The past year brought with it a series of new and unexpected challenges for American workers and families. The COVID-19 pandemic continued for a third year, the U.S. experienced inflation at 40-year highs, and the U.S. economy slowed—inflicting new financial hardship on many. Americans saw their real average hourly earnings fall 1.7 percent from December 2021 to December 2022¹ while the price of food increased 10.4 percent and gas rose over 40 percent². Amidst rising inflation, the Great Resignation became the Great Reshuffle³ as Americans returned to the workforce in search of better jobs, resulting in increased employment in 42 U.S. states and stable employment in 8 others⁴. Despite this encouraging sign, half of Americans reported feeling worse off financially—levels not seen since Gallup’s polling during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009⁵. It is clear that the U.S. continues to have a quality jobs problem and too few workers are able to provide sufficiently for themselves and their families to feel financially secure.

Given this reality, we see our work with portfolio companies to improve job quality through the Gainful Jobs Approach™ as more important than ever. In addition to this work being the right thing to do, we view improving job quality as a core component of how we support value creation with portfolio companies. When we collaborate with companies to support their workforce and build environments where employees thrive, companies are better positioned to reach their goals, which translates into better financial results and, ultimately, enhanced investment returns.

In this year’s annual impact report, we are pleased to highlight value creation as our central theme. We’ve included case studies that examine how we’ve positively contributed to our portfolio companies, including through the Gainful Jobs Approach™ and other value creation activities. In addition, we introduce the HCAP Employee Assistance Fund, a new resource launched to support portfolio company employees experiencing financial hardship.

In September 2022, we announced the final close of our fifth fund, a $353 million Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) fund, HCAP Partners V, LP. We are pleased to share impact results for this latest fund as well as for our previous fund, HCAP Partners IV, LP. which is fully invested.

As we continue to grow as a firm, invest more capital, and support value creation, we are thankful to have our portfolio companies, investors, and other partners on this journey with us. We look forward to continuing to work together to demonstrate how businesses and investors can prioritize investments in workers as a key driver of value creation and make quality jobs the norm for U.S. workers.

Message from the Team