Private Equity Firm Built by Miami Billionaire Reaches Across 19 Offices and Seven Strategies

H.I.G. Capital has grown from a two-person startup in Miami into one of the world’s larger alternative asset managers — a trajectory its co-founder and chief executive, Sami Mnaymneh, credits to a consistent focus on the middle market and a team built to do more than write checks.

Founded in 1993, H.I.G. now manages $70 billion across private equity, growth equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure, special situations debt, and growth-stage healthcare. Its 500-plus investment professionals work from 19 offices spanning North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. The firm has backed more than 400 companies since inception, with combined revenues across its current and past portfolio exceeding $53 billion.

Mnaymneh built H.I.G. alongside co-founder Tony Tamer after leaving The Blackstone Group, where he had served as a managing director. Before that, he worked at Morgan Stanley and completed a joint law and business degree program at Harvard, graduating with honors from both schools. He had earlier earned his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Columbia, first in his class.

Sami Mnaymneh’s Firm Puts Capital to Work Across Continents

H.I.G.’s deal volume in recent years has stretched from North America to Europe and beyond. Domestically, the firm invested in home warranty provider Rely Home and completed the sale of industrial equipment business United Flow Technologies to Berkshire Partners. Internationally, it took a majority stake in Avanta Salud, a Spanish occupational health services company covering more than one million workers through a network of 250 medical centers, and launched a self-storage platform in Italy called Boxengo, seeding it with five facilities across Milan and Rome.

The credit side of the business has expanded in parallel. H.I.G. WhiteHorse, the firm’s direct lending affiliate, has now deployed roughly $18 billion in U.S. middle-market transactions, lending primarily through senior secured floating-rate loans to companies with EBITDA between $30 million and $100 million. H.I.G. WhiteHorse’s most recent fund drew capital from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and family offices across four continents.

“H.I.G. is one of the largest and most active credit investors in the middle market where H.I.G. WhiteHorse is an established leader,” Mnaymneh said when the fund closed. The $5.9 billion closing drew investors from North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Operational Infrastructure Behind the Scale

H.I.G. selected SEI to provide fund administration and depositary services for Luxembourg and Cayman Islands-domiciled private equity and infrastructure assets, a move that reflects the operational complexity that comes with managing capital across multiple jurisdictions. Brendan Dolan, H.I.G.’s European chief financial officer, cited SEI’s automation capabilities and local service expertise as the deciding factors.

Mnaymneh has also expanded the firm’s capabilities on the talent side. The GP Solutions Platform, launched in late 2025 with a team recruited from Morgan Stanley, will target GP-led continuation fund transactions in the middle market — an area where H.I.G.’s network of relationships with more than 800 private equity managers gives it a sourcing edge. The firm is targeting $1.5 billion for the new vehicle. Meanwhile, the Small-Cap & Growth team added Harrison B. Davis as managing director, bringing experience from TZP Group and Brown Brothers Harriman. A full overview of H.I.G.’s investment strategies is available at hig.com.

H.I.G.’s real estate arm has been active as well, growing its prime London residential portfolio past £1 billion and acquiring logistics assets in Norway as part of an industrial outdoor storage strategy across Northern Europe. Taken together, the deal flow suggests a firm that has maintained deal momentum across asset classes while keeping its stated focus on middle-market businesses. That cohesion, in Mnaymneh’s telling, is less accidental than deliberate: the result of more than 30 years spent building one of Miami’s most prominent financial institutions from a clear and consistent premise.