Because People Still Hire People There’s a lot of noise right now about how AI is going to "revolutionise" recruitment. Automated screening, chatbots doing first-round interviews, algorithms matching candidates to roles before a human even lifts a finger. Sounds slick. But here’s the truth: recruitment isn’t a data problem. It’s a people business. Yes, AI can process CVs faster than any recruiter. It can rank applicants by keyword, screen for qualifications, even run sentimen

Your CRM is full of the wrong data. Not bad data, just the wrong kind. The easy kind. Name. Title. Company. Salary band. Start date. The tidy, structured, drop-down stuff that slots neatly into a field. The data the forms were built to hold. And almost none of it is what actually wins the deal. Because the data that wins is the data nobody ever types in. It's the throwaway line at the end of a call, between you and me, I don't think I'll still be here this time next year. It'

Meraki Capital has completed its third and fourth acquisitions of the year with the purchase of Swindon-headquartered Smart Recruitment and Wise Recruitment. The dual transaction brings both businesses - with further offices in Yeovil, Plymouth and Exeter - into the Meraki Group and secures the future of 100s of permanent and temporary staff following a period of significant trading pressure. With the backing of Meraki Capital and a committed £1 million growth facility, the b

At Meraki Capital, we invest exclusively in recruitment businesses. One factor we always look for—often before growth metrics or brand equity—is liquidity. Because in recruitment, cash isn’t just king—it’s survival. Recruitment is a working capital-heavy business. You pay your staff monthly, sometimes weekly, while clients often operate on 30, 60, or even 90-day payment terms. Without strong liquidity, even profitable agencies can run into serious problems. A few late payment

It's the most overused word in recruitment. And we use it on ourselves more than on anyone. Hungry. "We want hungry people." "Are they hungry enough?" "Loved them, so hungry." Every job ad. Every interview debrief. Every founder describing the dream team they're going to build. And half the time, when we say hungry, what we've actually gone and hired is desperate. We just prefer the word that sounds like a virtue. Because they aren't the same thing. They aren't even close. Dr

Meraki Capital has completed its second transaction of 2026 with the acquisition of SERT - a recruitment and training provider serving the utilities, renewables and facilities management sectors. The deal brings South Coast-based SERT (Fareham for local media) into Meraki’s growing portfolio of specialist recruitment businesses, creating new opportunities for collaboration, knowledge-sharing and cross-sector support. Importantly, SERT now has access to a £1.4million investmen

Meraki Capital has completed the acquisition of City Centre Recruitment, a well-established industrial recruitment and commercial cleaning business based in the South West of the UK. The transaction marks another investment by Meraki Capital and brings City Centre Recruitment into the Meraki family alongside recently acquired Magnus Search. As part of the deal, a £4 million funding facility has been secured to support the growth of both City Centre Recruitment, City Centre Cl

We've got the founder burnout story all wrong. The story goes like this. The hours. The hustle. Sleeping under the desk, answering emails at 2am, the relentless grind that finally grinds you down. Burnout as a workload problem. Too much to do, not enough hours to do it in. It's a tidy story. And it's mostly wrong. Because here's the thing nobody says out loud. People can work astonishingly hard, for years, at something they love, and feel fine. The hours aren't what break you

Why one kills slowly, and the other can kill overnight. Every recruitment leader knows the two monsters lurking in the background: not enough candidates, and not enough cash. But which is the real existential threat? Which one should keep you up at night? Let’s be clear—candidate flow matters. No pipeline, no placements. But a lack of candidates is a commercial problem. It’s solvable. You tweak your sourcing strategy, rework your proposition, pump some budget into brand or re

Another agency gone. Another payroll missed. It’s a pattern I’m seeing far too often, and it’s not about mismanagement or laziness — it’s about conditions tightening faster than many can adapt. The recruitment industry is feeling the chill long before the frost sets in, and the forthcoming November Budget could make the difference between survival and surrender for many UK firms. The temperature on the ground Across the market, the data tells a clear story. According to the O

Economy For years, white-collar work has been held up as the pinnacle of professional success. It came with predictable hours, financial stability, and the promise of a comfortable retirement. Yet in today’s economy, that promise is breaking down. Artificial intelligence is accelerating automation across industries, stripping away office-based roles once thought untouchable. At the same time, rising living costs and longer life spans mean that more over-50s are being pushed t

Last month, we announced our investment in Magnus Search, a pioneering UK-based, tech- driven blue-collar recruitment firm co-founded in 2017 by Bradley Wood. Structured with growth and innovation in mind, this deal marks a defining moment for both companies and signals the start of an exciting journey ahead. Why This Deal Matters For Meraki Capital, this investment represents our entry into the blue-collar recruitment space a sector rich with opportunity, yet ripe for moder