Solace Secures $790M to Fuel Enterprise AI Infrastructure

NEW YORK, NY – May 05, 2026 – In a powerful endorsement of the foundational technology powering the next wave of artificial intelligence, Bridge Growth Partners has closed a US$790 million continuation vehicle for Solace, its real-time data and agentic AI platform. The move not only injects significant new capital into Solace but also signals a strategic shift in private equity, where firms are increasingly finding ways to double down on their most promising investments.

The single-asset continuation fund, co-led by a syndicate of heavyweight financial institutions including Apogem Capital, Golub Capital, HSBC Asset Management, and Schroders Capital, is designed to extend Bridge Growth's ownership and fuel Solace’s expansion in the burgeoning enterprise AI market. The transaction underscores the critical role that real-time data infrastructure plays as companies worldwide race to operationalize AI.

The New Gold Rush for AI's Foundation

The nine-figure investment highlights a burgeoning gold rush not for AI applications themselves, but for the underlying "picks and shovels" required to make them work. As enterprises move beyond experimentation to full-scale deployment, they are confronting a fundamental challenge: AI agents are only as intelligent as the data they receive. Stale, batch-processed information can lead to flawed decisions, but a constant stream of real-time data provides the fresh context necessary for autonomous systems to operate effectively.

This is the domain of "agentic AI," a paradigm where AI systems operate autonomously to plan and execute complex tasks. Solace has positioned its PubSub+ Platform at the heart of this shift, enabling what it calls an "event-driven architecture." This allows enterprises to move trusted data continuously and instantly between legacy systems, cloud applications, and the new generation of AI agents.

"Enterprises are increasingly prioritizing real-time data infrastructure, a trend further accelerated by agentic AI’s need for real-time contextual data," said Kutty Dutta, Head of Private Markets at HSBC Asset Management. "Solace’s platform is well-positioned to benefit from this trend, and we look forward to supporting the company’s next stage of growth."

Solace’s technology serves as a digital nervous system for major corporations, including United Airlines, Bosch, and RBC Capital Markets, enabling them to connect disparate systems and react to events as they happen. This capability is becoming mission-critical as businesses look to deploy AI agents that can perform tasks like managing supply chains, personalizing customer experiences, or executing financial trades in real time.

A Strategic Playbook for Long-Term Growth

The deal's structure is as significant as its size. By using a continuation vehicle, Bridge Growth Partners is employing an increasingly popular private equity strategy to bypass the traditional 10-year fund lifecycle. This allows the firm to retain its "crown jewel" asset, provide liquidity to investors in its earlier funds, and bring in new, long-term capital to support Solace's next growth phase.

For investors in Bridge Growth's Funds I and II, which will now be liquidated, the transaction provides a cash-out opportunity. Simultaneously, it allows new investors and Bridge Growth's latest flagship fund, Bridge Growth Partners III, to buy into a proven, high-growth asset. Bridge Growth itself will retain a significant stake, representing over 15% of Solace's total equity post-closing, a clear signal of its continued conviction.

"Today's milestone reflects Bridge Growth’s disciplined investment strategy focused on building enduring technology businesses,” said Alok Singh, CEO of Bridge Growth Partners. “We are thrilled to welcome some of the best-known and largest investors and financial institutions in the world, as we support Solace on its next phase of development."

This financial maneuver is becoming a mainstream tool for private equity firms seeking to maximize returns on their best-performing companies without being forced into a premature sale in an uncertain market. It provides the portfolio company with stable, long-term ownership and the capital needed for sustained investment in product development and market expansion.

A Decade of Transformation and Partnership

The transaction marks a new chapter in a relationship that began in 2016 when Bridge Growth first acquired a controlling stake in Solace. Over the past decade, the private equity firm has guided Solace's evolution from a provider of high-performance data middleware to a central platform for enterprise AI.

Under Bridge Growth's ownership, Solace has transformed its market positioning to align with the most powerful trends in enterprise technology, from cloud migration and IoT to the current explosion in AI. This long-term partnership highlights a model of value creation built on strategic guidance and sustained investment rather than short-term financial engineering.

“Partnering with Bridge Growth, we’ve grown into a true market leader at the forefront of enabling leading global enterprises to connect everything and operate in real time,” said Denis King, Chief Executive Officer of Solace. “Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to scale as an innovation leader and partner of choice to enterprises as real-time data becomes the essential foundation for every AI agent and enterprise application.”

The continued participation of existing minority investor Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), which is rolling its entire equity position into the new vehicle, further validates the success of this long-term partnership and the belief in Solace's future trajectory.

A Syndicate of Conviction

The caliber of the institutions co-leading the investment provides one of the strongest testaments to Solace's market position and potential. The syndicate represents a diverse group of sophisticated global investors, each with a strategic rationale for backing the company.

Apogem Capital, a long-standing partner of Bridge Growth, has had a front-row seat to Solace’s evolution. “Having collaborated with Bridge Growth Partners as an LP and co-investor across multiple investments, we are pleased to lead their inaugural continuation vehicle," noted Stanley Xu, Managing Director of Apogem Capital. "We have been highly impressed by Solace's growth and transformation under Bridge Growth’s guidance, leadership, and ownership.”

For Golub Capital, the deal marks a strategic milestone. “This transaction also represents the first co-lead investment in Golub Capital’s GP-Led Secondaries strategy and reflects our decades-long experience investing in mission-critical software,” said Greg Cashman, Co-Head of Sponsor Finance.

Perhaps most telling is the involvement of Schroders Capital, a firm that has embedded an "AI first" philosophy into its own investment processes. “Bridge Growth Partners brings deep expertise in technology and a disciplined approach to building high-quality businesses like Solace,” said David Guryn, Senior Investment Director, Private Equity at Schroders Capital. Their decision to invest in a foundational AI infrastructure company like Solace reflects a deep, strategic conviction in the market's direction, reinforcing the idea that as enterprises increasingly adopt event-driven architecture, Solace is poised to capitalize on its market-leading momentum.