North Carolina Private Equity Firms

Private equity firms in North Carolina

The Cobble Hill Group has compiled a list of the top 41 private equity firms, growth equity funds, and mezzanine lenders with offices in North Carolina listed by city. Charlotte has the most firms and Raleigh is second. We did not include venture capital firms because their investment criteria and strategies are very different than private equity. Click on each firm's name to go to their website.

Please contact Cobble Hill if you have questions, corrections, or additions to the list of North Carolina firms.

Charlotte Private Equity Firms

Raleigh Private Equity Firms

Ferro Management Group
Hargett Hunter
Hawthorne Capital Partners
Investors Management Corporation
McGeever, LLC
NovaQuest Capital Management
Plexus Capital
SharpVue Capital
The Halifax Group

Durham, North Carolina Private Equity Firms

Aiglon Capital Management
Global Growth, LLC (formerly Eli Global)

Greensboro, NC Firms
New Page Capital
Salem Investment Partners

Winston-Salem, NC Firms
Five Points Capital
Teall Capital

Asheville, NC Firms
Stony Point Group

Kinston, NC Firms
International Farming Corporation

Wilmington, NC Firms
Harbor Island Equity Partners
Tidewater Equity Partners

North Carolina Private Equity Search Engine

Search the websites of all North Carolina private equity firms listed above.

The largest private equity firms in North Carolina

Private equity in North Carolina encompasses approximately 40 firms that vary widely based on investment strategy, industry focus, geographic focus, and size. Below are the three largest firms in North Carolina based on the amount of capital each raised during 2015 through 2019.

Ridgemont Equity Partners

Ridgemont Equity Partners is a Charlotte-based middle market buyout and growth equity investor. Since 1993, the principals of Ridgemont have invested approximately $4.4 billion. The firm focuses on equity investments up to $250 million in industries in which it has deep expertise, including business and industrial services, energy, healthcare, and technology and telecommunications.

Pamlico Capital

Pamlico Capital, based in Charlotte, NC, is a private equity firm founded in 1988 that primarily invests in growing middle market companies in North America. Pamlico Capital seeks growth equity and buyout investments of up to $125 million alongside proven management teams in its target industries: business and technology services, communications, and healthcare. Since 2002, Pamlico has invested over $2.7 billion in over 60 portfolio companies.

NovaQuest Capital Management

NovaQuest Capital Management, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a leading investor in life sciences and healthcare through its Product Finance and Private Equity strategies. NovaQuest was formed in 2000 with the vision of building an investment platform to provide strategic capital to life sciences and healthcare companies. The investment team consists of highly seasoned professionals with significant operating and investment experience and deep life science and healthcare expertise. NovaQuest currently manages over $2.5 billion.

What is a private equity firm?

Private equity firms manage investment funds that are not publicly-traded. The funds are usually organized as limited partnerships. The private equity firm is the general partner and is responsible for the management of the fund, and the limited partners provide most of the capital. The limited partners include institutional investors (e.g. pension plans, university endowments, insurance companies, foundations, sovereign wealth funds), family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

Private equity funds invest in a broad range of assets including private companies, public companies, real estate, natural resources, and infrastructure projects. In practice, private equity is defined more narrowly to focus on investments in private companies. Even within this narrower definition, private equity firms vary widely in size, industry focus, and investment strategy.

Private equity vs. venture capital

Technically, venture capital is a subset of private equity. In practice, venture capital is considered a separate asset class. However, there are investments funds that blur the difference between private equity and venture capital; this middle ground is often referred to as growth equity (or growth capital). Below is a very brief explanation of the differences among these equity asset classes:

Venture capital - Includes equity investments in companies that are at an early stage of development. Generally, the companies are not profitable, so they need to raise additional capital every 12 to 24 months to finance their operations and growth. For most of these companies, market demand for their product or service is uncertain and management's ability to successfully execute their strategy is uncertain so they are "high risk, high potential reward" investments. Typical industries include life sciences, information technology, and e-commerce. Typically, a venture capital firm will acquire a minority interest in a company; however, since more than one venture capital firm will often invest in a given company, collectively they may own a majority.
Growth equity (or growth capital) - Includes equity investments in companies that have achieved good "product-market fit", are rapidly growing, and need to fund working capital, capital expenditures, and/or acquisitions. Growth capital is considered less risky than venture capital and is sometimes called late-stage venture capital. Typical industries are the same as venture capital, as well as those more commonly associated with private equity. Growth equity investors usually acquire a minority interest, but some prefer a majority interest. For information regarding growth debt, see the website of Cobble Hill's affiliate, Find Venture Debt.
Private equity - Includes equity investments in established, profitable companies. Historically, this was called the "leveraged buyout" asset class, but that term has fallen out of favor due to its association with excessive debt and ruthless cost-cutting. Private equity investors continue to utilize debt but as a much smaller percentage of the capital structure, and most firms focus on building value through revenue growth and operational improvements rather than cost-cutting. Typical industries include manufacturing, distribution, business services, healthcare, and consumer products & services; in recent years, private equity funds have significantly increased their investment in the software and technology sectors. Generally, private equity firms prefer to acquire a majority interest in a company. As competition for acquisition opportunities has increased, an increasing number of firms have shown a willingness to acquire minority interests.

What is mezzanine financing?

Mezzanine financing has characteristics of growth equity and private equity. It is a source of expansion capital and the investors prefer established, profitable companies. However, it is usually structured as debt rather than equity, so it is part of the private debt asset class rather than private equity. Investment structures include the following (in descending order of frequency):

Subordinated debt, with investors receiving an "equity kicker" in the form of warrants to purchase common stock;
Subordinated debt plus a smaller amount of preferred equity;
Preferred equity without debt; and
Convertible debt.

From a capital structure perspective, mezzanine debt fills the gap between debt and equity, the word "mezzanine" is derived from the Latin word for "middle." When a private equity firm acquires a company, a common financing structure uses equity from their limited partners, senior debt from a bank or non-bank lender, and a middle layer from a mezzanine lender.

Have questions or want to explore your financing alternatives?

Please contact Barry A. Baker, CFA at (984) 377-3043 or bbaker@cobblehillgroup.com. The Cobble Hill Group is based in Durham, North Carolina, and provides merger and acquisition, growth equity, and valuation advisory services.