Why AEA Investors: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

AEA Investors Overview

AEA Investors is a middle-market private equity firm which primarily focuses on growth capital, private debt investments, mezzanine capital investments, and leveraged buyouts.

The firm typically invests in companies located in the US, Europe, and periodically in Asia that are in the business services, consumer products, specialty chemicals, distribution, and manufacturing sectors.

Since its founding, AEA Investors has raised over $19 billion of capital from institutional investors and high net worth individuals across its debt funds and private equity.

AEA was established in 1968 to make strategic investments on behalf of S.G. Warburg & Co., as well as the Mellon, Harriman, and Rockefeller families. AEA was officially founded as American European Associates.

AEA Investors is based in New York City with additional offices in Shanghai, Munich, London, Connecticut, and Stamford.

AEA Investors AUM

According to AEA Investors data on their LinkedIn profile, the firm has $19 billion in assets under management as of September 2023.

AEA Investors Interview Process & Questions

Despite the changes in the interview changes for each candidate, the general nature of the process stays the same for the most part. In fact, you can anticipate the following:

• Interview rounds: 4-6
• Initial interviews are supervised by junior professionals, while later rounds are handled by more senior folks
• Unless it’s on-campus or on-cycle recruiting, expect that the entire process will last for multiple weeks

Get ready to answer a mixture of behavioral questions, technical questions, and fit questions when you interview at AEA Investors.

To help you with preparation, I’ve created a Growth Equity Interview Guide. Feel free to check it out.

Why AEA Investors

One of the questions you must prepare for is the “Why this firm” question.

If you’ve met employees at the firm during your networking efforts, make sure to mention them and how their experiences and testimonies helped in choosing their firm.

Also, do your homework and research the firm. You can try listening to interviews with its founders, management team, and investors to get to know them better.

For starters, here’s a great interview with Jeff Nagel, Operating Partner at AEA Investors:

More Interviews

• EDCI Member Interview with Heidi DuBois, Global Head of ESG, AEA Investors
• Learn more about the finance field and investing in general from alumni at AEA Investors

AEA Investors Case Study

Communication skills and technical knowledge are two traits that investment firms highly value. To evaluate these, firms like AEA Investors ask candidates to perform case studies.

Most case studies will have you do financial modeling and investment recommendations. But for junior roles, a cold calling case study may also be part of the process.

Check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide if you need more help regarding case studies.

AEA Investors Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, associates at AEA Investors have earned salaries of $127K per year on average, while there’s no recent data for analyst hires. Actual figures may vary depending on several factors.

Associate

AEA Investors Careers, Jobs, & Internships

View open roles at AEA Investors inside our job board where we also feature all open roles for similar firms.

AEA Investors Portfolio & Investments

As per Crunchbase, AEA Investors has made 7 investments and manages 7 funds. Some of their notable deals include Bespoke Partners, Brand Networks, and Sparrows Offshore Group.

Notable Transaction: Telephia

Telephia provides consumer usage data to mobile data and telecom markets. Mobile companies use the information to keep track of their position in the mobile marketplace, make better investment decisions, and acquire more product and service users.

In August 2000, Telephia secured a $40 million investment in its 3rd funding round, which brought its total equity capital to $54 million.

AEA Investors led the funding round, joining the existing investors such as Cedar Grove Investments, Prime New Ventures, The Megunticook Fund, and Oak Hill Venture Partners. The said funding round also included reinvestments from original equity holders who were pleased by Telephia’s impressive track record of network performance intel to wireless industry players.

The investment helps Telephia to accelerate their growth, expand the market sectors they serve, and build their proprietary system of database infrastructure.

Next Steps

If you decide to send your application and build your investing career at AEA Investors, I would highly recommend that you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide first before attending interviews.

Growth Equity Interview Guide helps professionals get a good grasp of topics that are typically covered during interviews such as financial modeling, case studies, and more. Check it out and start learning today!