Azra Kanji: Women in PE, class of 2024

The opportunity “to start from scratch with a blank piece of paper and build a new culture” motivated Azra Kanji to leave Abry Partners after 20 years and launch Astira Capital Partners in May of 2023.

By October, the new firm, which is focused on buyouts of tech-enabled services and software businesses in North America, announced the final closing of its debut fund, Astira Capital Partners Fund I, with $675 million of institutional capital commitments.

As a testament to the good terms on which Kanji left the old firm, some of the investors in Astira are Abry partners. And she’s still on the board of three Abry-owned companies.

So why did she start a new firm? “To go back to a smaller team, with not as many strategies, and do the thing I love to do, which is investing in mid-market companies,” she says.

When asked to describe Astira’s investment thesis, Kanji says: “We believe our domain expertise and pattern recognition allows us to identify great companies and gives us conviction to meaningfully enhance growth by supporting areas such as go-to-market strategy, product development, data science, and strategic M&A.”

“Building authentic connections over a long time with management teams is core to the buyout strategy. Many women do that differently than men”

She’s looking forward to closing Astira’s first deals but is not in a rush.

“I’m excited about what’s in our pipeline, but I’m not sure about the timing of what’s actionable. It matters that deals fit with what we told people we were going to do. I’m hopeful we’ll do a couple of deals in 2024, but we’ll wait to do the right ones.”

When asked for examples of deals she worked on in the past at Abry that might provide insights on the kinds of deals she’s likely to do in the future at Astira, Kanji points to a pair of companies focused on driver safety that were sold in 2021. Apollo Impact bought Smart Start, and Stone Point Capital bought SambaSafety. Also in 2021, KKR bought Abry’s stake in Beacon Pointe, a registered investment advisory firm aimed at helping women reach their financial goals.

Five of Astira’s eight employees are women. On firm culture, Kanji seeks to create an environment that rewards collaboration and deliberation.

“Often, aggressive and ambitious behavior are rewarded,” she explains. “Building authentic connections over a long time with management teams is core to the buyout strategy. Many women do that differently than men. Plenty of men are good at it, but I’m especially good at it. Management teams tell me that I listen better than any partner they ever had, that I’m more thoughtful, rather than just speaking to be heard.”

Kanji envisions a culture that rewards taking the time to get things right. “People are very quick to answer every question regardless of how good the answer is. They’re scared to say, ‘I don’t know.’ But often, that’s the most helpful thing to say. It means that’s something we need to figure out together. And it helps us figure out where we spend our time and attention. We might not do the deal, or if we do the deal, we go in with our eyes wide open.”

What’s been the most surprising aspect of starting a new firm? “Everything about fundraising was a surprise,” Kanji says. “I’d never raised money before. I didn’t love the idea of talking about myself constantly all the time. And it’s hard to hear people whose strategy doesn’t line up with yours. It feels like rejection. Even if it’s not personal, it feels personal. But when an LP said yes in the fund, ‘I believe in you,’ it was incredibly rewarding. Our story resonated with LPs, which the speed of our fundraising showed. That external validation felt great.”

Advice for anyone considering starting a firm? “Just go for it. You’re never going to be fully ready, just like having a kid,” says the mother of two children. “You don’t know what it is until you do it.”

She also advises paying attention to what the LPs say. “Listen to the feedback you’re getting. LPs have a lot of experience and have seen a lot of mistakes that first-time funds make. You don’t have to make every change they suggest, but at least take the feedback in for what it’s worth. Make the correction consciously, instead of putting blinders on and moving forward.”