April 28, 2025
As part of ION Analytics’ Influencer Fireside Chat series, Kelly Barofsky, a Director in GEM’s Investment Research Group, sat down with Giovanni Amodeo for an in-depth discussion on how GEM defines, sources, and selects investment opportunities in the lower mid-market. Kelly begins by outlining her journey to investment management before elaborating on the attributes that make the lower mid-market an attractive market segment. They then discussed why GEM believes sector specialization is an advantage for managers, the implications of growing a fund slowly vs. scaling more quickly, and how we assess a manager’s ability to translate their strategy into true value creation for their portfolio companies. Kelly concludes by providing an outlook for the market, noting the resilience of GEM’s buyout portfolio while also acknowledging a challenging IPO environment and ongoing investor concerns related to tariffs, recession risk, and the broader macroeconomic landscape.
Watch the full conversation below.
CIO Matt Bank joined a group of fellow CIOs on the Capital Allocators podcast to discuss how each of them is evaluating the benefits and risks of integrating AI into their investment practices today.
We believe the lower middle market remains one of private equity’s most durable and least crowded sources of outperformance. In our latest research report, we examine the data behind our thesis and explain why we think disciplined manager selection creates a distinct edge.
In this mid-year follow-up to our 2026 Outlook, we revisit the four themes shaping this year's markets—AI's debt-financed buildout, accelerating private market access, biotech's continued momentum, and a slowly healing real estate market—and take stock of what's playing out as anticipated and what isn’t.
Let’s start a conversation about how we can help.
