Scott Schwartz

Scott Schwartz is a Partner at CIVC Partners, a Chicago-based middle-market private equity firm (formerly Continental Illinois Venture Corporation) that has invested more than $2 billion of equity across seven funds and 200+ platform and add-on acquisitions since 1989. Schwartz joined CIVC in 2004 and was promoted to Partner in November 2010, after which he took on shared strategic and operating responsibility for the firm. He leads new investment activity and portfolio-company support, concentrating on the business services and financial/insurance services sectors.

Before CIVC, Schwartz was a Vice President at American Industrial Partners, where he focused on acquisitions in the lower middle market. Earlier in his career he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, operations, and strategy. He has also been associated with QuinStreet.

Schwartz earned both a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He currently serves as a director of several CIVC portfolio companies, including Strategus, Industrial Networking Solutions, Novara, and KPA. His prior board roles include 829 Studios, Magna Legal Services, Innovative Aftermarket Systems, and GWC Warranty Corporation. Outside of CIVC he has been involved with Social Venture Partners (SVP) Chicago.

• Invests through CIVC's institutional private equity funds — this is buyout/growth equity, not angel or seed investing. Founders seeking pre-seed/seed angel capital are not the fit here.
• Targets middle-market companies in business services and financial/insurance services, including tech-enabled services, information services, SaaS, compliance services, BPO, IT services, and transportation & logistics.
• Company profile: roughly $5–$30M EBITDA and $40–$300M revenue, with equity investments generally in the $20–$100M range per deal.
• CIVC "partners with founders and management teams" to accelerate growth, emphasizing deep sector expertise and a partnership mentality with hands-on portfolio involvement.
• Flexible on structure: prefers to be the lead equity sponsor and will pursue both majority (control) and minority positions.