Peter Folle

Peter Folle is Managing Partner (and, since June 2012, sole/overall managing director) of Triginta Capital GmbH, a Düsseldorf-based independent investment, advisory and management firm founded in 1999 that specializes in small- and mid-cap transactions across the German-speaking region. He first began working with Triginta in 2001, developing and running the firm's fund- and investment-controlling systems, before joining full-time in 2003 as Chief Financial Officer. He served as CFO from 2003 to 2012, then stepped up to lead the firm as Managing Director with overall responsibility.

Within the firm, Folle is closely involved in individual deals — particularly on the financing and structuring side — and works hands-on with portfolio companies on restructuring, reorganization and turnaround situations. Before Triginta, he spent time in portfolio and risk management within the banking sector and worked for more than a decade as an independent management consultant advising mid-sized enterprises on investment controlling and restructuring.

Folle's background is grounded in finance and economics. He is a trained/certified banker and holds the German academic qualifications Diplom-Kaufmann (BA) and Diplom-Volkswirt (BA) — degrees in business administration and economics. His profile is oriented toward the "numbers and structuring" end of private equity rather than pure origination, reflecting his CFO-to-CEO career arc inside the firm.

Triginta Capital itself operates in three roles: as a direct investor buying companies, as an M&A and financing advisor to external investors and business owners, and as a manager of investment vehicles/portfolios. The firm distinguishes itself by investing on a long-term, partnership-led basis rather than running short-hold, third-party funds.

• Focus on established small- and mid-cap "Mittelstand" companies in the German-speaking region, usually with enterprise value under ~€20 million.
• Prefers majority stakes, taking qualified minority positions only in special cases; the firm takes an active board/ownership role and holds for the long term rather than optimizing for a fast exit.
• Sector-agnostic in principle ("Grundsätzlich schauen wir uns jede Branche an" — "we look at essentially every sector"), but weighted toward manufacturing/industrials, business services and B2B models; explicitly prefers B2B over B2C.
• Will consider early-stage / venture capital opportunities selectively, but only where the firm already has specialized sector expertise.
• Emphasis on financing, structuring, restructuring and succession situations — areas that map directly to Folle's own CFO/controlling background.
• Operates as an independent partnership that (per its own site) invests with a long-term, owner-operator mindset ("we invest our own money into the companies").