Main Capital Partners

The Hague–headquartered private equity firm that invests exclusively in enterprise software companies. Founded in 2003 by Charly Zwemstra, who remains Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer (ION Analytics interview, December 2024; Bloomberg profile). Offices in The Hague, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, Antwerp and Paris, with an affiliated office in Boston and a London office opening in 2026 (Silicon Canals, May 2025; PE Insights, August 2025). Around 90 employees across the firm (Silicon Canals).

Main manages approximately €7 billion in assets as of March 2026 (POELLATH transaction note, gingco Systems; MCF Corporate Finance release, gingco Systems), up from ~€6.5B cited through 2024 and on a publicly stated trajectory to €15 billion AUM within three years, driven by rising US LP demand for European software assets (PE Insights, August 2025). The portfolio spans 45+ software companies employing more than 12,000 people (Silicon Canals, May 2025).

Why Main matters to this mandate

Main is the second European-headquartered buyer on the Rivas Will roster, after Oakley Capital. Where Oakley is a generalist pan-European mid-market firm that happens to be active in software, Main is software-only — every fund, every portfolio company, every board seat. For a founder running a €3–30M ARR vertical SaaS business in the Benelux, DACH or Nordics, Main is the most likely European PE firm to be in the room alongside Constellation/Topicus on the holdco side.

The 2025 H2 deployment record adds a third point that the prior brief missed: Main has begun underwriting US platform deals. TrustArc (San Francisco, October 2025) is the first cited US platform — described in Main's own corporate framing as a "next phase of growth" partnership for the target (Main article, Jason Wesbecher interview). For a US founder, that means the publicly-stated €15B AUM trajectory (PE Insights, August 2025) — funded by rising US LP demand — is now showing up on the deployment side, not just the fundraising side. The London office opening 2026 plus the Boston affiliated office plus a US-listed software founder selling out to Main reframes Main from "Benelux/DACH/Nordics PE" to "transatlantic software PE with European centre of gravity" — a wider mandate than the April 2026 brief framed.

Three things make Main distinctive inside the European buyer set:

1. Two-fund platform with a Rivas Will–band smaller vehicle. Main Foundation II closed at its €500M hard cap in April 2024 and writes equity checks of €5–150 million into profitable small-to-medium software companies (PitchBook fund profile; PE News, April 2024). The flagship Main Capital VIII closed simultaneously at €1.9B, also at hard cap, writing into larger European software businesses. Both funds roughly doubled the size of their predecessors and closed in a combined six-month fundraise totalling €2.44B (Mondaq coverage; Main Capital press release, April 2024). The €5M equity check floor on Foundation II is the lowest of any European software PE firm on the Rivas Will roster — it puts Main in the room at $2–5M ARR, below the zone Oakley Origin II or Thoma Bravo Explore will touch.
2. Buy-and-build is the declared strategy, not a portfolio coincidence. Main describes itself publicly as focused on building "sizable, scalable, and profitable cross-border software groups in defined product-markets based on both organic growth and growth by acquisitions" (InforCapital profile). Portfolio companies run visible tuck-in programmes: PeakAvenue completed its fifth add-on since 2022 with OSSENO Software in October 2025 (LinkedIn deal post, McDermott Will & Schulte). The Rivas Will–band target is most often a tuck-in into one of these platforms, not a standalone platform deal — but both entry points are live.
3. Two-vehicle continuation-fund programme proves the exit side of the book. Main closed a €520M multi-asset continuation fund in May 2025 covering three portfolio companies, backed by Lexington Partners, StepStone Group and Trinity River (Main Capital press release; PE Insights Substack). A separate €300M single-asset continuation fund led by Hamilton Lane was raised to acquire xxllnc, a leading Dutch GovTech platform (Hamilton Lane press release; Silicon Canals). Two continuation-fund closes inside a year signals both LP appetite and Main's willingness to hold winners longer than a standard 5–7 year vehicle allows — a useful thing for a founder to know when the term sheet arrives.

Funds and capital structure

| Fund | Vintage / close | Size | Mandate | |---|---|---|---| | Main Capital VIII | April 2024 | €1.9B hard cap | Flagship European software buyout | | Main Foundation II | April 2024 | €500M hard cap | Lower-mid-market software, €5–150M equity checks | | Multi-asset continuation fund | May 2025 | €520M | Three portfolio companies across multiple Main funds | | xxllnc continuation fund | 2025 | €300M | Single-asset, Hamilton Lane–led | | Main Capital VII / Foundation I | prior vintages | ~€1.0B / ~€250M (target doubled in 2024 funds) | Predecessor vehicles |

Both 2024 funds were substantially oversubscribed and closed at their hard caps without using a placement agent, with Loyens & Loeff as legal counsel (Majunke.com, April 2024). The 200+ Limited Partner base spans institutional investors globally, with rising US demand the explicit driver of the €15B AUM target (PE Insights, August 2025; Main Capital investors page).

Recent deals in the Rivas Will band

| Company | Sub-vertical | Date | Fund | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---| | MACH → SMS Stiewi | Public-sector ERP tuck-in (German) | 28 April 2026 | tuck-in into MACH | MACH GmbH's sixth add-on since partnering with Main in 2020. SMS System-Management Stiewi (Aachen, founded 1987) sells travel and expense management software to federal-state agencies, universities and NGOs in Germany. Sven van Berge Henegouwen (Main MP, MACH supervisory board chair) frames it as another GovTech-positioning step (Main press release, 28-04-2026) | | Good Solutions | Manufacturing production monitoring (Swedish) | 4 March 2026 | Main Capital VIII & Main Foundation II | RS Production platform for factory OEE, downtime analysis, and energy measurement; serves 280+ manufacturing plants across food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, and automotive, majority Nordic (Main press release; PE Insights). Main's 41st software transaction and 5th in Sweden (Mergr). CEO Mikael Persson remains | | IQ Messenger | Healthcare critical-communication (Dutch carve-out) | 6 January 2026 (announced); 13 January 2026 (signing) | Main Capital VIII & Main Foundation II | Vendor-neutral critical-communication platform integrating 160+ systems for hospitals, elderly/disabled/youth care; ~50 staff, ~230 healthcare organisations across Benelux. Carve-out from Anywhere365 Group B.V. ("AnywhereNow"); works-council consultation required pre-close (Main press release; AnywhereNow release, GlobeNewswire). CEO Erik van Arkel remains; Sjoerd Aarts (Main MP) leads | | gingco Systems | Workplace and resource management (proptech & contech) | March 2026 | Foundation II (likely) | German platform; majority stake; CEO Frank Dippel remains; add-ons targeted (POELLATH; Main press release) | | Aritma | Fintech (Norwegian; bank connectivity, payment automation, financial reconciliation) | April 2025 | Foundation II | Majority stake (Silicon Canals). First add-on Programekonomi (7 October 2025) — Swedish Microsoft Business Central financial-software specialist; broadens Aritma's Nordic footprint into Sweden; CEO Thor Kristian Seth, Wessel Ploegmakers (Main Partner, Head of Nordics) leads (Main press release, 07-10-2025) | | TrustArc | Privacy and AI risk management (US, first US platform deal) | October 2025 (PE Hub 14 Oct, Main / Bregal Sagemount confirmation 20 Oct) | — | First cited Main US platform. Founded 1997, San Francisco. Customer base includes Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Salesforce, Oracle, Samsung, Mattel (PE Hub). Bregal Sagemount sold to Main (Bregal Sagemount portfolio news, 20 Oct 2025; BusinessWire). Miller Thomson advised Main on Canadian regulatory aspects (Miller Thomson, 3 Oct 2025). CEO Jason Wesbecher remains, frames the partnership as catalyst for next phase of growth (Main interview) | | Jobdigger | Labor market intelligence (Dutch) | May 2025 | — | Majority stake. Arnhem-headquartered software vendor selling labor-market intelligence to recruitment agencies and corporates. Acquisition framed as accelerating European growth (Preqin asset profile; Crunchbase; Staffing Industry Analysts). Adds an HR-tech-adjacent labour-market data sub-vertical to the Foundation II portfolio | | PRIM'X | Encryption and data-confidentiality software (French defense/government) | 24 June 2025 | Main Capital VIII (likely) | Second French platform following the February 2025 Paris office opening; proprietary transaction; customer base European defense, government and security agencies (PRIM'X / Main joint release; McDermott Will & Emery advisory note, 25 June 2025) | | Avinty | Healthcare IT | 2025 | Foundation II | Majority stake (Loyens & Loeff) | | Shippingbo | E-commerce logistics SaaS (France) | 2024 | — | Growth buyout (Avolta transaction note) | | TMA | HR-tech talent management (Dutch) | December 2024 (platform); four tuck-ins to date (HMG 2025, DecisionWise 2025, STYR 2026, BrainsFirst 10 March 2026) | Main Capital VIII & Main Foundation II | Acquired BrainsFirst (Amsterdam, neuroscience-based cognitive assessment) on 10 March 2026 — TMA's fourth tuck-in inside fifteen months under Main ownership; TMA now >100 staff across NL/FR/US (Main press release; PE Hub) | | OSSENO Software | Requirements engineering (add-on by PeakAvenue) | October 2025 | tuck-in | Fifth PeakAvenue add-on since 2022 | | Voquz Labs | SAP license management software | Signed March 2025 | Foundation II | Seventh platform investment for Foundation II; squeeze-out planned (MarketScreener) |

The Foundation II portfolio has reached seven+ platform investments in under two years — an aggressive deployment pace that confirms Main is running Foundation II at an accelerated cadence compared to Foundation I. Early 2026 adds two platform deals in the first ten weeks (IQ Messenger 6 Jan, Good Solutions 4 Mar, gingco March), plus a tuck-in inside TMA, before counting any April activity.

2025 H2 → 2026 deployment cadence

Five platform deals in ten months across five sub-verticals and three continents (Europe, North America, Nordics), plus six visible tuck-ins. The full picture of what Main has actually been doing — not what the prior Q1-2026-only brief framed:

• TrustArc (October 2025, US, privacy / AI risk) — first cited US platform deal. Bregal Sagemount sold; Main bought. Customer base reads as Fortune 500 enterprise (HPE, Salesforce, Oracle, Samsung, Mattel) — a different customer profile from Main's typical Benelux/DACH mid-market software book. The deal converts US LP demand into US deployment, four months into Main's stated three-year €15B AUM trajectory.
• Aritma (April 2025, Norway, fintech) — Foundation II platform; quickly added the Programekonomi tuck-in (7 October 2025) to extend into Sweden through the Microsoft Business Central / Swebase channel (Main press release). Six months from platform-close to first add-on; matches the Foundation II accelerated-cadence pattern.
• Jobdigger (May 2025, Netherlands, labor-market intelligence) — Dutch HR-data SaaS bought as a majority stake; widens Foundation II's HR-tech footprint beyond TMA.

Deployment cadence, January – March 2026

Three platform deals in ten weeks, each in a different sub-vertical and a different country, named funds attached:

• IQ Messenger (6 January 2026, Netherlands carve-out, healthcare-IT) — the carve-out structure is the notable thing. Sjoerd Aarts describes IQM as "a strong reflection of our strategy to invest in leading healthcare technology providers" and Erik van Arkel frames the transaction as letting IQM "dedicate our full energy to IQM's mission" after life inside Anywhere365's customer-experience SaaS parent (Main press release). For a founder reader, the signal is that Main will underwrite carve-outs of healthcare-vertical assets out of larger Dutch software groups — a pattern that recurs as the Benelux cohort matures.
• Good Solutions (4 March 2026, Sweden, manufacturing-IT) — Main's fifth Swedish software deal, acquired with both Fund VIII and Foundation II contributing (Mergr). The RS Production platform is production-monitoring software sold into regulated manufacturers (food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, automotive) — the tight sub-vertical focus mirrors Main's Dutch healthcare-IT pattern. Nordic industrial software is now a declared pillar, not an opportunistic market.
• gingco Systems (March 2026, Germany, proptech/contech) — German workplace-and-resource management software; majority stake; CEO Frank Dippel remains; add-ons targeted (Main press release).

Alongside the platform deals, TMA's BrainsFirst add-on (10 March 2026) brings TMA to four tuck-ins in fifteen months under Main ownership (Main press release, TMA acquires BrainsFirst). Charly Zwemstra is quoted in the release framing the BrainsFirst deal as another meaningful step in TMA's growth (Main press release). Translated: the Foundation II / Fund VIII team will push acquired platforms to add-on at roughly one deal per quarter, which is the cadence a Rivas Will–band founder being courted as a TMA- or IQM-style tuck-in should assume.

MACH's SMS Stiewi tuck-in (28 April 2026) confirms the same pattern up the portfolio age curve: MACH closed its sixth add-on in just under six years with Main, all in German public-sector ERP and adjacent admin software (Main press release, 28-04-2026). The cumulative read across TMA, PeakAvenue, MACH and Aritma is that Main runs add-on programmes that don't slow down with platform age — MACH at year six is acquiring at the same pace as TMA at year one. For a Rivas Will–band founder, that means tuck-in optionality into a Main platform doesn't depend on how fresh the platform is.

Key people

• Charly Zwemstra — Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Based in The Hague. Previously partner at AlpInvest Partners, where he founded the technology investment practice before leaving to start Main in 2003. Over 30 years in software-focused investing. Currently holds or has held supervisory board seats at OBI4wan, KING Software, SDB Groep, Enovation, HYPE, GBTEC, Assessio, Exxellence Groep and Alfa among 20+ technology companies (The Org profile; PE Insights network page; Mergr).

What to watch

• First Foundation II exit. Foundation II is 18+ months into its investment period with seven+ platform investments deployed. A first exit would calibrate the fund's target multiple for Rivas Will comp purposes.
• Second US platform after TrustArc. TrustArc is the first US platform deal; a second within 12 months would establish the US as a declared geography for Main, not an opportunistic Bregal-Sagemount-style sponsor-to-sponsor pickup. Watch for a Boston- or San-Francisco-headquartered software business in privacy-tech, hr-tech or healthcare-IT.
• London office opening. Announced for 2026 (PE Insights, August 2025). Confirms UK vertical SaaS will sit inside Main's core geography, not just an opportunistic market.
• €15B AUM trajectory. If Main raises Fund IX and Foundation III at even higher step-ups (following the VIII / Foundation II doubling), the firm moves further up-market — Foundation III may no longer write €5M equity checks. Founders at $2–5M ARR in Europe should not assume Main's smaller-end reach persists.
• Pace of tuck-in acquisitions across PeakAvenue, TMA, MACH and Main's other buy-and-build platforms. TMA is pacing four tuck-ins in fifteen months; PeakAvenue is pacing five add-ons since 2022; MACH closed its sixth add-on at year six. Tuck-ins are the most common entry point for a Rivas Will–band company into Main; the cadence across platforms is the leading indicator of Rivas Will–band deal flow.
• Carve-out pattern. IQ Messenger is the first cited 2026 Main carve-out from a larger Dutch software parent. TrustArc is a sponsor-to-sponsor secondary, not a carve-out. Watch for a second 2026 carve-out — the pattern would confirm Main as a preferred landing spot for non-core vertical assets being separated out of Benelux customer-experience and horizontal-SaaS groups.
• Second Swedish deal in-year. Good Solutions is Main's fifth Sweden transaction and first 2026 Nordic platform; a second Swedish platform before year-end would move the Nordics from "opportunistic" to "declared pillar" — already implied by the dedicated Stockholm office and reinforced by the Programekonomi add-on.