At this year’s annual investor conference, Makena’s Lara Banks sat down with Edmund Lazarus, Founder and Managing Partner of EMK Capital, for a conversation on what it really takes to find and build transformational growth companies in Europe’s lower mid-market.
In a market where capital is abundant and most obvious opportunities are quickly priced, Edmund’s point was clear: consistent outperformance requires proprietary insight. And proprietary insight requires real work before a deal ever appears. At EMK, that means spending six to thirty-six months developing deep expertise in narrow, often overlooked subsectors. Many of those theses never lead to an investment. But when they do, they can uncover companies others have missed entirely.
Bright Data was a powerful example. EMK found the company after two prior subsector theses appeared to be dead ends — paths that eventually led to a small Israeli business that had quietly built one of the world’s leading public web data networks. The team flew to Tel Aviv, found the founder, and turned persistence into partnership. The company later pivoted into the fast-growing demand from AI and large language models, becoming one of EMK’s standout investments.
Edmund also shared a memorable framework for follow-on capital. One in four platform investments becomes a Gryffindor — the company that earns the most conviction and deserves the most incremental capital. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are still strong businesses. And occasionally, there is a Slytherin that requires years of hard work to recover. Great buyout investing, he argued, requires both concentration and commitment.