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I think most EU PE firms in the US, even the large cap ones, do direct promotes without MBA.

When it comes to American ones, off the top of my head, WCAS (MM fund ~$5B latest raise) doesn’t have mba

 

Audax, THL, Berkshire, TA all promote within Boston. Think out of these Audax has by far highest rates of promotion if you can surrvivie. Think TA and Berkshire drirect promotes very rarely for example. A lot of the tech UMM funds either promote a lot of the class as well (Vista, TB, AKKR, FP, etc.). More firms are increasingly offering direct promote route, real question you should be asking is how many get the promote, as some firms will only give that option to 1 person and others will give it to a larger % of the class.

 
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Berkshire has had direct promotes without MBA but majority still go to MBA (HBS feeder) and is very rare.

For TA, I don’t think they’ve ever had a direct promote, but they still have a decent promotion rate and all their VP promotes are internal (post-MBA VPs are all folks who did pre-MBA associate program at TA).
TA has associate class of ~8, and promotes 1-2 to VPs a year post-MBA, which is a ~20% promotion rate, which tbh is far higher than most of the other >$15B funds

 

TA promotes without MBA for ~1 person a year to VP, most require MBA for the VP promote. Confirmed by people within the firm and their team page. It's rare but possible for top performers, same idea as Berkshire. Berkshire now has more associates who go to Wharton, but think almost all of the people who get the promote go HBS. THL also promotes direct to VP, at higher rates than Berkshire/TA, but think they are having some performance / fundraising issues. Don't think their tech investments have done well at all.

 

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