work with the incumbent team led by COO Mark Seastron and Rob Murphy as CFO.

The lead advisers on the transaction were Jonathan Buxton, Partner and Ben Goldring, Head of Financial Services from finnCap Cavendish.

Jonathan Buxton, Partner, commented:

“It has been a pleasure working with Bryan, Catherine, Richard, Rob, and the team at Pure. They have ruffled feathers in a stagnating sector by creating a major new D2C brand that is now the UK’s leading prepaid funeral plan provider. It will be exciting to watch as Pure moves onto the next chapter with Dean and Epiris.”

Ben Goldring, Head of Financial Services, commented:

Pure operates as a data-driven, D2C consumer fintech and continues to disrupt its chosen market in late-life financial planning. The recent FCA regulation in prepaid, trust and insurance-backed plans will no doubt spur additional investment and consolidation in this space and Pure is very well placed to continue to scale and innovate in late-life planning products. I look forward to watching their continued success.”