Access: Private Markets Employer Snapshots
This week: The Top Five Global Fundraisers
Hello reader,
This is the 17th edition of Access - the most clicked link from last week’s edition was Cyril Demaria’s excellent piece about public vs private markets valuations.
This week, we’re trialling something a bit different… we regularly get asked to feature profiles of PE firms, a ‘behind the scenes’ look at what it might be like to work there.
We’re working on a few ideas to bring you more intel from our network, but in the meantime, thought we’d start with a sneak peek at the top five firms from the PEI 300 list, which ranks GPs by the amount of money they’ve raised.
Collectively, the five funds we’ve featured this week have raised over $370bn during the past five years, but what’s it really like to work there? Are they hiring? And when it comes to ESG, do they walk the talk?
Let us know what you think.
Until next time -
Liz & Melissa
In case you missed it…
Last week’s edition included news, views, & people moves from across private markets, including:
FEATURING:
The Top Five PE Firms by Fundraising $$
All Rise… In numbers, last five years
What’s in a word? A quick rundown of company values
In Depth: PE Employer Snapshots
The Top Five Private Equity Firms, By Capital Raised🪙
The list below is based on figures from the 2022 PEI 300, which looks at fundraising over the preceding five year period. Numbers given are $m.
KKR - 126,508
Blackstone - 82,457
EQT - 57,287
CVC Capital Partners - 55,414
Thoma Bravo - 50,257
Best of the rest… The Carlyle Group (#6), General Atlantic (#7), Clearlake Capital Group (#8), Hellman & Friedman (#9), and Insight Partners (#10)
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What Do You Value?
In our experience, lots of firms like to weave their company values into the interview process - often at the final stage, to check whether there’s a good fit. So, to help you out, we decided to conduct some highly scientific research to compare the values of the top five firms on PEI’s 2022 list. Here’s what we found:
Mentioning teamwork or collaboration is a safe bet. Nearly all the firms at the top of PEIs list reference working with others in their company values
In fact, the top two firms are all but indistinguishable, sharing four identical values, plus one very close swap (innovation vs. entrepreneurship)
The more values listed, the more money the firm has raised. KKR (#1) wins with seven values, while Thoma Bravo (#5) relies on just three. 🤔
***
IN DEPTH
“It's all in the carry” - Anonymous
KKR is one of the best known private equity firms on the planet, and currently tops the PEI 300 list, having raised $126.5bn over the past 5-years. Founded in 1976, it’s the longest-running firm on this list, and employs thousands of people globally although a significant portion of those are based in the US.
Is KKR Hiring?
Yes, and they list salary. There are currently ~20 open roles on their Careers site, including SAP Finance & Business Analyst in NY, $170-200k.
Glassdoor rating: 4.5/5. “Great benefits” are frequently mentioned, as well as “free lunch”. Reports of “long hours” dominates the negative reviews.
What do people say about their interview process? The average difficulty rating for interviews is 3.1, with 60% positive reviews, including this one:
“Multiple rounds involved including a technical interview and meetings with stakeholders in different teams. Was tough but fair process. Final rounds were with senior leadership who were interested in core values.”
Note the reference to values, dear reader - remember, KKR boasts seven values? Well, one of those is diversity so we thought we’d see how they’re doing…
Of the five companies we’ve covered this week, KKR publishes more D&I data, in more detail than their peers. Their website explains that 44% of global workforce is female, including 24% of senior execs. Racial diversity stats are only provided for Americas, with ~33% of employees identifying as Asian, African American or Black, Hispanic or Latino, or Native American or Alaska Native. We also spotted several posts on KKR’s LinkedIn page referencing their efforts to increase LGBTQ+ representation in PE.
Recent market commentary: Thoughts from the Road: Down, But Definitely Not Out (Jan 2023)
Bonus content: If you’re looking for inspiration, try this upbeat piece by Fernanda Lopez, called Top 5 lessons from working at KKR during the COVID-19 pandemic (Dec, 2020). Lopez worked as a business analyst at KKR during a university placement - she went on to complete an internship at Tesla and is now working at Adobe.
Blackstone has raised $82bn over the past five years, with a reported AUM of $975bn across real estate, private equity, credit and hedge fund solutions. KKR beat Blackstone to the #1 spot by more than $40bn funds raised, a staggering figure.
Founded in 1985, their LinkedIn page lists over 6,000 employees, with ~200 new joiners globally since the start of this year.
Is Blackstone Hiring?
Oh yes. There are nearly 140 open roles currently listed on their Careers site, including Product Owner, VP - Investor Portal - Technology & Innovations in NY, $170-200k (USD).
On Glassdoor, Blackstone scores a respectable 4.1/5. The people go a long way to boosting that score, with colleagues described as '“great” and “smart”. Main complaints include “long hours” and “no work life balance”.
What about the interview process? Average difficulty rating for interviews is 3.1, with 55% positive reviews. Reports of asynchronous video interviews used at early stages, with mixed reviews. In-person interviews receive better ratings -
“incredibly smart team, very thorough with lots of interviewers... Do your homework ahead of time.”
According to Blackstone’s 2021 ESG report, 41% of their 2021 global analyst class is female, and 49% of the US analyst class is “racially diverse”. We couldn’t find any global workforce diversity stats, although their website lists various programmes to improve diversity across their firm and portfolio companies.
Recent market commentary: Blackstone President Jon Gray discusses resilience in the economy and the importance of sector selection, saying “Where you invest matters. If you invest in the right sectors, even in a more challenging rate environment, you can have a differentiated outcome.” (Feb 2023)
EQT is one of the few European-centric firms in the top 10 of PEI’s 300 list. Founded in 1994, the majority of the 1,252 employees listed on their LinkedIn page are based in Sweden.
Capital raised over last 5-years is reported to be $57.2bn, which places them at #3 globally, and #1 for European firms.
Is EQT Hiring?
Yes, although their careers site is dedicated to technology roles and we couldn’t see any salaries listed. Base salary is referred to only as ‘generous’. For opportunities in other functions of the business, EQT welcomes enquiries on a speculative basis.
We spotted six tech-specific roles on their Careers site, including a Data Engineer in Stockholm. There are a few more shown on their LinkedIn company page.
On Glassdoor, EQT is rated as 4.5/5. That puts them level with KKR, and higher than the rest of the top five. We saw multiple references to a “high tempo” workplace culture and a “performance mindset”, with a mix of reviewers citing this as either pro or con. A couple of reviews mentioned base salary being less-then-competitive, but also praised the wider perks including “high-class” company retreats (the mind boggles). Some of the more negative reviews referenced issues with work culture, and complaints of “limited support” from HR.
How about the interview experience? Reviews of the selection approach appear to support some of the employee testimonials -
“Only high performance is expected upon joining - that was repeated a few times”
The average difficulty rating for interviews is 3.3, with 64% positive reviews from candidates (a mix of those who received an offer, and those who didn’t).
Like Blackstone, EQT also lists their gender diversity as a percentage of their 2021 junior class, with 40% women.
CVC Capital Partners are the other European headquartered firm on this list, although the tagline on their homepage is “Truly global, always local” and they make several references to a “global network of 25 local offices”. Their website says they have 750 employees, and according to LinkedIn their workforce has been growing steadily over the past couple of years.
Founded in 1981, CVC raised $55bn to make it to the #4 spot on PEI’s 2022 list.
Is CVC Hiring?
There are no current opportunities listed on their website or LinkedIn, although they’ve seen ~10% employee growth in the past 6-months and we spotted a flurry of recent joiner announcements in the past week.
CVC’s Glassdoor rating is 4.2/5. Several recent reviews mentioned “lack of progression”, particularly for back office roles, although salary and benefits get repeated positive mentions.
And the interview experience? Reports range from “Extremely easy” to “thorough and detailed”, although there are only a handful of entries, so it’s perhaps unsurprising we couldn’t pick out any consistent themes. The average difficulty rating for interviews is 2.8, with 56% positive reviews.
Like EQT & Blackstone, CVC lists their gender diversity as a percentage of their workforce. In this case, 40% of “new investment professional hires over the last three years” were female.
Thoma Bravo was founded in 2008, although it cites a 40-year history (Thoma Bravo was born out of Golder, Thoma & Co, established in 1980). Described by the FT as “one of the most active acquirers of software companies in the world” they have earned their reputation as a technology specialist.
Their LinkedIn lists 251 employees, and with ~$50bn raised over the past 5 years, they sit at #5 globally,
Is Thoma Bravo Hiring?
Not that we could find any evidence of, although like CVC, they’ve seen ~10% employee growth in the past 6-months.
Their Glassdoor rating currently sits at 3.5/5. This is one of the lowest scores of the group, although the negative comments are mainly from portfolio company employees.
And the interview experience? Average difficulty rating for interviews is 3, with 75% positive reviews. There are just a handful of reviews available, no significant cons mentioned.
We couldn’t find any data on workforce diversity, so we took a quick look at their technology team; of 14 total employees listed, 4 use she/her pronouns (~30%).
Given the rather limited data available about careers, we did a bit more poking around and found this brilliant podcast episode. Earlier this month, Harry Stebbings talked with Thoma Bravo’s co-founder, Orlando Bravo, and it got personal… Check out the full podcast episode on 20VC’s website
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