EMH Partners

Investment decisions are led by founders Maximilian and Sebastian Kuss. The firm operates with a lean, owner-led structure where responsibility is concentrated among the founders and a small senior team rather than a diffuse investment committee.

The firm sources heavily through its entrepreneurial network in the DACH region's Mittelstand ecosystem. The Kuss brothers' own history as tech founders gives them a direct peer relationship with owner-operators, and the firm explicitly positions itself as a bridge to digitalization and expansion expertise rather than just a capital provider.

It operates as an institutional private equity firm, but the lineage is a family office. The Kuss brothers initially ran EMH as their family office and private investment vehicle before formalizing the growth fund strategy in 2016. The current structure is a fund manager raising capital from external institutional investors, with the founders maintaining a significant personal co-investment.

EMH actively facilitates co-investment. Its first growth fund included a parallel co-investment program of €350 million alongside the €350 million main fund. The second fund documentation notes the €650 million cap excludes co-investment capacity, indicating an ongoing strategy to bring limited partners and external capital into direct transactions alongside the fund.

EMH targets profitable, growth-stage companies with revenues between €50 million and €500 million. The firm explicitly defines this as the gap between venture capital and classic buyout, focusing on companies that need growth capital for digitalization, international expansion, and M&A rather than turnaround or early-stage venture risk.

EMH is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and joined the ESG Data Convergence Initiative in June 2024, building ESG integration into its investment process. The firm does not publicly detail a separate philanthropic foundation or trust structure for the founders.

The firm targets technology-enabled companies in Healthcare, Enterprise Software, and specialized Industries. Example investments span medical technology (Brainlab), audio software (Native Instruments), smart home automation (Basalte), and IT infrastructure automation (Stonebranch). The unifying theme is digitalization potential within profitable, established businesses.