Private merchant partners
We invest in companies positioned for regulatory, consumer and structural change, and we work alongside their founders to build them.
Established 2014
The Group
The Waterloo Group is a private growth capital firm. Since 2014 we have invested in companies that stand to gain when the ground beneath an industry moves, and helped build them.
We commit capital as principals, then do the work alongside management. We hold a small number of positions at a time, so each one has our full attention, and we prefer to be early, patient and discreet.
Approach
We provide growth capital as principals, sized to the opportunity and structured so management can concentrate on execution. We are prepared to back a company before the change in its market is widely understood, and to stay invested while it plays out.
Capital is where our work starts. We sit alongside founders and management on the decisions that shape a company: strategy, senior hires, governance, further financing and the relationships that open new markets. We judge our contribution by what the business becomes.
Focus
New rules create new markets. When a regulator opens a sector, redraws its boundaries or changes who may compete, the first well-capitalized operators often set the terms. We back them early and help them build to the standard the new rules demand.
What people want shifts faster than the companies that serve them. We look for businesses built around a change in how customers spend, trust and choose, while incumbents are still deciding whether the change is real.
Technology, capital flows and trade can reorder an industry within a few years. We invest in companies placed where its structure is moving, not where it has been.
Contact
We welcome introductions from founders, management teams and co-investors. Write to us and a member of the Group will reply.
inquiries@thewaterloogroup.com