LPs

Bridge Growth taps ex-Vodafone, Oracle execs as senior advisers

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Bridge Growth, private equity
Photo of Alok Singh sourced from Bridge Growth website
  • Firms expands senior adviser bench
  • Fund I nearly fully deployed
  • Invested in BackOffice Associates in August

Bridge Growth Partners, launched in 2013 by executives from Vestar Capital Partners and New Mountain Capital, is expanding its bench of senior advisers by bringing on former executives from Vodafone and Oracle, according to sources with knowledge of the firm.

Bridge Growth hired Hasan Rizvi, founder and former CEO of Qlue and a former executive vice president at Oracle. The firm also hired Steve Pusey, former chief technology officer of Vodafone Group.

Rizvi and Pusey join five senior advisers at the firm, including David Barnes, former chief information officer at UPS, and Jessica Bibliowicz, former CEO of National Financial Partners. The advisers work closely with the firm’s chairman Joe Tucci, former chairman and CEO of EMC and Senior Operating Principal Bill Teuber, former vice chairman at EMC.

Senior advisers at Bridge Growth help evaluate potential investments, including pitching in on due diligence, and working with management teams after investments are made. The senior advisers are not full-time employees of the firm.

Bridge Growth focuses on middle-market companies in software and technology and tech-enabled financial services. The firm closed its debut fund in fall 2016 on $410 million. That fund is more than 80 percent deployed, a person with knowledge of the firm said.

At that deployment level, the firm is likely to come back to market with Fund II soon. But it’s not clear when Bridge Growth plans to launch Fund II or how much it will target.

Bridge Growth was formed in 2013 by Managing Principals Sander Levy and Alok Singh. Levy was a founding partner and managing director at Vestar Capital. Singh worked at New Mountain Capital from 2002 to 2013, where he was a managing director.

In August, Bridge Growth invested in BackOffice Associates, taking a control stake in the data-management company from Goldman Sachs, which retained a minority. David Booth remained CEO of the company.

Update: This story was updated to highlight the roles of Joe Tucci and Bill Teuber at the firm.

Action Item: Bridge Growth’s Form ADV here: http://bit.ly/2BJeLiX

Photo of Alok Singh sourced from Bridge Growth website