Partners for the Long Haul
We invest behind this generation’s foundational holding company investor/operators.
About Us
We incubate and invest in early/growth stage serial acquisition holding companies through our long-duration, committed capital fund, Hampton River Holdings LLC.
We invest in a select few serial acquirer holding companies operated by world class investors and operators when they are small and private. We provide capital and expertise to help entrepreneurs methodically grow their businesses and help them along the multi-year journey. Our goal is to develop market-leading businesses targeting niche end markets run by talented people in a super-decentralized manner.
We are not afraid to get in on the ground floor and form new companies to build alongside “best in class” ideas and the talents seeking to execute on those ideas. In a nutshell, we are incubation/growth equity for equity efficient serial acquirers.
We are based in Austin, TX, but have a flexible mandate to invest in the best companies and teams, wherever they are located.
Experienced Investors
Our founder has invested in and studied serial acquirers for many years
We like to be early
We like to invest when things are messy and not obvious
Long Duration
Unique capital base allows us to be your partner pre and post “scale”
Investment Criteria
Ideal Founders/Teams
Prioritize delayed gratification:
Think in decades, not quarters.
Decentralization fanatics:
Lean headquarters and empowered subsidiaries.
Investor/Operator mindsets with networks built over many years:
Experience deep in the weeds in companies as investors and operators with “cheat-code” networks.
Data driven, equity efficient, frugal:
Meticulous builders of large businesses via acquisition without the need for massive amounts of equity capital. Prioritize self-sustainability and seek to maximize MOIC over long periods of time.
Understand and appreciate greatness:
Teams with ambitious goals who have worked at “the all-time great” serial acquirers and/or those who have encyclopedic knowledge of their methods.
Appreciate Market Cycles:
Cycles do occur. Allocate capital and operate knowing that many years will be tough.
Investment Areas
Profitable, Market Leaders with unique IP:
Specialized product offerings highly necessary for customers to perform key job functions.
Long Reinvestment Runways:
We don’t want dividends for a long time (if ever).
Targets must have ability to reinvest free cash flows at high ROIC for a long period of time.
Sectors:
Software
Niche industrial products/services
Business/home services
Open to other fragmented markets with low capital intensity….. if you have original ideas, please reach out. We love to learn.
Portfolio
Dura Software is a specialist in hyper-niche software products that fit narrow but mission-critical use cases for business customers. Dura is one of the fastest-growing, scaled serial acquirers of software businesses globally.
Hampton River lead the Series A in Dura in 2019.
Headquartered in San Antonio, TX
Marathon Software invests in growing and profitable vertical market software businesses who are leaders in their niches. Through a de-centralized, but active, business model Marathon adds value to customers, portfolio companies, and of course investors. Marathon sees itself as a software company as much as an investment firm.
Hampton River invested in Marathon in February 2024.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
Founder
Matt Morris
Matt Morris founded Hampton River Partners, LLC in 2018.
Previously, Matt focused on global equity investing at Pelorus Jack Capital and Challen Asset Management, where Matt opened the firm’s Menlo Park office.
Previous to Challen, Matt was an Investment Manager at Northgate Capital, a multi-billion dollar alternative asset management firm.
Matt earned an MBA with a Finance emphasis from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Matt lives in Austin, TX with his wife and three children.