- Main Capital Partners has closed €5.25 billion across two funds at their hard caps, which the firm says is the largest private equity buyout fundraise ever completed in the Netherlands.
- Existing investors re-committed at over 120%, supported by 38 exits with a weighted average gross return of 4.7x and a loss rate below 0.5%.
- The new funds will finance Main’s first push into the United Kingdom, adding a sixth core market alongside Benelux, DACH, the Nordics, France, and North America.
Since 2003, Charly Zwemstra has focused on acquiring essential, stable software companies instead of high-growth or trendy SaaS firms. These include platforms for hospital appointments, municipal tax records, and accounting workflows that organisations rely on every day.
After 23 years, investors have entrusted him with €5.25 billion to continue this strategy.
Main Capital Partners, the Hague-based enterprise software investor that Zwemstra founded after leaving AlpInvest Partners, closed its two newest funds at their hard caps in less than six months.
Main Capital IX reached its €4 billion cap, more than doubling the €1.9 billion raised for the previous fund, Main Capital VIII. Main Foundation III reached its €1.25 billion cap, more than doubling the €500 million raised for Main Foundation II. Both funds were oversubscribed. This raise brings Main’s total assets under management to over €12 billion and marks the largest private equity buyout fundraise ever completed in the Netherlands.
“Securing commitments for Main Capital IX and Main Foundation III of over €5 billion is a powerful validation of our strategy. We stand at an inflexion point for the enterprise software industry: AI is unlocking a new wave of growth and value creation opportunities, and Main’s deep sector expertise and disciplined operational approach position the firm well to capture this,” says Zwemstra.
Why LPs continued to invest while the broader market was unsettled
The timing of the fundraiser is notable. The iShares software ETF has declined about 30% from its September 2025 peak, with public software companies such as Salesforce, Workday, and Atlassian losing significant market capitalisation since early February. After a sell-off driven by concerns that AI automation would disrupt enterprise software, firms like Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners reassured their limited partners through letters and webinars.
Main Capital’s investors, however, required no such reassurance.
The key factor is a loss rate below 0.5% over 23 years of investing. In private equity, where write-offs often attract attention, this performance is exceptional. Combined with 38 realised exits at a weighted average gross return of 4.7x, Main Capital’s track record proved highly persuasive in a volatile market. Existing LP Hamilton Lane increased its commitment, and the re-up rate exceeded 120%, indicating that, on average, investors committed more than their previous allocations.
This pattern mirrors what other European PE firms targeting enterprise technology have found: when the underlying strategy is specific and the track record is clean, LP conviction tends to hold even in hostile fundraising environments.
New capital came from sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds, and insurance companies across the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, including the State Teachers’ Retirement System of Ohio, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union, and AkademikerPension, the Danish pension fund for academics. Main ran the entire process without a placement agent. Loyens & Loeff acted as legal counsel.
Jorn de Ruijter, partner and head of fund structuring and investor relations at Main, adds, “A re-up rate of more than 120% reflects not just confidence in our track record, but genuine conviction in what we are building at Main. We are grateful to both our existing and new investors for their trust.”
The UK expansion and the AI argument behind it
For the first time in its 23-year history, Main will actively pursue platform investments in the United Kingdom, which it considers one of Europe’s most dynamic and mature enterprise software markets.
The UK now joins Benelux, DACH, the Nordics, France, and North America as a core market. Main opened its Boston office in 2023 and its Paris office in 2025. The UK represents the next phase of its international growth.
Main’s approach to AI differs from that of its American peers. It sees this as an opportunity for acquisitions. Its portfolio includes healthtech, govtech, infrastructure, and proptech software. The firm uses its own market intelligence tools across more than 55 portfolio companies to track where AI is creating lasting value and where it is putting pricing pressure on existing providers.
Main’s investment model, developed over 23 years, is simple but hard to copy. The firm buys profitable software companies in specific areas, like Dutch healthcare administration or German government platforms. It then adds related businesses through targeted acquisitions to build market leaders across borders.
Main invests equity amounts from €5 million to €150 million and has completed more than 300 acquisitions, including about 100 platform deals and over 200 build-up transactions. Its portfolio supports over 15,000 employees across Europe and North America.
Enterprise software deal flow in the first half of 2026 is at its highest level since 2021, as financing markets have reopened and mid-cap software companies remain valued below their peaks. For a firm with a two-decade record of buying important software at careful prices, and with losses on fewer than one in 200 investments, this environment is more of an opportunity than a challenge.
