Bain Capital spinout Cove Hill hits market with debut fund

After a false start, former Bain Capital executive Andrew Balson has launched his own firm and is raising a debut fund.

Balson launched Cove Hill Partners this year. The debut fund is targeting up to $1 billion, according to a limited partner who has heard the pitch.

The Boston firm plans to partner with management teams on investments in technology and consumer, the firm’s LinkedIn profile shows.

Balson did not respond to a LinkedIn connection request. Lara Fox Moskowitz, co-founder and COO at Cove Hill, declined to comment.

“There’s some buzz around it,” the LP said. The firm has been building out its team even as it talks with LPs about fundraising, the LP said. The firm “seems to be having no trouble fundraising,” the LP said, describing the fund as “oversubscribed.”

The firm was formed by Balson, who was at Bain Capital from 1996 to 2013, starting as an associate and leaving as a managing director. Balson sat on the boards of Domino’s Pizza, Dunkin’ Brands and Bloomin’ Brands, which runs restaurant chains like Outback Steakhouse.

Prior to Bain Capital, he was at Bain & Co, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Bain, Balson co-led the global private equity investment committee process between 2011 and 2013.

Cove Hill hired General Catalyst Partner Justin Roberts in March, according to the LP and Roberts’s profile. He worked at General Catalyst for about a year; previously he was at Thomas H. Lee Partners from July 2012 to April 2016. He also was an associate at TA Associates from August 2007 to August 2010.

In June 2014 the New York Times reported that Balson had left Bain Capital to start a new firm. The article said Balson hired Fox Moskowitz from General Atlantic. But in November 2014 Fortune reported that Balson had scrapped plans to launch the new firm. Fox Moskowitz left and joined Solamere Capital, the Fortune article said.

“I’m viewing whatever I do next as another chapter in my life and, after giving it more thought, I’m not certain that it will be about investment,” Balson told Fortune. “It may be, but I don’t have anything currently planned.”

Action Item: Reach out to Lara Fox Moskowitz: lm@covehillpartners.com

Sailboats on a dock at the MIT Sailing Pavilion on the Charles River in front of the Boston skyline in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Jan. 8, 2015. Photo courtesy Reuters/Brian Snyder