Partners Group, a global private markets firm, has announced a significant achievement in AI-driven value creation within its portfolio. By facilitating a collaboration between two of its portfolio companies, the firm has driven a 120 basis points (bps) EBITDA margin uplift at Foundation Risk Partners (FRP), a US insurance brokerage, representing USD 10 million in financial impact. This initiative underscores how private equity can leverage AI to generate tangible operational improvements and growth.
The AI transformation program was delivered by Version 1, a UK-based digital transformation specialist and also a Partners Group portfolio company, in collaboration with FRP. Since its founding in 2017, FRP has grown to over 3,000 employees across 68 locations. The company built a clean, proprietary policy-level dataset, which served as the foundation for the AI initiatives. Version 1's AI Labs developed two agentic AI solutions: one that reduces the average policy processing cycle for new clients by 94%, leading to a doubling in close rates, and another that automates the human-intensive policy checking task. These solutions were delivered by a seven-person team, with the first use case moving from concept to production in just 14 weeks.
Partners Group acquired both FRP and Version 1 in 2022, recognizing strong tailwinds in the US insurance brokerage sector and the AI-first digital transformation services market in the UK and Ireland. Both companies have since doubled their revenues, demonstrating robust performance. Wolf Scheider, Head of Private Equity at Partners Group, emphasized the value of portfolio synergies: "We have delivered synergies within our own portfolio to create tangible value, in this case pairing a US insurance brokerage with an AI technology partner in the UK and Ireland. Through this, we have turned a clean dataset into USD 10 million EBITDA uplift and real, measurable growth. We continue to look for opportunities to leverage AI expertise across our portfolio companies."
The success of this program highlights the broader implications for private equity firms: by connecting portfolio companies with complementary capabilities, firms can unlock significant operational efficiencies and drive margin improvements. This case also illustrates the growing importance of AI in transforming traditional industries, such as insurance, where data-driven processes can lead to substantial competitive advantages. As Partners Group continues to seek similar opportunities, this collaboration serves as a model for how private equity can actively create value beyond financial engineering.
