Investing Across Stages
I am currently exploring potential career options post my IB stint and have come to the realization that I am looking for an investment firm that:
1) Has a flexible investment mandate and invests across venture, growth and buyout
2) Invests primarily in high growth direct to consumer businesses in the consumer, technology or fintech industries
Are there any investment firms out there that roughly fit this description?
It is a bit difficult to tell from my research which firms fit the criteria I am looking for. It seems that either they are focused on one stage of investing (i.e. just buyout) or do not have a specific mandate on the industries I am interested in.
If there are any firms out there similar to this, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share the name!
Thank you!
Off the top of my head, Warburg is probably the best bet for stage-agnostic investing. Their platform allows them to invest across life cycles as early as Series B to late stage buyout. Associates are sector-verticalized though.
Interested to see other responses
Second Warburg.
Series B isn't that early.
You should look up The Chernin Group (TCG)
Insight Partners (depending on how software-y you want to go) and TCV also might be decent to add to your list - Sixth Street has some groups that might be appealing as well. Growth runs a little different there (but mostly because its largely driven by converts).
Was about to say Sixth Street.
SSP is interesting but usually focuses on structured, non-control investments. Also their growth and later stage investment teams are bifurcated, so different from what OP is asking
Bessemer just launched a growth buyout fund on top of the early stage practice they already had
Do you know if investment professionals are investing across both funds?
I know a bunch of firms have raised funds to target different areas of growth but typically have separate teams managing each.
Currently, investment professionals are able to invest (source, due-dilligence etc...) out of their early stage (~$2.5B) and growth stage fund ($825m). Their buyout fund is actually raising right now, so they've only hired one lead partner (from Norwest) who is running it. TBD on whether existing investors will be able to invest out of that fund or if they bring in new investors specfic to that fund
What's comp like at bessemer? Similar to like an Insight / GA?
CPP’s Thematic investing team checks all those markers. However, they are a pension (though to me that is a plus!)
CPP is a freaking joke, dude.
Can you elaborate?
An unconventional take, but would think about a lateral move to Raine. Between their various venture / growth funds, they'll do everything from seed to pre-IPO; you'll probably never see them doing a vanilla LBO, but they have a mix of Series C+ venture growth deals and traditional bootstrapped growth equity (more buyout-esque, control positions possible). Main industries of focus are gaming, music, e-commerce, digital content, live events, etc. - so essentially anything consumer / media.
Only caveat is that you'll need to split time between investing and banking (mostly cap raises and M&A advisory), which some might enjoy but others won't.
Your best options are either some sort of family office (I did something similar) or a sector-focused fund or strategy that invests across stages.
You won’t find buyout, but I think a lot of tech crossover shops would fit what you want - Dragoneer, Greenoaks, etc. Obv. incredibly competitive but fit the flexible mandate (less buyout) that you want (and pay very well)
I guess a bigger question you should be asking yourself though is why you want a flexible mandate? On the one hand, it sounds sexy and it hypothetically gets you a wide range of skills. On the other hand, it also spreads you very thin and leaves you scrambling to really figure out what you enjoy and what you’re good at.
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