Zmc
Private equityNew York · 27 people tracked
Investment thesis
ZMC frames its investment philosophy around a prioritization of stakeholders that it says differs from typical private equity practice. Rather than treating its own investors as the primary customer, the firm places the end customers who buy its portfolio companies' products and services first, reasoning that a business must deliver quality goods at fair value to justify its existence. Employees at portfolio companies come second, on the view that supported and satisfied staff are essential to running businesses well. The firm's investors, to whom it acts as a fiduciary seeking high risk-adjusted returns, are third, and the firm places itself last.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 25, 2026.
Team · 27 people
from the firm's website
What they invest in
from 6 of 7 portfolio companiesMedia & Entertainment ×3EdTech ×2AdTech ×1Cloud Computing ×1Consumer ×1Creator Economy ×1Cybersecurity ×1Data & Infrastructure ×1
HQs:United States×1
Investments · 7 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path9 Story is a media company; the available page content only addresses accessibility standards and does not describe its core business in detail.
Media & Entertainment
A one-stop ticketing platform combining pricing, distribution, and real-time market insights.
Resonate is an open-source (Apache 2.0) implementation of the Distributed Async Await / durable execution protocol, letting developers write ordinary async functions that run reliably with retries, timeouts, and crash recovery handled automatically.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Co-investorsMoth FundPebblebedGreycroft PartnersInovia Capital
Simpler Trading offers trading education for retail traders, including live trading rooms, on-demand classes, proprietary charting indicators, and real-time trade alerts from mentors.
EdTechFintech
John Carter(Founder)
Co-investorsStellus Capital Management
The Second City operates improv comedy theaters and training programs, presenting live shows and offering comedy classes to students and audiences.
ConsumerEdTechMedia & EntertainmentChicago, US
Fund performance · per public LP disclosures · 3
as of Jun 2025| Fund | Vintage | Committed | Net IRR | TVPI | DPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZMC II Extended Value Fund, L.P.LPs: New Mexico Educational Retirement Board | 2021 | — | 9.2% | 1.38x | 0.00x |
| ZMC III, L.P.LPs: The Regents of the University of California, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, Santa Barbara County Employees' Retirement System +1 more | 2020 | — | -9.5% | 0.75x | 0.04x |
| ZMC II, L.P.LPs: New Mexico Educational Retirement Board | 2014 | — | 34.5% | 3.07x | 3.06x |
Source: public limited-partner disclosures (CalPERS, CalSTRS). Net IRR / TVPI / DPI as reported by the limited partner; a fund's early-year IRR is an interim estimate (J-curve).
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Zmc made?
- Zmc has 6 tracked investments.
- What sectors does Zmc focus on?
- Zmc focuses on Media & Entertainment.
- Where is Zmc located?
- Zmc is headquartered in New York, US.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamConversation with Strauss Zelnick, Founder of ZMC, Chairman & CEO of Take-Two Interactive and Author - YouTube
HBS Club of Toronto · Strauss Zelnick
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