Petra Funds Group Announces Strategic Investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners

The partnership will enable fund administrator Petra to optimize and scale its white-glove service and client offerings

Petra Funds Group (“Petra”), a leading fund administrator serving private investment firms, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to receive a majority growth investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners (“Charlesbank”), a middle-market private investment firm based in Boston and New York. The Petra founders and management team remain significant shareholders alongside Charlesbank.

Founded in 2021, Petra offers comprehensive fund administration and related middle and back-office services to private equity and private debt managers totaling more than $110 billion of assets under administration. Founded and led by executives with decades of experience in the private funds industry, the firm provides end-to-end technology-enabled fund administration, investor servicing, compliance, fund launch advisory, management company, and ESG services to private fund managers. The firm is led by Co-Founders and Managing Partners Stephen Coats and Peter Haskopoulos, together with Managing Partners John Collins and Paul Winters, along with a team of 110+ employees across five offices in the US and Europe.

“We founded Petra to address a gap in the fund administration market for a high-touch, high-quality and deeply experienced provider of middle and back-office solutions to private investment managers,” said Mr. Coats. “As the demands on asset managers continue to grow, along with our business, we are continuously expanding Petra’s platform and the white-glove services we offer current and prospective clients. We saw Charlesbank as a perfect partner, bringing extensive resources, connectivity, and experience scaling similar businesses.”

“We have been thoroughly impressed with Petra’s client-first orientation and excellent service, and we feel privileged to partner with this talented management team as they build Petra into a premier, technology-enabled provider of fund administration services,” said Michael Choe, Managing Director & CEO at Charlesbank. “As fund managers ourselves, we see every day the importance of strong fund administration execution, and we found Petra’s exceptional service quality and capabilities to be truly distinguished as we assessed their offering as prospective clients.”

Petra has achieved rapid organic growth and also completed a series of successful lift-outs from GPs of insourced middle and/or back-office teams. Charlesbank’s investment will enable Petra to accelerate its growth strategy, recruit and retain top industry talent, and scale its suite of services across the entire fund services value chain, including fund launch advisory; recurring fund accounting, reconciliation, and reporting; management company and GP services; and adjacent compliance and ESG services.

“We believe that Petra represents the next generation of fund administration,” said David Katz, Managing Director at Charlesbank. “Petra offers a unique, comprehensive value proposition with its highly experienced personnel, consistent client focus, technology enablement, and talent-centric mindset, which have been driving industry-leading revenue growth and employee satisfaction. We are eager to draw on our experience partnering with business services companies, and the synergies across our current portfolio, to help Petra scale to the next level.”

“With Charlesbank, we have found a like-minded partner that shares our core values and supports our vision to build a differentiated end-to-end fund administration platform,” said Mr. Haskopoulos. “We are incredibly excited about what the future will bring for Petra and our clients. Our entire team looks forward to embarking on this partnership and to the meaningful contributions it will bring for the business, our employees, and our clients.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

PL Advisors served as financial advisor to Petra on the transaction. Latham & Watkins LLP provided legal counsel to Petra, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP provided legal counsel to Charlesbank.