London and New York, 17 November: Hg, the leading investor in European and transatlantic software, services and data businesses, today announces the official launch of Hg Catalyst, a dedicated AI incubator designed to accelerate AI product innovation across Hg’s portfolio.

Operating from newly created European and North American hubs in London and New York, Catalyst will bring a scaled capacity of over 80 elite AI engineers, product managers, and designers who work directly within portfolio companies to build production-grade AI products that generate real customer value.

Building the product innovation engine

Catalyst represents an evolution in Hg’s commitment to help software companies to scale faster through technology. Acting as an in-house AI product incubator, Catalyst embeds small, high-performance AI teams inside portfolio businesses to conceive, build, and ship new Agentic AI products. Rather than building prototypes or pilots, Hg Catalyst helps to build ‘real world’ products that drive revenue growth and enhance customer experience.

Lloyd Hilton, Head of Hg Catalyst, said: “There’s a huge difference between AI that demos well and AI products that deliver deep customer value. Catalyst closes that gap, embedding our world-class engineers, product managers, and designers into portfolio teams to dramatically accelerate AI and agentic product development. What we’re learning then compounds across the portfolio: one company’s breakthrough becomes a pattern we can apply everywhere.”

AI-led transformation is now driving tangible valueacross Hg’s companies:

• Hg Catalyst has already helped launch over 15 AI-powered products across the Hg portfolio. This is generating meaningful ARR and, in some cases, boosting new customer bookings by more than 40% in their first year.

• More than 10 businesses are deriving more than 10% percent of bookings from AI-enabled products and AI initiatives across the Hg portfolio delivering more than $130 million in EBITDA value-based uplift through automation, innovation, and efficiency gains.

• Impact in engineering productivity show teams achieving nearly 2x development velocity through agentic tools.

Hg Catalyst has supported the launch of next-generation AI products such as Cephai+ at CINC Systems, Nexus AI at FE fundinfo, Ntelligence Solutions at Ncontracts and Prophix One Intelligence at Prophix.

GSmart AI, launched by GTreasury, led to Hg’s first AI-driven exit, where this 'real' AI product, developed and commercialised by Hg Catalyst, accelerated GTreasury’s growth and attracted a strategic investor.

“Each of these products exemplifies Catalyst’s mission to capitalise on GenAI and the new levels of value we can help our portfolio bring to customers, unlocking new and very material revenue streams” said Chris Kindt, Head of Value Creation at Hg. “AI isn’t just another wave of technology, it’s redefining how software is built, sold, and experienced. For our companies, it means faster product innovation, richer customer value, and entirely new categories of opportunity. Catalyst is how we operationalise that strategic advantage systematically across the Hg portfolio.”

For Hg Wealth clients, this represents an exciting development.
Catalyst shows how Hg continues to stay ahead of structural shifts shaping the software and services industry. By embedding specialist AI and product expertise directly within portfolio companies, Hg is helping to turn emerging technology into measurable business performance.

For investors in Hg Wealth strategies, including Hg Fusion, this proactive approach strengthens the long-term value potential of the portfolio. Systematically accelerating the adoption of AI across businesses potentially supports stronger growth, higher productivity, and more resilient earnings.

Catalyst underlines Hg’s belief that the next decade of value creation in private markets will be powered by AI-enabled innovation, and that Hg Wealth clients are already invested in this transformation.