Thoma Bravo

Orlando Bravo, as co-founder and managing partner, sits at the top of the firm's investment committee and is the public face of its largest decisions. Day-to-day deal leadership is shared among managing partners including Seth Boro and Holden Spaht, who each oversee discrete verticals and fund strategies. The partnership model ensures no single-decision-maker risk, but Bravo's thesis — consolidating mature software assets — shapes every major deployment.

The firm sources deals through a combination of long-standing CEO and founder relationships, direct outreach to boards of public software companies, and a track record that makes it a preferred buyer for founder-led carve-outs. Because Thoma Bravo only buys in one sector, investment professionals develop deep sub-vertical expertise — cybersecurity, healthcare IT, financial software — that surfaces targets before broad auction processes begin. The firm's reputation for closing take-privates smoothly gives it an edge in competitive situations.

Thoma Bravo exclusively invests through its own flagship funds, co-investment vehicles, and its lower-mid-market Thoma Bravo Discover fund series. It does not act as a limited partner in other managers' funds. The firm's investors — primarily pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and insurers — gain exposure solely through Thoma Bravo's direct control positions in portfolio companies.

The firm targets mature, cash-generative companies — not startups. Its flagship funds pursue large-cap buyouts and take-privates of public companies typically valued between $1 billion and $15 billion. The Discover funds target smaller enterprise software companies with strong recurring revenue but requiring operational scale-up. Growth-equity minority deals are rare; the preference is for board control.

Thoma Bravo does not invest in consumer technology, marketplaces, hardware-centric businesses, or pre-revenue software startups. The firm's thesis requires recurring, subscription-based revenue models, high switching costs, and established customer bases — characteristics almost exclusively found in enterprise-grade software sold to businesses, not individuals.

Thoma Bravo routinely offers co-investment opportunities directly to its own limited partners, particularly in large take-privates requiring equity syndication. It does not typically co-invest alongside unaffiliated general partners. The firm's internal co-investment team manages allocation among its LP base, making it a self-contained syndication machine rather than a collaborator with competing firms.

Thoma Bravo was created in 2008 when the partnership split from Bryan Cressey, who left to form Cressey & Company focused on healthcare services. The legacy of shared history traces further back to Golder Thoma & Co., founded in 1980 by Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma. Orlando Bravo joined the firm in 2003, and the current brand reflects his transformation of the platform into a software-only buyout specialist.