EARLY LIFE
Taye's journey into finance began with engineering. He had an innate curiosity for breaking things down, understanding their inner workings, learning about how they piece together, and building new things from their components.
​
Having been moved up a year at school, it allowed him to take on more challenging subjects early on. In his childhood, he was recognised as a two-time Young Innovator of the Year by Harper Adams University after designing the Hectare Autonomous Agriculture Robot. He also participated in the Google Science Fair after developing a working, wearable defibrillator designed for patients at risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).
His passion for engineering led him to study Motorsports Engineering at college in Oxford, and securing an internship at Aston Martin’s Gaydon HQ in product development.
Engineering Success
This drive for innovation and problem-solving led him to start his first business at just 15, working with carbon fiber, an advanced composite material highly sought after in the motorsports and luxury automotive world—known for its lightweight properties, hallmark aesthetic, and high price tag.
With no outside capital, he and his lifelong friend/business partner, Kirk O'Rourke, 17, developed a method to reinforce automotive components with carbon fiber at a fraction of the cost manufacturers were charging.
Due to the cost of manufacturing pure Carbon Fibre components, it was often unfeasible for even high-performance OEM manufacturers (BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin) to sell at a profit, hence the extortionate price points. But this was the exact market that, at the time, would even pay a small fortune to have it if they could, so availability and cost were the bottleneck. The partners sought to bring a hybrid product to market that was low cost, had the aesthetic, the strength characteristics, and could be applied to anywhere the buyer wanted, for any vehicle. After many iterations, they found a formula that worked.
For customers, this translated to noticeably stronger components without adding weight, that looked stunning, for parts of their vehicles that they couldn't' purchase elsewhere at a price point difficult to compete with. What started as a backyard operation quickly evolved into a growing business supplying high-end customisation houses and performance car owners that occupied 12,000sqft of workspace between London and Oxford, an office opposite Rackspace, with a decentralised production chain with around 25 secondee staff.
OFFICE HQ
WORKSHOP 1
DAVID BALDWIN
MENTOR / BALDWINS GROUP (NOW AZETS)
DISCOVERING BLACK SWAN EVENTS:
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
By the age of 19, they had continuously reinvested and built up to a sophisticated operation that was able to secure a £960,000 supply contract from a Norwegian Performance Vehicle manufacturer.
​
Then 60 days later, in March 2020, awaiting the first shipment, and preparing to celebrate at the Monaco F1 Grand Prix with their Partners, the pandemic struck.
The contract fell through as shipping ports froze and customers pulled back - modifying cars that nobody was driving became a 0-priority and after 2 years, the entire behaviour and demand of the modification market bottomed out. It was a storm of many things, purse strings of customers tightening, a diversion to spending on necessities only, supply chain halting due to the furlough scheme and workplace social distancing in a manufacturing environment, but teleologically, years of work collapsed overnight with uncertainty of a correction.
This was not like Ebola or Swine-Flu. But instead of seeing failure, Reid saw an opportunity: the problem wasn’t the product—it was a business model that lacked structural resilience, security and as a Businessman in his early days, the foresight to anticipate such events.
SANDY XIONG
FOUNDER & CEO - JC SPORTLINE
A CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE
That realisation led him to finance—not as an alternative career, but as a means to understand and learn more about his vulnerabilities.
Based on his experience, he secured a role in Private Equity, raising capital through structured bond products. He took a liking to the field, the pace, the intelligence requirement, the learning, the solutions and the business- it felt natural.
Despite being the youngest person in the firm, he quickly distinguished himself. Within his first two weeks, he closed his first deal—a £30,000 investment. Shortly after, he secured another for £20,000. In a short period of time, he became the firm’s top performer, raising the most capital and gaining a deep understanding of how money moves in the world of high finance.
​
He studied privately and in-depth, with his new lens and the thought of past failures, with the intention of strengthening his weak points and building foresight. This led to reading the CIMA Course E3, P3 & F3 for Strategic Management, Risk Management & Financial Strategy. He took an interest in the investment world, the companies in them, its inner mechanics and workings.
​
He noticed that while many companies had strong ideas, they lacked the operational structure, financial strategy, or commercial execution to scale effectively. Reid had seen it firsthand—not just in the businesses he studied, but in his own experience.
With this knowledge and a drive to finish what he started, he launched The Levyne Group, an intelligence firm designed to shape solutions for investors, companies, and shareholders, because successful outcomes are engineered.
The Levyne Group operates with a distinct philosophy: capital alone doesn’t build great companies—strategy, execution, and structural resilience do.
​
The firm applies the same principles that guided Reid's journey in Business: (1) optimise systems, (2) structure deals intelligently, and (3) create frameworks that turn technical potential into enterprise value.
THE SCIENCE OF TRANSACTIONS
In the early years of The Levyne Group, Reid focused on understanding the mechanics of capital and deal flow. His first approach was to apply his experience in private equity to M&A transactions, structuring deals for companies seeking investment or exit opportunities.
​
He quickly realised that the real value was in intelligence and relationships. Deals were won first by a complete understanding of both parties in a transaction.
​
Through relentless networking, he built relationships with investors, venture capitalists, and business owners. He refined his ability to spot mispriced assets, identify untapped growth potential, and structure opportunities that created long-term enterprise value.
With a deep understanding of business fundamentals and private capital markets, The Levyne Group positioned itself as more than just an investment firm—it became a firm that engineered business success from the inside out.
Reid's experience with engineering, manufacturing, software, and deep technology gave the firm an edge in spotting opportunities in sectors where STEM innovation is a core component.
​
Whether building proprietary software for intelligence communication, supply chain management, or creating a specialised acquisition platform, each step has been a manifestation of The Levyne Group philosophy, to bridge the gap between technical potential and commercial execution.
​
The lessons learned over the past decade—from bootstrapping businesses to executing high-value deals—have shaped a firm that doesn’t just support companies, but actively lays the foundation to build market leaders.
Because in the end, great businesses aren’t just built—they’re engineered.
THE LEVYNE GROUP LAUNCH EVENT
OCTOBER 2023
