Why Centana Growth Partners: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Centana Growth Partners Overview

Centana Growth Partners is a growth equity firm that primarily invests in the future of finance – fintech, financial services, and enterprise technology.

The firm collaborates with various firms across the entire financial services landscape, from fintech disruptors to institutions, to provide long-term and strategic value to their portfolio companies. They provide a combination of network, expertise, and capital to support growth acceleration of their selected companies.

Centana Growth Partners have:

• Investment teams with relevant sector experience investing in, working for, and working with companies in the fintech, financial services, and related enterprise software, and a dedication to help their portfolio companies thrive and grow.

• Strategic network, called Centana Strategic Network, which is composed of industry influencers and operating executives across the financial services landscape.

• Investments across banking, wealth management, insurance, payments, asset management, and capital markets firms; enterprise software firms and fintech companies selling into financial verticals

• Investments between $10MM and $40+MM in each company, customized to meet the specific needs of individual entrepreneurs

Eric Byunn and Ben Cukier co-founded Centana Growth back in 2015. Centana is based in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and New York.

Centana Growth Partners AUM

According to the firm’s publicly available data, Centana Growth Partners is currently investing out of a $375 million fund.

Centana Growth Partners Interview Process & Questions

Firms can make changes in their interview process with each candidate. However, the general nature of the process remains consistent at Centana Growth Partners and similar firms.

• Interview process consists of 4 to 6 rounds
• Junior investment professionals or the HR team handle the initial interviews, while more senior staff lead the later rounds
• The entire process typically concludes after multiple weeks – unless it’s “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting

You’ll face a combination of fit questions, behavioral questions, and technical / investing questions during your interview at Centana Growth Partners.

To help you prepare for such an interview, check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Why Centana Growth Partners

Interviewers are most likely going to ask you “Why this firm?”

If you’ve met current or former employees from their firm, this is the perfect time to mention them and how they’ve made a really positive impression on you. Share the good things they shared about the firm which influenced your decision to apply.

It’s also a good practice to learn more about the firm when coming up with an answer for “Why this firm”. One way to do this is to listen to interviews with its founders, investors, and employees.

Check out this interview with Ben Cukier, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Centana Growth:

More interviews

• Interview with Eric Byunn, Co-Founder of Centana Growth Partners
• Talk between Eric Byunn of Centana Growth Partners and Robert Prigge, CEO of Jumio

Centana Growth Partners Case Study

Interviewees almost always need to conduct case studies during interviews. Firms use case studies to evaluate the candidate’s technical knowledge and communication skills.

Most case studies at firms like Centana Growth Partners will require you to do financial modeling and investment recommendations. For junior roles, cold calling case study may also be included as well.

Check my in-depth discussion of case studies inside my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Centana Growth Partners Salary & Compensation

According to publicly available data, the average salary of employees under Centana Growth Partners is $93,744 per year. Keep in mind that this figure can still widely vary depending on the position, location, and other factors such as experience, qualifications, and skills.

Centana Growth Partners Careers, Jobs, & Internships

To view job vacancies at Centana Growth Partners, check out our job board where you can find open roles for them and other similar firms.

Centana Growth Partners Portfolio & Investments

Centana Growth Partners made 25 investments since 2015 and operates two funds as per Crunchbase. Some of their notable deals include Athennian, Zesty.ai, and Plooto.

Notable Transaction: Eventus Systems

Eventus Systems is a provider of multi-asset class trade market risk management and surveillance systems. Its award-winning platform, Validus, can be operated and deployed across options, equities, fixed income, forex, and cryptocurrency markets.

In September 2021, Centana Growth Partners led a $30 million Series B funding round for Eventus. Other participants include DRW VC, CMT Digital, Jump Capital and LiveOak Venture Partners, along with new strategic investors.

Ben Cukier, Centana Co-Founder, has joined Eventus Board of Directors.

Eventus plans to use the fund to boost their sales, grow engineering and product teams, build on its flagship platform Validus, expand product line, and introduce new financial risk applications.

Next Steps

Centana Growth Partners is just one of many impressive investment firms in the finance world. If you want to land a role at Centana Growth Partners (or a firm like it), be sure to check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

This online self-paced course will help you ace your interviews and maximize your chances of getting selected for the role through its step-by-step lessons on topics like case studies, valuation, market thesis, and many more!

Get the course and start learning today.