Main Capital Partners (Main), a European software investor, has completed capital raises for two new funds, raising EUR1.21 billion in total.
Following the launch of Main Capital VII and Main Foundation I, Main’s total assets under management (AUM) have more than doubled, to approximately EUR2.2 billion. Main will deploy these funds to further grow and develop strong European software groups in multiple market segments, targeting local buy-and-build strategies as well as cross-border growth.
Charly Zwemstra, Chief Executive Officer of Main Capital, says: “We aim to play a key role in the consolidation of the fragmented software market by building leading European software groups, executing strong, fit for purpose business models that drive sustainable growth.” In terms of recent track record, Main has completed 75 software acquisitions in the Benelux and DACH regions as well as across the Nordics over the past 5 years, proving the scalability and achievability of its market leading strategic approach. Main has been the most active software specific investor for these geographies in this period, according to private equity database Preqin.
Autonomous growth combined with local and cross-border buy-and-build
Main currently manages a portfolio of 29 software groups, covering a wide range of differentiated markets. Strategically, Main combines organic growth with local and cross-border acquisitions.
German RegTech company cleversoft is a good example of the cross-border approach in Main’s portfolio. This company provides Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software and has strengthened its leading position in the European GRC-software market with several acquisitions in the Benelux region.
Furthermore, Assessio, an HR-software and AI company, based in Sweden, has claimed a strong foothold in the Dutch market through multiple acquisitions including, HFM Talent Index. Main is also well known for its strong local buy-and-build strategies, as demonstrated by platforms such as King Software (financial software) and SDB Group (healthcare software) in the Netherlands, FOCONIS (RegTech) and MACH AG (GovTech) in Germany as well as Pointsharp (security software) in Sweden.
Main Capital VI, the previous flagship fund, closed in 2019 at a EUR564 million hard-cap. Its successor announced today, Main Capital VII has closed at a hard-cap of EUR1 billion, while the new fund initiative Main Foundation I has closed, in tandem, at its hard-cap of EUR210 million. As a result of strong interest from both existing relationships as well as the new investors entering the Main structure, both funds were significantly oversubscribed with EUR1.21 billion at the first and final closing, after a fundraising period of less than our months. The combined target size was initially set at EUR1 billion. The pre-existing investor base accounts for more than 60 per cent of the committed capital allocated for the new funds. The other capital secured comes via new relationships with reputable institutions such as pension funds, asset managers, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. According to independent data sources, the financial growth and returns to the investors of Main’s previous funds are consistently among the best in the industry.
With Main Capital VII, Main will continue its existing strategy of building profitable and developed enterprise software groups, through both organic growth and the effective execution of buy-and-build strategies. With its new fund initiative Main Foundation I, Main will target fast-growing enterprise software companies looking for a strategic and financial partner. This new fund is meant for smaller but profitable, high-growth companies operating with strong, modern technology platforms.
