Assegai Holdings — Western Europe

Enabling succession
through long-term partnership.

We partner with founders, families and existing leadership teams who have built enduring businesses — and are looking for a partner who will protect their legacy, empower their people, and stay for the long term.

Talk to us about your business Our model
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The assegai is not simply a spear. It is carried by those entrusted to lead and protect their people — a symbol of precision, conviction, and the willingness to engage directly rather than from a distance. This is how we invest.

Who we are

Operators backing operators.
We have sat in the founder's chair.

Assegai Holdings is a partner-funded holding company based in Portugal, investing across Western Europe in businesses that provide engineering and essential technical services to the renewables and infrastructure sectors.

Our partners are entrepreneurs and operators who have spent decades developing and operating power infrastructure across Europe, the Americas, Africa and beyond. We did not come from finance. We came from the field — from EPCs, PPAs, O&M agreements, and boardrooms in emerging markets. We know what it takes to run something.

We are not private equity. We do not manage a fund with a fixed life. We invest our own capital alongside a trusted network of private investors and family offices, we hold for the long term, and we embed broad-based employee ownership in every business we partner with. Because people who own what they build act like owners — and they deserve to.

This is not another portfolio company for us. It becomes part of our lives.

Permanent capital

No fund clock, no forced exit. We hold for as long as it takes to do right by the business and the people inside it.

Operators, not financiers

We roll up our sleeves. Our value comes from decades of hands-on experience, not from financial engineering.

Broad employee ownership

In every investment, employees share in the ownership and the future value they help create. Non-negotiable.

Legacy, preserved

We invest in businesses that have endured for decades and will endure for decades more. We protect what the founder built.

Network and reach

Deep relationships across energy, infrastructure, M&A and industry — in Europe, LATAM, Africa and the US. We open doors.

A different kind of partner

We are not private equity.
We are your partners.

What matters to you Private equity Assegai Holdings
Time horizon Sells in 3–5 years. The exit is the point. We hold indefinitely. No fund clock.
Your team Often replaced at senior level. Culture disrupted. Empowered, retained, and given ownership.
Your employees An operating cost to be optimised. Co-owners. Broad ownership in every deal.
Your legacy Secondary to returns. Will likely be flipped. Protected. This is the whole point.
Who's in charge The fund. Management executes. Your management team, backed and trusted.
How returns are made Leverage and financial engineering. Operational improvement and patient growth.
Capital source External fund — must be deployed and returned. Partner capital and private investors. Flexible.
How we work

Built around the business,
not around the transaction.

01

We identify

We focus on European SMEs that provide essential services to critical infrastructure — businesses that have operated for decades and will continue to do so. Energy services, engineering, technical inspection, value-added distribution. Essential, resilient, enduring.

02

We invest alongside

Equity investments of EUR 2m – 10m+, structured around each situation. We take significant or controlling positions, but we invest alongside management — not above them. Our capital is patient and flexible, not constrained by a fund's mandate.

03

We embed ownership

Broad-based employee ownership is implemented in every business we partner with. The people who run the business share in its future value. This is how we ensure alignment, motivation, and commitment — and it is non-negotiable.

04

We get to work

We roll up our sleeves. Our partners bring operational experience across power infrastructure, M&A, capital structuring, and business development in global markets. We work hand-in-hand with management teams — not from a board meeting, but from the floor.

05

We grow together

We focus on sustainable, organic growth — preserving what made the business great while removing the constraints that were holding it back. Add-on acquisitions where they make sense. Internationalisation where it's earned. Never growth for its own sake.

06

We hold for the long term

There is no exit thesis. We manage businesses as if they will be in our hands for a generation — because they might be. If a transaction ever makes sense for all parties, we approach it with the same integrity and care we bring to everything else.

Investment criteria

The businesses
we are looking for.

Engineering & technical services for renewables and infrastructure

O&M, inspection, testing, field services, value-added distribution and technical support for energy, utilities and industrial infrastructure. Services that grow more important as the energy transition accelerates — not less.

Decades of operating history

We look for businesses that have already proven themselves through cycles. Not startups. Not turnarounds. Companies with loyal customers, recurring revenue, and a clear reason to exist.

A strong management team

We back people, not spreadsheets. The team must be capable, committed, and open to partnership. We empower them — we do not replace them.

A succession need

Founders planning a transition. Owner-operators seeking a long-term partner rather than a financial buyer. Families wanting to professionalise without losing what they built.

Western Europe

Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and beyond. We are Pan-European in mandate and local in mindset. We know these markets and the cultures within them.

Enterprise value
EUR 5m – 25m+
Geography
Western Europe
Portugal · Spain · Italy · Germany
Hold period
Long-term, no limit
Employee ownership
Always
Field service technician at solar and wind energy site
Essential services. Enduring businesses.
The team

We have built, financed
and operated across four continents.

Carlos Pinto

Founder & Managing Partner

Carlos is a seasoned project finance executive and emerging market specialist with over USD 1 billion in operational power infrastructure across four continents. His career spans thermal, wind, and hydropower generation across the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

He has negotiated and structured complex bankable project documents — EPCs, PPAs, O&M agreements, fuel supply and loan agreements — across markets where execution demands both technical rigour and deep local knowledge. At Enventure Partners, he served as CFO, leading capital raising and financial structuring for multi-hundred million dollar energy projects.

Carlos holds an MBA from George Washington University and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He brings to Assegai not only financial discipline, but the operator's instinct that only comes from decades on the ground.

Bernardo Fernandes

Partner & Technical Advisor

Bernardo brings 40 years of experience as a technical consultant and owner's engineer for some of the world's most prestigious private equity investors and infrastructure funds. He has overseen multi-billion dollar transactions across the globe, serving as a partner with R.W. Beck (Leidos) and advising on the full spectrum of technical risk in power generation assets.

At Enventure Partners, he served in a Chief Technical Officer capacity — structuring out financial risk through rigorous technical documentation across EPC, equipment procurement, O&M, and LTSA agreements. His background is in thermal and mechanical engineering, with a Master's degree from Imperial College London.

A Portuguese-American citizen, Bernardo speaks Portuguese, French, and English. His depth of technical diligence is a rare asset in any investment process.

Together with its partners, investors and advisors — who have operated companies, worked in private equity and developed renewable energy assets — Assegai brings over 5GW of operating projects across Europe, the United States, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. This network provides credibility, market access, and the kind of hands-on expertise that cannot be hired from a consultant.

5GW+
Operating projects developed across 4 continents
40+
Combined years in power infrastructure
$1bn+
Infrastructure financed and structured
4
Continents of direct operating experience
For owners & management teams

You built something worth protecting.

You have spent decades building a business that people depend on. Your team knows their craft. Your customers have stayed with you through cycles. The business works — because you made it work.

Now you are thinking about what comes next. About succession, about the people you would leave behind, about whether the right buyer even exists. You have probably heard the private equity pitch. You know what it means: a transaction, a disruption, and an exit in five years.

We are a different kind of partner. We are operators ourselves. We understand what it took to build what you have, and we are not interested in dismantling it. We will preserve your legacy, protect your team, give your employees a genuine ownership stake, and manage the business with the same care and conviction that you did.

There is no exit date on our calendar. We are looking for businesses that will be part of our lives — not our portfolio.

"An assegai is carried by those entrusted to lead and protect their people. That is the standard we hold ourselves to — as investors, as operators, and as partners."
Pack of African wild dogs on the hunt — focused, unified, purposeful
Get in touch

Start a conversation.

Whether you are a business owner considering your options, an advisor working with a founder on succession, or an investor interested in co-investing alongside us — we welcome the conversation. No pitch decks required. Just an honest exchange.

Based in Lisbon, Portugal
Investing across Western Europe — Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and beyond
Email contact@assegaiholdings.com
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