Our history

The Small Business Investment Act of 1958 allowed for the establishment of professionally managed investment companies known as SBICs. In 1961, our firm, initially named Northwest Growth Fund (NGF), was founded with a $1.2 million capital raise led by a group of Minneapolis-based business leaders. As one of the first SBIC funds ever raised, we helped launch the small business investing industry.

Our firm made seminal investments in some of Minnesota’s most iconic companies, and our success came during a time of intense growth for SBICs, which many could not sustain. By the end of the decade, we expanded deal-making capacity with key hires, and established a national footprint. By mid-decade, we had invested in more than 50 businesses ranging from apparel and personal products to basic industry, electronics, and industrial and consumer services, illustrating the breadth and depth of our generalist approach to investing.

We grew both in concept and geographically, becoming the nation’s third largest SBIC. To fund new investments, we raised Northwest Venture Partners, a $60 million offering. We identified a new asset class called buyouts (“private equity”) and subsequently reorganized under a single umbrella entity focused on both private equity and venture capital. As one of the founding companies of the buyouts business, we launched NEP IV, a $200 million fund, the largest fund ever raised in Minnesota at the time. NEP IV would pave the way for some of the most successful investments at a time when other industry players left the market. We began to operate under the Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) name.

Our firm moved onto the national stage as private equity business in the U.S. surged, and went on to raise $300 million for NEP V. When the market began to identify venture capital and private equity as two separate industries, our venture business migrated to Silicon Valley to be closer to the technology market while our private equity business remained in the Midwest to focus exclusively on buyouts. We launched NEP VI in 1997 with $250 million and, just two years later, raised NEP VII with $800 million.

Regulatory changes enabled us to have more flexibility invest in larger deals with a broader investment strategy mandate. This included growing and building an operating resource group* to help support and drive portfolio operational excellence and growth needs. We introduced Norwest Mezzanine Partners (NMP) in 2000 with $250 million, providing new avenues of growth and flexibility, and responding to the need for ready access to financing as integral to help portfolio companies complete acquisitions to finance. In 2004, we launched NEP VIII with $800 million with an additional $400 million for NMP II. Four years later, we raised our largest fund to date, NEP IX, with $1.2 billion while NMP raised $750 million for NMP III.

We celebrated a milestone 50th anniversary, a rare occasion in our industry. Together with NMP, we raised our largest pools of capital to date, NEP X with $1.6 billion and NMP IV with $1.2 billion. New, larger fund sizes helped shift our investing strategy as we focused on becoming more control investors and partnering with first-time sellers. We employed significant capital and resources to augment our investing and operational needs for continued growth including increasing headcount, innovating technology, and strategic expansion initiatives.

Starting a new decade with unprecedented global dynamics shed light on the importance of relationships and resiliency, as well as flexibility. A new wave of investor and operations leaders joined the firm to help usher NEP into its 60th year of business while NMP celebrated its 20th. We opened a second office location in Southeast Florida to help broaden our reach to a robust market for growing and profitable companies. We also moved our MN team to a new office in the Minneapolis. One of the most important milestones of this decade was organizing NEP and NMP under one independent entity as a registered investment advisor with the SEC, Norwest Capital, a true testament to the firm’s future growth ambitions. We continue to strengthen our firm’s support of our communities, investing resources and ourselves, and supporting our companies and employees as they make a difference in the communities where we live and work.