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🎥 Hg's Nic Humphries - investing at an inflection point in history
Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.
Today’s episode is about mining for investment success in enterprise software by going “an inch wide and a mile deep” with someone who is one of the industry’s most prolific private equity technology investors.
We sat down with Nic Humphries in Hg’s London office. Nic is the Senior Partner and Executive Chairman of Hg and Head of the firm’s Saturn fund.
Hg, one of the top 10 largest PE firms globally based on the PEI300 ranking, has built an impressive investment engine focused on mission-critical enterprise software. The firm has built a portfolio that is a “transatlantic ecosystem of software and services businesses” — representing over $180B in collective enterprise value across its 55 portfolio companies.
Nic is responsible for Hg’s strategy, management, and governance. On the investing side, Nic focuses on larger software investments that provide daily-use mission critical applications for accountants, tax / compliance professionals, and designers / engineers / scientists. He has brought his electrical engineering background to bear to go a “mile deep” into a category where Hg has become an unquestioned market leader.
Nic balances being both a detail-oriented specialist with a vision for both the enterprise software industry and Hg as a firm. We had a fascinating discussion about enterprise software investing, how to create European software giants, applying AI to make companies more efficient, and much more.
We covered:
* The origin story of Hg.
* How Hg grew into one of the industry’s leading software focused private equity firms.
* How an engineering mindset has helped Nic become a leading investor.
* Why Hg focuses on mission-critical enterprise software and why it’s a compelling investment thesis.
* Why enterprise software investing can be considered a low volatility investment strategy and how Hg has delivered consistent returns to investors.
* How to effectively manage exits and DPI.
* Why Europe, why now?
* How AI could impact technology and services businesses.
Thanks Nic for coming on the show to share your wisdom and expertise about enterprise software and private markets.
Clip #1: Unprecedented portfolio consistency.
Clip #2: The structural shift in private markets.
Clip #3: The AI platform shift and cost revolution.
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Published on 3Â weeks ago