EQT has appointed Marc Brown, former Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Corporate Development, as Partner and Head of its new EQT Growth strategy.Having overseen Microsoft’s M&A and strategic investment activities, Brown has led more than 185 acquisitions (including LinkedIn, GitHub and Minecraft) and 80 strategic equity investments (including Flipkart, Databricks and Graphcore).
Earlier this year, Carolina Brochado joined EQT as Partner in London and will join the Growth team. Formerly a partner at both Softbank and Atomico, Carolina has experience across several investment disciplines, including private equity, venture capital and growth. In addition to Carolina Brochado and Marc Brown, the initial EQT Growth team will also include EQT veterans and Partners Victor Englesson, Dominik Stein and Johan Svanström, and Henrik Landgren, Motherbrain Partner, who will work across Ventures and Growth.
EQT Growth is a key pillar in EQT’s overall ambition to be the preferred partner to founders and management teams as they build and grow market leading businesses that have the bold ambition of making the world a better place. More specifically, EQT Growth will explore thematic growth opportunities between venture capital and private equity that are aligned with EQT’s key investment areas such as B2B tech, healthcare tech, impact tech and consumer/prosumer tech. EQT AB will utilise its balance sheet to support investments aligned with the EQT Growth strategy.
EQT Growth will be an extension from a number of successful growth transactions from EQT’s Mid Market, Private Equity and Ventures investment strategies (such as Epidemic Sound, Freepik, Sportradar, Banking Circle, AutoStore, and Wolt). Motherbrain, EQT’s proprietary in-house artificial intelligence (AI) system, will also play a crucial role in the EQT Growth strategy in assisting in identifying trends and sourcing potential investment opportunities.
Per Franzén, Partner and co-head of EQT Private Equity, says: “We’re pleased to welcome Marc and Carolina to EQT and look forward to a strong collaboration across the entire Private Capital platform. They will bring vast technology and investment experience The Growth strategy will apply EQT’s thematic focus and seek future champions, and will be a critical next step in the development of EQT Private Capital and further manifesting our future-proofing and positive impact approach.”
Christian Sinding, CEO of EQT, says: “Building this strong team is a true milestone in EQT’s desire to become the preferred partner to the best high-growth market leaders across Europe and beyond. Adding a growth-focused strategy fits us perfectly as it complements EQT’s ‘ecosystem’. In fact, EQT is now one of the very few private markets firms in the world with investment strategies that cover and support companies from the startup phase all the way until mature, leading businesses. This makes us a smarter investor and an even better partner to management teams. Finally, EQT Growth is a great example of how we can use EQT AB’s balance sheet to accelerate the development of new initiatives where we can generate strong sustainable returns for EQT’s investors.”
