Prime Capital

Prime Capital

Prime Capital was founded in Frankfurt in 2006 by Andreas Kalusche and partners, emerging during an era when German institutional investors — particularly insurance companies, pension schemes, and savings banks — were beginning to systematically increase their allocations to private markets. The firm positioned itself as a dedicated alternatives specialist, providing manager selection, fund structuring, and portfolio construction services. Its early client base drew heavily from the German-speaking institutional market, where regulatory frameworks like Solvency II later reinforced demand for the type of managed alternative-investment solutions Prime Capital offers. The firm deploys capital across four primary asset classes: private equity, infrastructure, private credit, and absolute return/hedge-fund strategies. Within private equity, Prime Capital typically executes a fund-of-funds approach built around small and mid-market buyout managers in Europe and North America, supplemented by selective co-investments. The infrastructure practice focuses on core and core-plus assets in OECD markets, encompassing energy transition, digital infrastructure, and transportation. Its private credit platform includes direct lending, specialty finance, and mezzanine strategies. The absolute-return book spans a range of hedge-fund styles including equity long/short, global macro, and relative value. Confirmed portfolio relationships include commitments to funds managed by EQT, Partners Group, and CVC Capital Partners (per public record). Headquartered in Frankfurt, the firm also maintains a presence in Luxembourg to accommodate the structuring of regulated alternative-investment vehicles. Team size has not been publicly disclosed, though the leadership group includes Dietmar Banken overseeing client advisory and Werner Goricki heading alternative investments. In May 2024, Prime Capital completed the spinoff of its Access business unit — a provider of technology-enabled fund-administration and KYC services — to private-equity fund Flexpoint Ford, sharpening the parent firm's focus on its core asset-management mandate (per the firm, May 2024). The firm occasionally participates in industry platforms such as the Bundesverband Alternative Investments (BAI), reflecting embedded connectivity to German institutional allocators. Prime Capital's structural differentiator is its function as a delegated investment office for mid-tier European institutions that lack the internal staffing to underwrite and monitor alternative-asset commitments. Unlike large multi-family offices that bundle wealth-management services, Prime Capital is a pure alternatives gatekeeper, competing with divisions of firms like Mercer or Cambridge Associates in the DACH region. The spinoff of its non-core Access unit in 2024 underscores a deliberate narrowing to this investment-outsourcing mandate, leaving the firm positioned as one of the larger independent alternatives specialists in the German market.