Equistone Partners Europe, a middle-market private equity firm, has acquired a majority stake in Nexus Vehicle Rental, a business-to-business vehicle rental aggregator platform, from Phoenix Equity Partners.

Nexus, based in the U.K., provides a range of corporate, credit hire and leasing customers with access to the rental supply chain, with 550,000 vehicles across 2,000 locations through its proprietary Iris tech platform. Nexus has recently entered into the plant hire and taxi market, as well as investing further in Nexus Connect, a mobile application for the rental process for end-users. The management team, led by David Brennan, John Ellis and Alex Cook, will continue to lead the business.

“Equistone’s investment sets us up for our next exciting chapter of growth as one of the UK’s leading tech-driven mobility providers,” says Brennan.

Ares Management funds will continue to support the business as a lender, with Dechert providing counsel to Ares.

Nexus and its shareholders were advised by Houlihan Lokey (lead advisory), OC&C (commercial due diligence), KPMG (financial and tax due diligence), Endava (tech due diligence) and Travers Smith (legal). Management was advised by Park Place Corporate Finance, Deloitte and Squire Patton Boggs.