Foresight invests £5.75 million into Functional Gut Group

• Functional Gut Group has received a £5.75 million from Foresight to help drive geographical expansion and scale its team
• With three established sites and several collaborative clinics, Functional Gut Group provides diagnostic testing for patients with a broad range of digestive health issues
• Foresight has a strong track record of investing in healthcare, this marks the second investment in the sector this year

Manchester, April 2025: Foresight Group (“Foresight”) a leading regional private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has announced a £5.75 million investment into Functional Gut Group (“FGG” or the “Company”), a provider of diagnostic testing services for patients suffering from digestive health issues.

FGG was founded in 2014 by Dr. Anthony Hobson, an internationally renowned gastrointestinal (“GI”) clinical scientist, to provide high-quality diagnostic testing for patients suffering from pervasive conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (“IBS”), which affects one in five people in the UK. FGG now operates three permanent clinics located in Manchester, Cambridge and London, as well as several collaborative clinics in the UK and Ireland employing 35 people. 

The Company provided testing for over 12,000 patients last year across the private sector and the NHS. FGG is the only independent GI physiology service in the UK to receive an Improving Quality in Physiological Services accreditation and its clinics are inspected by the Care Quality Commission. 
The Company also runs a free to access online preventive health service called Tummy MOT®, providing science-backed gut health education and product reviews to consumers, and delivers clinical trials to leading global customers.  

Foresight’s investment will provide significant growth capital to enable its ambitious management team to drive geographical expansion in the UK, introduce new innovative tests to the market, and further scale the team. As part of Foresight’s investment, experienced healthcare executive, Arif Ahmed, will join the board as Chair, and Phil Clarke, formerly at Vein Centre, will join as Finance Director.

Foresight has a strong track record of investing in healthcare. It recently announced its exit from Hospital Services Limited, generating strong returns. In 2024, Foresight exited ABL Health, a community-driven healthcare services provider generating a 4.1x return on investment.

Remaining healthcare companies in Foresight’s portfolio include Clearview Endoscopy Limited, an endoscope servicing business; Hexarad, a teleradiology provider; and Homelink, a clinically led provider of safe, high-quality hospital at home and virtual ward services. 

Dr. Anthony Hobson, Founder CEO of FGG, said: “It was key to find an investment partner that shared FGG’s ethos and understood the immense opportunity available to us. All of us at FGG feel that we have found that in Foresight, and are excited about the potential to improve healthcare outcomes in the years to come.”

Samir Rea, Investment Manager at Foresight Group, commented: “FGG provides a valuable service, improving the lives of thousands of private and NHS patients through its innovative diagnostic testing methods. Anthony and his team have already developed an excellent reputation in the market, and we look forward to supporting them in their next chapter of growth.”

Foresight invests in promising growing companies, providing equity or debt to meet the needs of founders, management teams and specialist lenders wherever they are on their journey. Foresight works with the growing companies it supports to enable founders and management teams to build resilient and prosperous companies to deliver strong economic returns and to have a positive impact on the societies in which they operate.