The Swiss asset manager Partners Group, which manages US$185 billion in assets, led the R$855 million funding round for Omie , the largest investment in a growth startup in Brazil last year. Behind this investment is a strategy that is expected to unfold over the next few years in the country.

“Omie was the first check in our growth equity strategy,” says Tiago Andrade, head of private equity for Latin America, on Café com Investidor , a NeoFeed program that features conversations with leading investors in Brazil. “We want to make an investment like Omie every year.”

Since the checks range from US$50 million to US$150 million — an average of US$100 million — the expectation is that Partners Growth can reach US$500 million under management in five years with this strategy in the region.

The companies eligible to receive the check, like Omie, must, however, meet certain prerequisites. The first of these is to have organic growth of at least 30% per year.

Another requirement is having a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. It's necessary to have a high degree of customer recurrence and retention, and to be able to achieve economies of scale to deliver better margins as the customer grows.

The Omie case is almost didactic in explaining how Partners Group invests. The company grows more than 30% annually, operates in a market that is still underpenetrated—only about 15% of Brazilian SMEs use management software—and has technology that is difficult to replicate. “This type of microeconomic trend is independent of interest rates or exchange rates,” says Andrade. “That’s what supports the thesis.”

Another aspect of Partners Group's strategy in Latin America is fundraising. In the region, the Swiss asset manager, which operates in private markets such as private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and royalties, raised nearly US$500 million last year.

But Brazil is not, as André Lemos, head of investor relations at Partners Group, says, the "gorilla" in the room. Mexico, Chile, and Colombia are the most important countries, due to pension funds that invest a large portion of their resources abroad as a risk diversification strategy.

“Brazilians think a lot in terms of local currency,” says Lemos. “You have this very high interest rate which also doesn’t help you want to diversify a bit more. Besides, there are many opportunities in Brazil.”

Last year, the asset manager partnered with Gama Investimentos and brought to Brazil a mirror image of Partners Group Global Value, an evergreen fund with no defined exit date. Bradesco joined as an anchor investor.

Lemos says he welcomes the local platforms and banks, which are increasingly offering products to private markets in Brazil.

In this conversation, which you can watch in the video above, Andrade and Lemos explain in detail Partners Group's strategy in Latin America and discuss evergreen funds, a strategy created by the Swiss asset manager that is gaining increasing popularity around the world.