Chicago Growth Partners

Last updated
Chicago Growth Partners
Company type Private
Industry Private equity
Founded2004 (1982, William Blair Capital Partners)
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, United States
Products Leveraged buyout, Growth capital
Total assets $1.8 billion
Website www.cgp.com

Chicago Growth Partners (formerly known as William Blair Capital Partners) is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle-market companies across a range of industries, including, education, business services, healthcare and industrial growth. [1]

Contents

The firm, which is based in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in 2004 although the group traces its roots back to the founding of William Blair Capital Partners in 1982. The Chicago Growth Partners and its predecessor have raised approximately $1.8 billion since inception across nine funds. The team had raised and deployed six funds as the core group behind William Blair Capital Partners. [2] William Blair Capital Partners VII, which closed in 2001 with $403 million was the final fund raised within the William Blair Capital Partners platform.

History

William Blair Capital Partners was founded in 1982 to serve as the investment arm of William Blair & Company. During the 1980s, WBCP was an active investor in leveraged buyout transactions.

William Blair Capital Partners logo William Blair Capital Partners logo.png
William Blair Capital Partners logo

In 2004, the senior partners of William Blair Capital Partners completed a spin out from William Blair to form a new firm, Chicago Growth Partners. [2] The primary motivation for the departure of the Chicago Growth Partners team from William Blair was to gain access to a more diversified base of institutional investors that was limited by the group's involvement with the investment bank.

The spinout of Chicago Growth Partners from William Blair & Company came at the same time as the spinouts of private equity groups from other leading investment banks including: JPMorgan Chase (CCMP Capital), Citigroup (Court Square Capital Partners), Deutsche Bank (MidOcean Partners), Morgan Stanley (Metalmark Capital) and Credit Suisse First Boston (Avista Capital Partners, Diamond Castle Holdings).

In August 2006, the remaining partners of William Blair Capital Partners suspended efforts to raise William Blair Capital Partners VIII, which had been reportedly targeted at about $250 million. The remaining team left William Blair to found two new private equity firms, Seyen Capital and Emerging Market Technology. [3]

In April 2008, Chicago Growth Capital completed fundraising for its second fund as an independent firm with $500 million of investor commitments [4] [5] [6]

Chicago Growth Capital had been in market since late 2012 with plans to raise between $400 million and $500 million for its third fund. In May 2014, Fortune announced that Chicago Growth Partners had abandoned efforts to raise its third fund. [7]

Related Research Articles

In the field of finance, private equity (PE) is capital stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies that they invest in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TPG Inc.</span> American investment company

TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. The firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm invests in a range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel, leisure, and health care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CVC Capital Partners</span> British private equity and investment advisory firm

CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$155 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, European and Asian private equity, secondaries and credit funds. As of 31 December 2021, the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in more than 100 companies worldwide, employing over 450,000 people in numerous countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and, as of 31 March 2022, has over 650 employees working across its network of 25 offices throughout EMEA, Asia and the Americas.

In finance, the private-equity secondary market refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private-equity and other alternative investment funds. Given the absence of established trading markets for these interests, the transfer of interests in private-equity funds as well as hedge funds can be more complex and labor-intensive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GTCR</span> American private equity firm

GTCR LLC is a Chicago, Illinois-based private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout, leveraged recapitalization, growth capital and rollup transactions. The firm principally invests in high-growth industries, including financial services & technology, healthcare, information services & technology, and growth business services.

Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm headquartered in Boston. The firm focuses on investing in middle market growth companies across various sectors, including financial technology, services, healthcare, technology, and business solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APriori Capital Partners</span> American private equity investment

aPriori Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. The firm was founded as an affiliate of Credit Suisse and traces its roots to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston in 2000. The private equity arm also manages a group of investment vehicles including Real Estate Private Equity, International Private Equity, Growth capital, Mezzanine debt, Infrastructure, Energy and Commodities Focused, fund of funds, and Secondary Investments.

AlpInvest Partners is a global private equity asset manager with over $85 billion of committed capital since inception as of December 31, 2022. The firm invests on behalf of more than 450 institutional investors from North America, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CCMP Capital</span> American private equity investment firm that focuses on leveraged buyouts

CCMP Capital Advisors, LP is an American private equity investment firm that focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions. Formerly known as JP Morgan Partners, the investment professionals of JP Morgan Partners separated from JPMorgan Chase on July 31, 2006. CCMP has invested approximately $12 billion in leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions since inception. In 2007, CCMP was ranked #17 among the world's largest private equity funds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of private equity and venture capital</span>

The history of private equity, venture capital, and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early history of private equity</span>

The early history of private equity relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private equity in the 1990s</span>

Private equity in the 1990s relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital, experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.

MidOcean Partners is a New York–based alternative asset management firm that specializes in mid-sized private equity and alternative leveraged investments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trivest</span> American private equity firm

Trivest Partners, L.P. is the oldest private equity firm in the Southeast U.S., founded in 1981, and focuses exclusively on founder and family-owned businesses. Trivest is headquartered in Miami, Florida with regional offices in Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Trivest has provided "Private Equity for Founders" in the lower middle market through its flexibility in transaction structuring and related "Just Say No" program, which eliminates the typical pain points faced by founders looking to outside investment. The firm is largely industry-agnostic, but focuses on investments in the consumer, business services, healthcare, value-added distribution and niche manufacturing sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capvis</span> Company

Capvis is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle-market companies across a range of industries in the Industrial Corridor of Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metalmark Capital</span> American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout

Metalmark Capital, formerly Morgan Stanley Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout investments in middle-market companies across a range of industries. Metalmark was acquired by Citigroup Alternative Investments in December 2007.

Pamlico Capital, which was formerly called First Union Capital Partners and then Wachovia Capital Partners, is an independent private equity firm focused on growth capital and leveraged buyout investments in middle-market companies in the business services, technology services, telecommunications and healthcare industries.

Ridgemont Equity Partners is a private equity firm focused on making investments in middle-market companies in the U.S. within certain industries such as basic industrial, energy, healthcare, telecommunications, media and technology. The firm focuses on equity investments up to US$250 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trimaran Capital Partners</span> American middle-market private equity firm

Trimaran Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity firm formerly affiliated with CIBC World Markets. Trimaran is headquartered in New York City and founded by former investment bankers from Drexel Burnham Lambert. Trimaran's predecessors were early investors in telecom and Internet businesses, most notably backing Global Crossing in 1997. Trimaran also led the first leveraged buyout of an integrated electric utility.

Spell Capital Partners is a private equity firm based in Edina, Minnesota that specializes in the management of private equity. William "Bill" Spell founded the firm in 1988. The firm has been investing exclusively on behalf of the Spell Family Office since 2018.

References

  1. Chicago Growth Partners Business Week Profile
  2. 1 2 Chicago Growth Grows But Retains Smaller Focus Archived 2011-09-11 at the Wayback Machine . Reuters Buyouts, April 14, 2008
  3. Chicago firm doubles in size [ permanent dead link ]. PE Week, April 21, 2008
  4. PE firms continue to rake in cash. The Deal, April 2, 2008
  5. Private Equity Team Leaves William Blair, Sets Up Own Shop Archived 2007-08-23 at the Wayback Machine . FINalternatives, August 4, 2006
  6. "Exclusive: Chicago Growth Partners calls it quits". Fortune. Retrieved 2016-04-18.