Chase Steyns

Chase Steyns is a middle-market investment professional with roughly a twelve-year career underwriting, investing in, and working alongside operating companies across a range of industries. He earned a BSBA in Finance and Operations Management from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business (Fisher College of Business, roughly 2008–2012). He began in leveraged and sponsor finance, holding roles at Huntington Bank Sponsor Finance and at Twin Brook Capital Partners, a well-known middle-market direct lender.

He subsequently joined City Capital Ventures, the Chicago-based direct investment firm (founded 2015) that pairs capital with operating businesses on a bespoke, deal-by-deal basis rather than through a traditional fund-stage model. In March 2025, City Capital Ventures rebranded as Uncommon Equity, emphasizing its differentiated single-asset, direct-investment philosophy and relocating its Chicago headquarters to One North Wacker. Across his roles Steyns has worked across the capital structure — control equity, minority structured equity, mezzanine debt, and senior debt — and says he has assisted on over $500 million in cumulative investments.

Before his most recent move, Steyns was an investment professional at The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market. In 2024 he joined Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) as a Senior Director in its Private Debt & Equity (PD&E) group, based in the St. Louis area. There he leads due diligence and structuring for direct equity, direct debt, and GP fund investments, sits on the PD&E Investment Committee, and serves as a board member or observer at several portfolio companies.

Note: the stub described Steyns as a "Senior Associate" and "Angel Investor" focused on the "Seed Round." Every available source instead places him in institutional middle-market private debt/equity — first at City Capital Ventures/Uncommon Equity and now at RGA — investing in established operating companies, not early-stage startups.

• Invests across the capital structure in the middle market: control equity, minority/structured equity, mezzanine debt, and senior debt, plus (at RGA) GP fund investments.
• Backs established, cash-generative operating businesses at "inflection points" — City Capital Ventures explicitly sought to invest at inflection points "not pre-determined stages," where its capital, expertise, and network could materially impact success.
• Sector emphasis on multi-unit and franchised businesses, consumer goods & services, food/beverage & restaurants, and industrial/business services.
• Deal-by-deal, "unbound by size" direct investing (Uncommon Equity selectively deploys up to ~$100M of equity per opportunity), managing each investment on its own merit and timeline rather than a fixed fund clock.
• Emphasis on pairing operating talent and industry executives with portfolio companies — the firm leverages its network to install best-in-breed leadership.