Blog 3: Week 1

While all days in the world of high-stakes investing are busy, Tuesday, May 14th at MAI was especially busy, marking the official closing of the fundraising period of MAI's first ever flagship private equity fund and beginning of their first ever capital deployment phase. A flagship private equity fund is a pool of capital that exceeds 5 billion dollars in which a firm raises to invest into private endeavors such as startup companies, real estate, or established companies in need to capital to fund expansion.

MAI raised the 8 billion dollars for their fund through their very own clients, a unique and somewhat unheard of strategy in the industry, as it opens them up to far more risk than they would normally take on. However, they plan to mitigate this risk through more conservative private equity investments, meaning that the company they are providing capital is already making profit or at least a substantial amount of revenue. 

The process in which they select these companies is known as the capital deployment phase, and over the next few months, they will meet with hundreds of companies in need of cash to fund their various business endeavors. Today, one such company was Bombas, the socks company. The Bombas CEO and members of the board flew to Cleveland to present their case to receive a portion of MAI's fund, citing their plans for expansion, already stellar sales record, and market share of the industry. After the Bombas team left, the MAI team discussed their presentation, and asked for my input, they have not come to a conclusion yet, but the conversation led me to believe they are leaning towards no, as they do not see a clear path for growth.

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