Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the Debtwire Direct Lending Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 17 June at the Dorchester, London
Bright Capital
BRIGHT CAPITAL is a leading, lower mid-market focused direct lender in Europe. With our dedicated buy-build credit strategy, we invest in sponsored and predominantly non-sponsored businesses with an EBITA between €2-10 million in the business and professional services, healthcare, software & IT, as well as education and lifestyle sectors. Leveraging our unrivalled sourcing network, structuring capabilities and financing range (€5-50m) has earned us a top position in Debtwire’s Direct Lending League Tables consistently. In 2024 alone, Bright Capital successfully closed nine deals, demonstrating our ability to consistently identify, structure and executive high-quality transactions.
Our disciplined alpha-driven strategy, is complemented by active portfolio management, where we maintain close engagement with borrowers, ensuring alignment with our credit standards and value creation goals. Additionally, our commitment to responsible investment is further reinforced by our comprehensive ESG framework, integrated into every stage of our investment and portfolio management processes. Our consistent performance, unique focus on sponsor-less buy-and-build transactions, and strong market positioning make BRIGHT CAPITAL, a trusted and deliverable manager across borrowers and investors.
CVI
In 2024 CVI Dom Maklerski sp. z o.o. ("CVI") solidified its position as the leading private debt manager in Central Europe, with assets under management (AUM) reaching EUR 874 million.
Throughout 2024, CVI deployed EUR 215 million across 44 transactions. Since inception in 2012 CVI invested EUR 3 billion into more than 400 companies.
In result CVI was ranked on top positions in Debwire 2024 European Direct Lender Rankings i.a:
- 1st place in DACH & Poland Direct Lender Rankings with 11 deals included
- 1st place in Europe Direct Lender Small cap with 14 deals included
- 2nd place in Europe Direct Lender Rankings (includes real estate) with 38 deals
Included
CVI's first institutional fund, CVI Fund I, achieved full deployment in the first quarter of 2024, with 44 investments worth EUR 158 million. In 2024 CVI started fundraising for CVI Fund II with target of EUR 300m, which has already raised close to EUR 150 million (by the end of the year) and 44m EUR was already deployed.
CVI's innovative approach to private debt financing, including tailor-made solutions for transactions up to EUR 25 million, has enabled it to address a broad range of business needs. In result CVI has continued to play a major role as a biggest private debt provider in the region and in bringing the private debt formula to the largely unexploited region of Poland and Central Europe, which is slowly gaining more attention from the other private debt funds.
Moreover, CVI continued presenting its strong commitment to ESG standard by further enhancing ESG rating system and policies, and by organising 2nd edition of Pathfinder programme (shadowing professional programme for ambitious female students).
In conclusion, CVI has demonstrated outstanding performance and a commitment to sustainable investing, making it a highly deserving candidate for the Manager of the Year Award at the Debtwire Direct Lending Awards.
Fiduciam
Small businesses are crucial to our economy yet often overlooked by banks and major lenders. Fiduciam stands out for its dedication to small companies, most of them family-owned, serving a broad spectrum of sectors across various European countries. This commitment has earned Fiduciam a top position in Debtwire's European Small-cap Direct Lender Ranking for three years now.
The financing needs of small companies can be as complex as those of large companies. To enable solutions that are as comprehensive and competitive as those offered to large companies, Fiduciam uses advanced technology and maintains a strong local presence in its core lending markets, operating through its offices in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Luxembourg. Two-thirds of Fiduciam's new lending comes from repeat borrowers, underscoring Fiduciam's strong franchise model.
Fiduciam enjoys the strong commitment of several prominent European institutional investors delivering on their commitment to also invest in small companies and entrepreneurs. In 2024, Fiduciam increased its investor base further, with two well-known European institutional money managers and one international insurance company making major investment commitments.
A notable 2024 transaction was the repurposing of an abandoned 75 ha industrial site in Germany for a large logistics company, requiring close interaction with the local authority, given the strategic nature of the site and the desire to increase local employment. Other ongoing lending relationships that stand out for their innovation are the financing of the transformation of a Dutch greenhouse complex into a facility for power generation and grid stabilization, a new UK EV concept (together with a Lithium producer), the manufacturing of “zero-bills” modular houses (guarantee of no energy bills for five years), with the manufacturing plants in the UK, Germany and Ireland.
HF Private Debt
In a year defined by volatility and the retreat of traditional lenders, HF Private Debt (“HF”) stood out as a trusted partner to Europe’s small-cap champions. Ranked #3 for European Small-Cap Direct Lending, #2 in DACH & Poland, and #1 in DACH by Debtwire in 2024, we deployed over €40 million across nine transactions to fuel growth across the region.
We specialise in credit solutions for sub-€15 million transactions - providing tailored financing to companies with resilient business models, strong fundamentals, and robust competitive positioning. Whether backing founders or management teams, sponsored or sponsorless, we focus on delivering certainty where it matters most. Our investment strategy is underpinned by rigorous credit selection, tailored structuring, and a longstanding local presence across our core regions.
Three examples reflect our asymmetric approach to investing and commitment to unlocking value through bespoke capital solutions:
- Backing the LBO of a Swiss-based, tech-enabled services company with EBITDA margins above 40% and over 90% cash conversion. Despite exceptional performance, the company’s limited operating history meant banks declined to engage. We stepped in, making the deal possible.
- Refinancing a German industrial manufacturer with a 14% EBITDA margin and 1.1x net leverage. Though fully bankable, the sponsor chose HF for our speed of execution and reliability. It marked our fourth transaction together, underscoring long-term trust.
- Supporting a highly complex, sponsorless MBO of a German security and fire protection platform. HF structured a HoldCo facility and helped unlock a future buyand-build strategy with additional bank co-financing.
We focus on resilient fundamentals and structuring complexity, consistently deliver strong risk-adjusted performance and meaningful alpha across market cycles for our investors.
Each of these companies had ambition, but needed a lender who could move quickly, understand complexity, and share their vision. HF is proud to be that partner.
Investec Private Debt
Investec was one of the most active lower mid market lenders in 2024, closing 541 transactions and investing €1bn of capital to support growth on the European continent. 65% of these supported existing borrower growth. Our platform is among the largest in the lower mid-market, supported by a team of over 60 investment professionals. Currently, Investec Direct Lending manages over €3.3 billion in investments across 138 borrowers.
Since 2010, Investec has remained dedicated to the lower mid-market, consistently focusing on growth and supporting borrowers throughout their lifecycle. We take pride in backing these businesses and witnessing their development over time. Our unwavering commitment to this sector is reflected in our core values: we lend responsibly (with an average leverage of 3.6x in 2024), support growth across our investment companies (with Private Debt Fund borrowers achieving a 50% increase in revenues since our initial financing), and consistently provide capital to lower mid-market borrowers. We are not deployment-led.
In 2024, we also transformed our approach to sustainability. In addition to hiring a Head of ESG to oversee our transformation, we strengthened our governance and oversight of ESG by establishing an ESG Governance Committee, created a new Responsible Lending framework, integrated ESG into 100% of our Direct Lending investments, partnered with Holtara to manage our portfolio sustainability surveys and provide us with various sustainability services, and began sharing our portfolio sustainability data with investors.
With ESG a key focus, we supported Beech Tree with their acquisition of Sustainable Energy First (“SEF”) in 2024. The company predominantly serves UK large corporates, providing specialist advisory services to customers with complex sustainability and energy needs. In doing so, SEF facilitates energy procurement, hedging, ESG reporting / compliance, carbon reduction and net zero strategies.
1. 34 as per the Debtwire rankings, 54 in total.
Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the Debtwire Direct Lending Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 17 June at the Dorchester, London