AI value creation for private equity
LEADBeyond is the impact partner for private equity funds that want to accelerate their portfolio with AI. We find where AI moves value in each company, build the tools in weeks and make sure leadership teams carry them. Senior-led by former partners at McKinsey & Company and Roland Berger.
Formerly
Impact partners, not advisors. We find the value, build the tools and stay until it works.
15+years of top-tier consulting at McKinsey & Company and Roland Berger
Why now
Most portfolio companies are already testing AI. Far fewer can show it in their numbers. With multiples flat and holding periods long, that gap is the opportunity: value creation from operations, not from multiple expansion.
Private equity · the bar has risen
10–12%
annual EBITDA growth a typical buyout now needs to return 2.5x in five years, with less leverage and flat multiples. In 2015, about 5% was enough. Bain calls it “12 is the new 5”.
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026 (illustrative deal model) and GP Outlook 2026 with StepStone
Holding periods
~7years
is the typical buyout holding period at exit, up from five to six years between 2010 and 2021. Almost 40% of companies are now held for more than five years.
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026
The AI value gap
Only 5% of companies achieve AI value at scale. 60% report minimal revenue and cost gains despite substantial investment.
The 5% show 1.6x the EBIT margin and 1.7x the revenue growth of the 60%.
BCG, The Widening AI Value Gap, September 2025, survey of 1,250 senior executives
Inside PE portfolios
Most portfolio companies were testing generative AI. Nearly one in five had use cases in operation with concrete results, according to investors managing $3.2 trillion.
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2025, survey from September 2024
Where AI fits, and where it does not
A preregistered experiment with 758 BCG consultants and GPT-4. On work inside AI’s capability frontier, those with AI completed more subtasks, faster, with work graded about a third higher in quality. On a task chosen to sit outside it, they were right 19 percentage points less often.
Dell’Acqua et al., Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier, Organization Science 2026 (Harvard Business School with BCG)
Build with a partner
2×
as often, AI tools sourced through external partnerships reached deployment compared with tools built in-house.
MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide, July 2025, preliminary findings from 52 organisations, self-reported
The research says the same thing in different ways: AI lifts performance where it fits and hurts where it does not. The value lies in knowing the difference, company by company, and in building it so that it lasts. That is the job of an impact partner.
The impact partner model
One method across the portfolio, tailored inside each company. Every step ends with something you can use: a value map, calculated cases, live tools, leaders who run them.
The illustration shows a fictional portfolio of eight companies: first a heatmap of AI value potential by function, then a ranked list of value cases, then three MVPs moving from specification to live, and finally one working pattern being reused across four further companies.
Advisor or impact partner
Value levers
No off-the-shelf platform, but exactly the application a process needs, built in weeks instead of years. Four levers we look at in every company.
Requests, proposals and contracts are where sales teams lose days. The AI drafts the proposal from what the company has offered before, checks terms against the rules and flags what needs a human. Go-to-market decisions are tested like an investment: hurdle first, then four proofs.
What we build
Orders arrive by email, PDF or Excel. The AI reads them, matches customer, items and prices against the system and presents the finished order for approval. People only check what stands out. The same pattern works for invoices and for staffing.
What we build
Reporting and forecasting eat weeks of finance time in many portfolio companies. We build the model once: every number traceable to its source, every scenario at the push of a button, explanations for variances drafted for the finance team to check.
What we build
After a deal, knowledge sits in inboxes and in the heads of a few people. Knowledge search and onboarding tools answer with sources; the staffing engine knows skills and availability. And LEADBeyond 360° makes leadership quality measurable across the management team.
What we build
Illustrations with example data
And wherever routine eats up time:
Compatible with
Value at exit
A point of margin is worth a multiple at exit. Put in your own assumptions and see what an AI programme across the portfolio has to deliver, and what it is worth when it does.
EBITDA margin+100 bps
EBITDA a year, portfolio€8.0m
Value at exit€80m
8 companies × €100m × 20% × 5% = €8.0m EBITDA a year → × 10.0 = €80m at exit
A calculator, not a forecast: it multiplies your assumptions, and company sizes in the chart are spread for illustration. Which effect is realistic, company by company, is exactly what the portfolio scan establishes.
Built, not just advised
Real windows from our work, neutralised so you can see how we work. Client, industry and all values are altered.
Impression · values altered
Impressions from an ongoing engagement, not a project example. All values altered.
Leaders who carry it
AI only pays off when the management team runs the company differently. We train portfolio leaders on their own cases, in formats that fit a deal calendar, in English or German.
The leadership team learns the tools on its own cases and leaves with a prioritised plan.
From use case to working pilot between the sessions, with homework that counts.
One topic, one tool, one decision. For boards and investment teams too.
Leaders from different portfolio companies share what works, so patterns travel.
LEADBeyond 360°: one picture from four directions. See the platform ↗
When a portfolio company needs a new leader, our executive search starts with a map of the whole market, not a list of names, and assesses leadership quality with the same diagnostics.
Selected work
A global corporation, the umbrella body of German sport and a ministry: very different organisations, the same standard. Work for portfolio companies we describe without names.
Diagnosed the IT–business gap from both sides, then ran the reset that turned it into named commitments.
From delivery reflex to business-first partner.
Led the workshop at the DOSB in Frankfurt with ESBD, game, the esports player foundation and Deutsche Sport Marketing: who brings which expertise?
Five players, one goal: Germany at the Olympic Esports Games.
Redesigned 35 G2B/G2C services into 18 coherent, user-centric journeys; ran the full IT vendor PMO and BRD development.
A national portfolio, RFP-ready.
What clients say
Their entrepreneurial mindset and acumen were crucial in securing significant financing quickly. We couldn’t have done it without them.
Lennart BörnerCEO, CONDO GmbHTheir analytical diligence and proactive drive in developing our new distribution strategy for mower models were impressive. The recommendations for local retailers were spot on.
Niclas HurtadoDirector Business Development Sales & Service EPAC, Husqvarna Deutschland GmbHThe partners
Frederic Rupprecht and Jonathan M. Günak, former partners at McKinsey & Company and Roland Berger, sit in every steering committee and are your contacts from the first conversation to the result.
How to start
01
Across the portfolio
Every company through the same lens, one heatmap for the investment team, a value map for each management team.
02
One company, one case
One value case from calculation to a controlled MVP in production, typically in two to four weeks of build time.
03
Rolling, cross-company
Tools roll out from company to company while leadership cohorts learn to run them. Impact tracked against the value creation plan.
Questions from investment teams
We work across the portfolio and inside each company: we find where AI moves value, calculate the value cases, build the tools on the systems the company already runs and enable the leadership teams that carry them. Both partners lead every mandate personally, and we stay until it works.
A controlled MVP typically takes two to four weeks. Which process comes first follows from the portfolio scan: we start where value and feasibility meet.
No. The tools are built on what the company already runs. Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce and the company’s own data stay in the lead: no new platform, no new dependency.
Code, data and know-how can be fully handed over to the portfolio company’s team. The company chooses the operating model: handover, co-development or managed.
Every value case sits in a calculation model: every number derived and backed up with source and quality grade, every assumption visible, every scenario at the push of a button. The model stays with the company after the project.
Yes. Executive programmes enable leaders to run AI-enabled operations, LEADBeyond 360° shows how a leadership team leads under pressure, and our executive search fills the roles that make the difference.
Portfolio briefing
30 minutes, no pitch. Bring one portfolio company in mind; we listen, ask the right questions and tell you honestly where we would start.
LEADBeyond GmbH · Tölzer Str. 1 · 82031 Grünwald near Munich
