Main Capital Raises Over €5.25 Billion for Two Buyout Funds

The Hague (NL) – Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”), a specia­li­zed Euro­pean inves­tor in enter­prise soft­ware, announ­ced today that Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III have coll­ec­tively recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than 5.25 billion euros. Main Capi­tal IX reached its hard cap of €4 billion, while Main Foun­da­tion III reached its hard cap of €1.25 billion. The total volume repres­ents more than double the size of their respec­tive prede­ces­sor funds and increa­ses Main’s assets under manage­ment to over €12 billion. Both funds were over­sub­scri­bed, unders­coring the contin­ued strong demand from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors for Main’s diffe­ren­tia­ted lower-mid-market stra­tegy in the enter­prise soft­ware sector. 

Throug­hout its history, Main has comple­ted 38 exits

Buil­ding on the successful fund­rai­sing efforts of recent years, Main once again recei­ved strong support from its exis­ting LP base, with a re-up rate of over 120%. In addi­tion to follow-on invest­ments from exis­ting inves­tors such as Hamil­ton Lane, both funds also secu­red signi­fi­cant new commit­ments from a broa­der global base of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. The new inves­tors were prima­rily from the United States, Asia, and the Middle East and include sove­reign wealth funds, public pension funds, and insu­rance compa­nies, among them well-known insti­tu­ti­ons such as the State Teachers’ Reti­re­ment System of Ohio, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union, and Akade­mi­ker­Pen­sion. The pace and volume of capi­tal raised—despite a persis­t­ently chal­len­ging fund­rai­sing envi­ron­ment and geopo­li­ti­cal uncertainties—reflect Main’s consis­tent, strong invest­ment perfor­mance as well as its more than 20 years of specia­liza­tion in lower-mid-market enter­prise soft­ware buyouts. Over the course of its history, Main has comple­ted 38 exits, with a weigh­ted average gross return of 4.7x and a loss rate of well below 0.5%.

Main will conti­nue to consis­t­ently imple­ment its proven stra­tegy in the lower mid-market for enter­prise soft­ware and make equity invest­ments ranging from €5 million to €150 million in profi­ta­ble, resi­li­ent soft­ware compa­nies. The goal is to grow these compa­nies into larger, scalable, and cross-border soft­ware groups through orga­nic growth and selec­tive M&A acti­vi­ties. In doing so, Main will main­tain its clear focus on its core regions—Benelux, DACH, Scan­di­na­via, France, and North America. As a stra­te­gic expan­sion, Main will also actively pursue plat­form invest­ments in the United King­dom with the new funds. The British market is conside­red one of the most dyna­mic and mature enter­prise soft­ware markets in Europe and offers ideal condi­ti­ons for buil­ding long-term part­ner­ships with soft­ware foun­ders and entrepreneurs. 

Main places a special focus on the profound chan­ges that arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is brin­ging about in the enter­prise soft­ware sector. AI is funda­men­tally trans­forming the deve­lo­p­ment, marke­ting, and scaling of soft­ware, crea­ting new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in Main’s core segments—from Health­Tech and GovTech to Infra­struc­ture and PropTech. With its proprie­tary capa­bi­li­ties in Market Intel­li­gence & Perfor­mance Excel­lence and an active port­fo­lio of over 55 enter­prise soft­ware compa­nies, Main is excep­tio­nally well-posi­­tio­­ned to iden­tify sustainable value crea­tion poten­tial through AI and to support port­fo­lio compa­nies in inte­gra­ting AI into their products and proces­ses. Main is convin­ced that the inter­play of market conso­li­da­tion and AI-driven inno­va­tion makes the current envi­ron­ment one of the most attrac­tive in the company’s more than 20-year history. 

AI Unlocks Poten­tial for Growth and Value Creation

Charly Zwem­s­tra, foun­der and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of Main, says: “Main was among the first inves­tors in the Euro­pean soft­ware buyout sector, and over more than two deca­des, we have estab­lished a unique track record of buil­ding larger and more resi­li­ent soft­ware groups in the lower mid-market. Commit­ments of over €5 billion for Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III are a strong endor­se­ment of our stra­tegy and the endu­ring trust of our limi­ted part­ner (LP) base. We see a turning point for the enter­prise soft­ware indus­try: AI is unlo­cking a new wave of growth and value crea­tion poten­tial, and Main’s in-depth indus­try exper­tise, proprie­tary data capa­bi­li­ties, and disci­pli­ned opera­tio­nal approach put us in an excel­lent posi­tion to realize these oppor­tu­ni­ties for our port­fo­lio compa­nies and investors.”

Jorn de Ruij­ter, Part­ner and Head of Fund Struc­tu­ring & Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons at Main, says: “The speed and scale with which we were able to secure over €5 billion in capi­tal commitments—more than double our previous combi­ned fund­rai­sing total—underscore Main’s long-term invest­ment perfor­mance and the strength of our LP rela­ti­onships. We are extre­mely proud of a re-up rate of over 120%. We thank both our exis­ting and new inves­tors for their trust. With Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to conti­nue driving conso­li­da­tion in the frag­men­ted Euro­pean and U.S. soft­ware markets, expand into the United King­dom, and capi­ta­lize on the oppor­tu­ni­ties presen­ted by AI in the enter­prise soft­ware industry.”

Main did not use a place­ment agent for the fund­rai­sing. Loyens & Loeff served as legal coun­sel.

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a soft­ware inves­tor that mana­ges private equity funds in the Bene­lux count­ries, the DACH region, Scan­di­na­via, France, and North America, with over 12.0 billion EUR in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to drive profi­ta­ble growth and build leading soft­ware groups. Main employs appro­xi­m­ately 100 people at its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris, and a branch office in Boston. Main’s active port­fo­lio compri­ses more than 55 soft­ware compa­nies with a combi­ned work­force of over 15,000 employees. Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with scho­lar­ships for IT and compu­ter science programs at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and colleges.