Fund Teardown : Advent International

Advent International

1. Investment Focus

Advent International is a global private equity firm with over 40 years of experience. The firm primarily targets:

• Buyouts and growth equity investments

• Sectors: Business and financial services, healthcare, industrial, retail, and technology

• Geography: Global focus with a local presence in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia

Their investment approach focuses on creating value through operations. They often bring in outside advisors and specialists for transformation.

2. Capital Raising Strategy

Advent raises capital from a wide range of limited partners (LPs), including:

• Public and corporate pensions

• Sovereign wealth funds

• Endowments and foundations

• High-net-worth individuals

  
  

Recent flagship fund:

• Advent International GPE X (2022): Closed at $25 billion

• This is one of the largest private equity funds ever raised, even in a tighter fundraising environment.

• They use a strong track record and global reputation to secure re-ups from existing LPs and attract new institutional investors.

  
  

3. Fund Performance

• Average Gross IRR: ~26% across historical funds

• MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital): ~2.7x on fully realized investments (according to public disclosures and third-party reports)

• Advent is known for consistent performance across market cycles. This reliability matters for LPs regarding risk and return.

  
  

4. Recent Deals

• Encora (2024): Sold to Carlyle; Advent exited after driving strong growth in digital engineering services

• Maxar Technologies (2023): Public-to-private deal valued at $6.4 billion in aerospace and defense

• Avast (2022): Acquired in partnership with NortonLifeLock to create a cybersecurity giant

• AI Lean (2023): Growth investment in a tech-driven litigation services platform

  
  

These deals show Advent's ability to identify scalable businesses in technology and industrials. They are willing to participate in both control and minority growth deals.

LP Perspective Takeaway:

From a limited partner standpoint, Advent is a dependable general partner with:

• Proven sector expertise

• A repeatable value creation model

• The ability to manage and deploy large capital pools

• Strong historical returns that justify continued commitments