Hg, the private equity firm, has extended its collaboration with AI company Anthropic to deploy agentic AI capabilities across its portfolio companies. The expanded partnership will see Hg Catalyst, the firm’s AI product incubator, work directly with Anthropic to introduce AI tools into businesses across Hg’s portfolio.
The collaboration builds on a relationship between the two companies that began in early 2024, with Hg saying it now has more than 1,600 live AI projects across its portfolio. These projects represent more than $260m (£194m) of budgeted EBITDA impact, Hg said, claiming the figure has increased five times since 2024.
The partnership will focus on embedding agentic AI into business products and workflows, with Anthropic providing its AI technology while Hg’s portfolio companies contribute the sector-specific systems and processes on which the tools will operate.
Hg said the collaboration had already supported AI developments at portfolio companies including Quantios, which launched its first agentic AI solution in March. Quantios was subsequently sold to Vista Equity Partners, while Hg also cited GTreasury and Intelerad as examples of portfolio businesses where AI strategies have played a role in recent exits.
Hg has invested in AI capabilities for around a decade and currently has more than $110bn in assets under management, the firm said. Its portfolio comprises around 60 businesses across software and services.
Steve Batchelor and JB Brian, co-chief executive officers of Hg, said: “Hg backed the shift toward agentic AI early and the relationship we have built with Anthropic is central to that. As AI reshapes how software businesses build and compete, we want our portfolio companies to have a direct line to the frontier and are excited to continue to deepen our relationship with Anthropic.”
Guillaume Princen, head of International, Digital Native Businesses at Anthropic, said: “Agentic AI is transforming how people scale software businesses. With Claude, Hg’s portfolio gets frontier agentic AI, but also the highest safety standards so they can trust agents with critical workflows. We’re excited to work with Hg to keep driving further transformation across both its own business and its portfolio companies.”
