Kibo Ventures, a leading private equity firm in Spain with €300 million in assets under management, four active funds and more than 10 years of history, has launched Nzyme, a new private equity fund with a target size of €200 million.

Nzyme will invest in profitable and growing Spanish SMEs, with strategic support from Oliver Wyman. The fund will focus on enhancing the value of its portfolio companies through consolidation, internationalization, innovation, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

In this video, Paola Garbini, head of marketing for Europe at Oliver Wyman, talks to Pablo Campos, chair of the Oliver Wyman group in Spain and Portugal, and member of the investment committee of Nzyme, and Vicente Vázquez Bouza and José Manuel Gasalla, partners at the Private Capital team in Oliver Wyman and managing directors at Nzyme. They discuss the global and local initiatives, global investment thesis, and local execution.

Paola Garbini:

Welcome, everyone. My name is Paola Garbini and I am the Head of Marketing for Europe at Oliver Wyman. Today, I am joined by three special guests. Why don't you introduce each other?

Pablo Campos:

I am Pablo Campos, the Chair of the Oliver Wyman group in Spain and Portugal, and member of the investment committee of Nzyme.

Vicente Vázquez:

I am Vicente Vázquez Bouza, until now, a Partner at the Private Capital team in Oliver Wyman, and now a Managing Director at Nzyme.

José Gasalla:

I am José Manuel Gasalla, I've been co-heading the Athens office, and I'm going to become a Managing Director in Nzyme too.

Paola:

I'm hearing a lot of words that I don't understand. Nzyme... What is it? Tell us more.

Pablo:

It is an investment management business that will be supported with the strategic collaboration of Oliver Wyman to conquer a white space, which is where private equity meets venture capital. We believe that's a space that it's not competed, it's less served than others, and we are going to pursue that opportunity. Nzyme is a “glocal” initiative, in that it's a global investment thesis that works across all the markets where Oliver Wyman is present, but requires a local execution.

Paola:

Let's deep one level deeper. Vicente, what type of companies are you targeting?

Vicente:

I think the tagline, as Pablo was saying, is where private equity meets venture capital. So Nzyme is a smallcap private equity fund, so we invest in small companies. And when I say private equity, it means we take control and these are profitable companies, EBITDA positive companies.

We have a strong preference for B2B service companies in fragmented industries. These are companies which are at the very beginning of their sustainability journey, if at all, and these are companies which have completely neglected, not invested in technology over the years. And these are the main levers we seek to pull when creating value in our portfolio companies.

What we seek to do with these companies is of course generate value. We apply all the levers in the traditional private equity toolkit, so we improve management, we complement the management team, we certainly improve governance. We ought to be able to generate companies which generate the returns of venture capital winners with the risk profile of private equity investments.

Paola:

And you mentioned before, Pablo, that this initiative, then turning into a business, took shape within Oliver Wyman. What is the Oliver Wyman role in this?

Pablo:

It's manyfold, but it's a significant value add to the initiative, because Oliver Wyman, through the strategic collaboration with Kibo Ventures, we will talk about that in a minute, will bring the sector expertise and depth knowledge of all our Partners across verticals, a talent pool of consultants that can contribute to the value of the portfolio companies of Nzyme, but also participate in other ways in the fund, and also deal flow, in the sense that the Oliver Wyman Partner network can identify opportunities that fit the Nzyme hypothesis. Lots of value that is very complementary to the skill set that our Partners will bring, and that we'll talk about in a minute.

Paola:

And if you were to describe the winning formula for Nzyme, because I mean, at the end of the day, there are a lot of private equity funds, so what is really differentiating and why do you want to be chosen?

José:

We brought together a combination of teams that are very complementary. It is not simple to have the ability to understand private equity, to understand venture capital, to understand transformation, how do you consolidate companies and how do you make them technological. Putting all of those characteristics in a team that has been working together for a long time, that understands each other, understands the different vocabulary, but also has the ability to attract talent, both from Oliver Wyman bringing secondments to our companies, both from Kibo having exposure to the most talented individuals in Spain, and for those pipeline of companies that are coming to us. That makes it very different.

Vicente:

I totally agree with everything José has explained, and, in addition, in the short term, it's simpler than that. The existing private equity houses with their mandates cannot invest into these sorts of opportunities. We have in the past taken them ideas like this and they simply fell out of mandate, either because they were a bit too small, a bit too complex operationally, which plays to our advantages given our heritage, or because technology played a critical angle with which the private equities in Spain simply feel uncomfortable. And the same is true for the venture capital mandates. They are looking for companies growing at 200% per annum, they're looking for companies which will dominate the world. You know what? In Nzyme, in order to achieve excellent returns, it is sufficient to disrupt an established old industry and create a national champion in Spain.

Paola:

Pablo, excellent returns, disruption, a lot of excitement here. If you were to describe the team that you're building, I mean, we have two wonderful representations here today, but what is really differentiating the team that you're building?

Pablo:

The description of the team is easy. It is the dream team. We've got two Partners coming from Oliver Wyman, with vast experience in transforming companies, ecosystems and advising investors to make the right decisions; we've got another person that has been for 15 years in the private equity industry; and another Managing Director that has spent 12 years in venture capital, and is also a technology expert; we also have an excellent CFO. He brings a vast experience that will add tremendous value to the investment committee; and finally, there are three people, two Kibo founders, and myself, who will sit in the investment committee to help the team make the best decisions.

Paola:

I'm super excited for you, and for us as a firm. So, thank you so much for joining us and for making sure that we can bring Nzyme to the world. And thank you, everyone, for watching.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Kibo Ventures, a leading private equity firm in Spain with €300 million in assets under management, four active funds and more than 10 years of history, has launched Nzyme, a new private equity fund with a target size of €200 million.

Nzyme will invest in profitable and growing Spanish SMEs, with strategic support from Oliver Wyman. The fund will focus on enhancing the value of its portfolio companies through consolidation, internationalization, innovation, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

In this video, Paola Garbini, head of marketing for Europe at Oliver Wyman, talks to Pablo Campos, chair of the Oliver Wyman group in Spain and Portugal, and member of the investment committee of Nzyme, and Vicente Vázquez Bouza and José Manuel Gasalla, partners at the Private Capital team in Oliver Wyman and managing directors at Nzyme. They discuss the global and local initiatives, global investment thesis, and local execution.

Paola Garbini:

Welcome, everyone. My name is Paola Garbini and I am the Head of Marketing for Europe at Oliver Wyman. Today, I am joined by three special guests. Why don't you introduce each other?

Pablo Campos:

I am Pablo Campos, the Chair of the Oliver Wyman group in Spain and Portugal, and member of the investment committee of Nzyme.

Vicente Vázquez:

I am Vicente Vázquez Bouza, until now, a Partner at the Private Capital team in Oliver Wyman, and now a Managing Director at Nzyme.

José Gasalla:

I am José Manuel Gasalla, I've been co-heading the Athens office, and I'm going to become a Managing Director in Nzyme too.

Paola:

I'm hearing a lot of words that I don't understand. Nzyme... What is it? Tell us more.

Pablo:

It is an investment management business that will be supported with the strategic collaboration of Oliver Wyman to conquer a white space, which is where private equity meets venture capital. We believe that's a space that it's not competed, it's less served than others, and we are going to pursue that opportunity. Nzyme is a “glocal” initiative, in that it's a global investment thesis that works across all the markets where Oliver Wyman is present, but requires a local execution.

Paola:

Let's deep one level deeper. Vicente, what type of companies are you targeting?

Vicente:

I think the tagline, as Pablo was saying, is where private equity meets venture capital. So Nzyme is a smallcap private equity fund, so we invest in small companies. And when I say private equity, it means we take control and these are profitable companies, EBITDA positive companies.

We have a strong preference for B2B service companies in fragmented industries. These are companies which are at the very beginning of their sustainability journey, if at all, and these are companies which have completely neglected, not invested in technology over the years. And these are the main levers we seek to pull when creating value in our portfolio companies.

What we seek to do with these companies is of course generate value. We apply all the levers in the traditional private equity toolkit, so we improve management, we complement the management team, we certainly improve governance. We ought to be able to generate companies which generate the returns of venture capital winners with the risk profile of private equity investments.

Paola:

And you mentioned before, Pablo, that this initiative, then turning into a business, took shape within Oliver Wyman. What is the Oliver Wyman role in this?

Pablo:

It's manyfold, but it's a significant value add to the initiative, because Oliver Wyman, through the strategic collaboration with Kibo Ventures, we will talk about that in a minute, will bring the sector expertise and depth knowledge of all our Partners across verticals, a talent pool of consultants that can contribute to the value of the portfolio companies of Nzyme, but also participate in other ways in the fund, and also deal flow, in the sense that the Oliver Wyman Partner network can identify opportunities that fit the Nzyme hypothesis. Lots of value that is very complementary to the skill set that our Partners will bring, and that we'll talk about in a minute.

Paola:

And if you were to describe the winning formula for Nzyme, because I mean, at the end of the day, there are a lot of private equity funds, so what is really differentiating and why do you want to be chosen?

José:

We brought together a combination of teams that are very complementary. It is not simple to have the ability to understand private equity, to understand venture capital, to understand transformation, how do you consolidate companies and how do you make them technological. Putting all of those characteristics in a team that has been working together for a long time, that understands each other, understands the different vocabulary, but also has the ability to attract talent, both from Oliver Wyman bringing secondments to our companies, both from Kibo having exposure to the most talented individuals in Spain, and for those pipeline of companies that are coming to us. That makes it very different.

Vicente:

I totally agree with everything José has explained, and, in addition, in the short term, it's simpler than that. The existing private equity houses with their mandates cannot invest into these sorts of opportunities. We have in the past taken them ideas like this and they simply fell out of mandate, either because they were a bit too small, a bit too complex operationally, which plays to our advantages given our heritage, or because technology played a critical angle with which the private equities in Spain simply feel uncomfortable. And the same is true for the venture capital mandates. They are looking for companies growing at 200% per annum, they're looking for companies which will dominate the world. You know what? In Nzyme, in order to achieve excellent returns, it is sufficient to disrupt an established old industry and create a national champion in Spain.

Paola:

Pablo, excellent returns, disruption, a lot of excitement here. If you were to describe the team that you're building, I mean, we have two wonderful representations here today, but what is really differentiating the team that you're building?

Pablo:

The description of the team is easy. It is the dream team. We've got two Partners coming from Oliver Wyman, with vast experience in transforming companies, ecosystems and advising investors to make the right decisions; we've got another person that has been for 15 years in the private equity industry; and another Managing Director that has spent 12 years in venture capital, and is also a technology expert; we also have an excellent CFO. He brings a vast experience that will add tremendous value to the investment committee; and finally, there are three people, two Kibo founders, and myself, who will sit in the investment committee to help the team make the best decisions.

Paola:

I'm super excited for you, and for us as a firm. So, thank you so much for joining us and for making sure that we can bring Nzyme to the world. And thank you, everyone, for watching.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.