Description
Thoma Bravo is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It has done over 300 software deals worth over $85 billion since 2003 and oversees a portfolio of over 40 software companies that generate some $15 billion in annual revenue and employ 45,000 people In October 2019, Forbes estimated the value of the firm, which is owned entirely by Orlando Bravo and a handful of his partners, at $7 billion.
In October 2020, Thoma Bravo was managing private equity funds representing over $70 billion in equity commitments. It is the successor to the firm Golder Thoma & Co., which was established in 1980 by Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma.
In February 2019, the French business school HEC Paris, in conjunction with Dow Jones, named Thoma Bravo the best-performing buyout investor in the world after studying 898 funds raised between 2005 and 2014. According to public data analyzed by Forbes, its funds returned 30% net annually, and since the beginning of 2015, Thoma Bravo has sold or listed 25 investments worth a total of $20 billion, four times their cost.
In October 2019, Thoma Bravo’s co-founder and managing partner, Orlando Bravo, was named the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire as he debuted at 287th place on the Forbes 400 ranking of the richest Americans.
History
In 1980 Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma established Golder Thoma & Co, a company that has been credited as creating the “consolidation” or “buy and build” investment strategy. In 1984, Bryan Cressey was recruited to join the firm from First Chicago, and the firm's name was changed to Golder Thoma Cressey. With the promotion of Bruce Rauner to partner, it became Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner, Inc. (GTCR).
In 1998, the firm split into two firms: GTCR Golder Rauner, for raising larger funds and pursuing larger investments; and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, which continued the firm's longstanding focus on the "middle market".
Thoma Cressey Equity Partners began investing in the enterprise software sector in 2002 with the acquisition of Prophet21, a provider of software for durable goods distributors.
In 2008, Thoma Cressey Bravo became Thoma Bravo after Bryan Cressey left the company to establish a separate healthcare services fund, Cressey & Co.
Thoma Bravo is led by managing partners Seth Boro, Orlando Bravo, Scott Crabill, Lee Mitchell, Holden Spaht and Carl Thoma. The firm closed its 12th fund in September 2016, with $7.6 billion. Thoma Bravo raised $12.6 billion for its 13th fund, which was announced in January 2019.
The company focuses on the application, infrastructure and cybersecurity software and technology-enabled business service sectors, and uses a "consolidation" or "buy and build" investment strategy.
The company moved its operations to Miami, Florida at the end of 2020.
