The next value-creation lever is AI-first.
Financial engineering, cost cuts, and bolt-on M&A have been largely arbitraged away. AI-first transformation is the next underexploited lever — and the funds that build the capability early will generate outsized returns in their next vintages.
Margin, velocity, and multiple.
Structurally higher EBITDA
A third to a half fewer people, each 3–4× more productive. Payroll falls; a smaller token-cost block replaces part of it. The net is a durable step-change in margin.
Faster decision cycles
Cutting internal coordination overhead by ~80% means leaner teams that move faster — value created sooner inside the hold period.
Expanded exit multiples
An AI-first operating model is becoming a priced-in capability. Portfolio companies that have it are simply worth more at exit.
Deploy it across the portfolio.
We don't reinvent the engagement for every company. The 4P Framework and the transformation program are a standardized, fund-wide methodology — diagnose, redesign, deploy, measure — that drops into portfolio company after portfolio company.
Aurora Works gives each company the same AI-native operating system, so you get consistency, comparability, and compounding institutional knowledge across the fund.
Readiness
AI readiness assessment per company.
Roadmap
A transformation roadmap with milestones.
Aurora Works
The platform, live in the company.
KPI dashboards
ROI tracked to the P&L, fund-wide.
Deliverables.
- AI readiness assessments
- Transformation roadmaps
- KPI dashboards tied to the P&L
- Aurora Works deployment
- Ongoing advisory across the hold period
The mandate.
Lower-middle-market funds acquiring companies in the $5M–$100M EBITDA range, where operational improvement is the primary value-creation thesis.
Also a natural fit for family offices with operating assets, and search funds and independent sponsors.
Run the playbook on one company first.
Pick a portfolio company. We'll prove the model, then scale it fund-wide.