Aaron Kirkbride

Aaron Kirkbride is a Partner on the investment team at Butterfly Equity, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm exclusively focused on the food sector. He joined Butterfly in 2016, shortly after the firm's founding, making him one of its earliest team members. In his role he is responsible for all aspects of private equity investments, including sourcing, due diligence, transaction execution, and portfolio company monitoring. He currently sits on the boards of Actus Nutrition, QDOBA, and Chosen Foods.

Prior to Butterfly, Kirkbride was a member of the investment team at Sixth Street Partners (formerly TPG Sixth Street Partners / TSSP), a global investment firm. Before that, he worked at Moelis & Company, the elite independent investment bank, where he was involved in a variety of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring transactions. His career trajectory reflects deep expertise at the intersection of food-sector investing and complex financial transactions.

Kirkbride holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Butterfly Equity is a "seed to fork" food ecosystem investor, meaning its mandate spans the entire food value chain across four key verticals: agriculture and aquaculture, production and inputs, business services, and branded food and beverage. The firm believes the food sector offers a massive opportunity set supported by strong secular tailwinds that remain recession-resilient. Butterfly generates returns through deep sector expertise, a data-driven investment process, and an operations-driven approach to value creation. The firm targets category leaders within food and beverages, with a typical hold period of five to seven years. Butterfly's team has collectively been involved in investing more than $20 billion of equity capital in companies ranging from growth-stage ventures to Fortune 500 enterprises.