Who we are
Cadence Equity Partners was founded by Pieter Hooft and Jamie Szpiro. We make buyout and growth capital investments in companies operating in the lower mid-market Applied Technology sector in the UK either as single investments, portfolio transactions or fund mandates.
This is a continuation of the strategy we implemented in LMS Capital plc’s direct investment business where we successfully backed companies such as Updata Infrastructure, Apogee Corporation, 365iTMS and Wesupply.
At Cadence Equity Partners, we continue to work closely with entrepreneurs and founders to develop and build exciting, innovative companies that help their customers perform more effectively.
In June 2020, Cadence undertook its inaugural primary transaction being the simultaneous acquisition of Aquam Water Services and Orbis Intelligent Systems in a £50m transaction.
In December 2016, we took over a mandate for the £50m CNH fund, which includes portfolio companies Parseq and ieDigital.
Pieter Hooft
Managing Partner
Pieter co-founded Cadence Equity Partners with Jamie Szpiro in 2016.
Before establishing the firm, Pieter led the UK investment activities of LMS Capital and formulated the strategy which continues today at Cadence. Prior to this, he worked at JPMorgan Partners, Apax Partners, Botts & Co and Bain.
Pieter has over 20 years of investment experience in MBOs and development capital in the UK and Europe, across the IT, Business Services, Media, Consumer and Industrial sectors. He also holds restructuring experience from his previous position as Chairman of Germany’s second largest fitness club chain.
Pieter served 18 months in the Dutch Navy as a watch officer and holds a Business degree from Nijenrode in The Netherlands and HEC Paris. He is fluent in Dutch, French and German and speaks conversational Spanish.
Jamie Szpiro
Managing Partner
Jamie co-founded Cadence Equity Partners with Pieter Hooft in 2016.
Prior to establishing Cadence, Jamie spent 8 years at LMS Capital as a senior member of the UK investment team. Previously, he was a Director in the Corporate & Structured Finance team at Singer & Friedlander focusing on mid-market buyouts with a range of UK PE houses. Jamie holds direct operational and M&A experience as part of the senior management team which sold Wintrust to Singer & Friedlander.
He has more than 10 years of experience in the Technology and Services sectors, as well as broad financial experience spanning Corporate, Property and Leveraged Finance at organisations including Hill Samuel and ING Barings.
Jamie holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University and speaks conversational French and Russian.