Houlihan Lokey Advises SDC Capital Partners on Strategic Minority GP Stake Investment From Thoma Bravo

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that SDC Capital Partners (SDC) has received a strategic minority GP Stake investment from Thoma Bravo.

Houlihan Lokey’s GP Advisory team served as the sole financial advisor to SDC. Since mid-March, the GP Advisory team has served as its clients’ sole advisor on five GP Stake transactions and one GP control M&A transaction.

Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, announced a strategic minority investment in SDC, a leading global digital infrastructure investment firm. Thoma Bravo will fund the transaction from its balance sheet.

SDC is a global digital infrastructure investment firm with approximately $7.8 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2025. SDC invests in data centers, fiber networks, wireless infrastructure, and associated businesses, with a focus on opportunities to leverage its development capabilities and deep operational expertise in partnership with exceptional teams to create value.

Founded in 2017 by industry veteran Todd Aaron, SDC specializes in developing and investing in the infrastructure that powers the digital economy. SDC’s commercial and engineering teams develop large-scale data center capacity for hyperscalers in the most important and supply-constrained markets around the world. SDC’s flexible capital solutions also enable it to partner with leading management teams to deliver transformative, next-generation data center, fiber, wireless, and cloud-services infrastructure. Since its inception, SDC has completed more than 25 investments across North America, South America, and Europe.

As one of the world’s largest software-focused investors, Thoma Bravo shares SDC’s philosophy of having a disciplined and specialized investment approach. Through its portfolio of more than 70 leading software companies, Thoma Bravo is one of the largest and most strategic customers of the world’s leading hyperscalers. Thoma Bravo’s relationships can help further strengthen and enable the expansion of SDC’s platform as demand for compute and connectivity continues to accelerate globally.

Thoma Bravo is one of the largest software-focused investors in the world, with more than $181 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025. Through its private equity, growth equity, and credit strategies, the firm invests in growth-oriented, innovative companies operating in the software and technology sectors. Leveraging Thoma Bravo’s deep sector knowledge and strategic and operational expertise, the firm collaborates with its portfolio companies to implement operating best practices and drive growth initiatives. Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acquired or invested in approximately 555 companies, representing approximately $285 billion in enterprise value (including control and noncontrol investments).

Houlihan Lokey served as the sole financial advisor to SDC and assisted in structuring and negotiating this transaction.

This transaction represents an additional successful engagement for Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading GP Advisory platform, having served as its clients’ sole advisor across six transactions over the past seven months.