Founders have no shortage of suitors when it comes to investment partners—and choosing to take outside investment is a big step.

Since the inception of the Sixth Cinven Fund, the Cinven funds have invested in 18 portfolio companies led or owned by their founders. We recently spoke to the CEOs of idealista, Grant Thornton UK, group.ONE, and Vitamin Well, who shared their perspectives on what makes Cinven a distinctive partner.

Common Values

Jesús Encinar, founder of idealista, one of the leading property websites in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, looked for sponsors who shared his values and were willing to invest their time as well as their capital.
“Many funds have become a little bureaucratic,” he says. “You’re not going to get the same attention from a fund that has a portfolio of 400 companies as from one that has 40. You get more attention and dedication from the one that has 40.”
 
Jonas Pettersson, co-founder of Swedish functional food and beverage business Vitamin Well, had a similar experience: “We spoke to many potential partners, but with Cinven, it was clear from the start that they shared our ambition. They didn’t just come in with capital—they came in with curiosity and a commitment to understanding our brand and our vision and experience in the sector and the market. What stood out was their ability to elevate our ambition and challenge our thinking, while respecting what made Vitamin Well successful to begin with. We felt they were the right partner to support our next phase of growth.”
 
A shared culture also trumped commercial considerations for Grant Thornton, the UK professional services firm that recently closed a major partnership with Cinven. “We’re a human capital business. We need to work with people who get us—who are going to make us better,” says Malcolm Gomersall, CEO of Grant Thornton UK. “Cinven was top of every non-commercial score, but second in the financial. And when you balance that out, they won by quite a lot.”
 
For Jonas Pettersson, cultural alignment was also critical: “Cultural fit was critical for us. We’ve built a very Nordic company in terms of values—flat hierarchies and a direct communication style. Cinven’s team in the region really understood that. They knew how to operate in this environment, but more importantly, they respected it. That alignment made the decision feel natural.  The Cinven team also listens carefully to all stakeholders – a real point of differentiation.”

Alignment

A shared vision of the future is also essential for founders. Daniel Hagemeier, founder of dogado group and now CEO of group.ONE, says he spent a lot of time discussing “what the future really looked like” before the Seventh Cinven Fund agreed to acquire his business and combine it with group.ONE. “It’s easy to create a lot of PowerPoint slides and put numbers in a spreadsheet, but what does day one really look like after a merger? … Having that alignment discussion early, in terms that are very crisp and clear, creates a lot of trust.”
Encinar coincides: “There is agreement on where investments are being made and how the company wants to grow. They don’t want to change things that are working and they let us run the company.”
Pettersson echoes this sentiment from a consumer brand perspective: “They’ve said from day one: ‘We’re here to support, not to steer,’ and that’s exactly what we were looking for.”

Support, in Good Times and Bad

All four founders conducted extensive diligence on Cinven’s reputation—especially under pressure.
Encinar, who has worked with multiple private equity partners, says: “I am impressed at the way Cinven comes through for its portfolio companies at difficult moments. – You really walk the talk.”
Gomersall adds: “Cinven really stood out in terms of the CEOs we spoke to.”
That reputation also gave Vitamin Well confidence. “What stood out to us was Cinven’s pragmatic and flexible approach. Their ability to make decisions swiftly and empower us to act quickly was a decisive factor. That combination of speed and simplicity is what we believe will help us continue building on Vitamin Well’s momentum,” says Pettersson.

Elevating Performance

Gomersall says Grant Thornton chose Cinven as “a majority investor who could be a catalyst for change—who would work with us to make us better and unlock our real potential.” He explains: “We wanted to retain a chunky minority interest to participate in the upside that we generated.”
 
Hagemeier, who has been CEO of group.ONE since the merger in 2022, says: “We’ve created a lot of value together already, which is what I’d hoped for.” Hagemeier adds that entrepreneurs and private equity partners have a lot in common. They are both hard-working and passionate about what they do. They are ambitious and don’t let obstacles stand in their way. They share a passion for success. “In my experience, entrepreneurs and private equity partners often make a good match, it ultimately comes down to how the relationship is managed. In our case, we knew Cinven well from many prior interactions. During the due diligence process, we aligned on our visions and expectations. We wanted Cinven, and got Cinven.”
 
And Pettersson sees Cinven as a long-term growth partner for Vitamin Well:
“We’re at a point where international expansion is a big focus, and we believe Cinven can really support in accelerating that. They bring a global network, deep operational insight, and a strategic perspective that challenges us in a good way. We have a very close and collaborative partnership—one that helps us grow without losing what makes our brand unique.”