Graduate Investment Analyst

Circeus; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Deal exposure

Live transaction work

AI applied to real problems

Central AI team collaboration

International team (London, Milan, Sar

Job summary

Circeus, London (with option to sit in Milan later), seeks a recent graduate for a graduate seat in acquisitions. You will screen targets, build models, and handle defined diligence pieces with a small deal team. You’ll assist investor relations and portfolio storytelling from day one.

You will work on live transactions rather than training exercises and will engage with AI-assisted screening, data extraction, and first-pass modelling. Fluency in English required.

Qualifications

• Recent graduate or final-year student with strong academic record in a numerate or analytical discipline.
• Internship or placement in M&A, private equity, leveraged finance, equity research, transaction services or strategy consulting.
• Financial modelling and valuation fundamentals you can demonstrate, not just list.
• Clear, concise written analysis that stands on its own in front of decision-makers.
• Commercial curiosity and genuine interest in how B2B software businesses make money.

Responsibilities

• Screen inbound and proprietary deal flow against acquisition criteria.
• Build valuation and operating models across live opportunities and keep them current during diligence.
• Support diligence workstreams and track open items to one timeline.
• Analyse SaaS economics, including net revenue retention and churn.
• Research verticals and map the competitive landscape around targets.
• Draft sections of screening and investment memos for the investment committee.
• Prepare investor relations and fundraising material and portfolio reporting.

Skills

Numerate/Analytical

Financial modelling

Written analysis

Fluent English

Excel

Python

SQL

Education

Final-year student or recent graduate

Tools

Excel

Python

SQL

Job description

Circeus is an AI-native holding company that acquires and evolves mission-critical software for the AI era.

Through a centralised AI platform deployed across our portfolio, we expand software from systems of record into systems of action.

We have raised $220m+ from leading global institutional investors and serve 250,000+ businesses worldwide, focusing on high-retention, deeply embedded software that powers the everyday economy. We operate as long-term owners, bringing the benefits of innovation and AI to the real economy.

The Role

This is a graduate seat on the team that sources, evaluates and executes the acquisitions that bring new software businesses into Circeus. You will be based in London and work day to day with the deal team. If you would rather sit in Milan, that is open to you at the start or later on.

You will work on live transactions rather than training exercises. From your first weeks you will screen targets, build the models behind them, and take a defined piece of diligence to a deadline. The team is deliberately small and runs alongside AI agents that handle screening, data extraction and first-pass modelling, which means the work left to you is judgement: what the numbers imply, which issues change price or structure, and how a target actually makes money.

Alongside deal work, you will help prepare investor relations and fundraising material, turning portfolio performance into the numbers and narrative our investors see.

It suits a final-year student or recent graduate with internship experience in banking, private equity, equity research, transaction services or strategy consulting, who wants ownership earlier than a graduate programme will give them, and who is as interested in how a software business runs as in how it is valued.

What You'll Do

• Screen inbound and proprietary deal flow against our acquisition criteria
• Build valuation and operating models across live opportunities, and keep them current as diligence lands
• Support financial, legal, commercial and technical diligence workstreams, tracking open items to one timeline
• Analyse SaaS economics, including net revenue retention, churn, cohort behaviour and revenue quality
• Research verticals and map the competitive landscape around targets
• Draft sections of screening and investment memos for the investment committee
• Prepare investor relations and fundraising material, including portfolio reporting and investor updates
• Use AI tools to compress research, data extraction and first-draft analysis, and improve the workflow you inherit
• Maintain pipeline data across sourcing, diligence and execution stages

What We're Looking For

• Recent graduate or final-year student with a strong academic record in a numerate or analytical discipline
• Internship or placement experience in M&A, private equity, leveraged finance, equity research, transaction services or strategy consulting
• Financial modelling and valuation fundamentals you can demonstrate, not just list
• Clear, concise written analysis that stands on its own in front of decision-makers
• Commercial curiosity and genuine interest in how B2B software businesses make money
• Highly organised, with the instinct to structure messy inputs before being asked
• Fluent English, written and spoken
• Right to work in Italy or the UK

Nice to Have

• Exposure to SaaS or vertical software, through an internship, coverage or personal research
• Demonstrated use of AI in your own research or analysis workflow
• SQL or Python for data analysis
• Track record in a competitive environment, academic, sporting or otherwise

Why Circeus

• Deal exposure across a portfolio of software businesses rather than a single sector mandate
• Live transaction work and direct access to decision-makers from your first months
• AI applied to real commercial problems, with impact you can measure
• Direct collaboration with our central AI team
• One team across London, Milan and Sarajevo, operating as a single system
• Competitive compensation and a clear route to greater deal responsibility

If you're excited by acquisitions, software and AI, we'd love to hear from you.