Private equity
Offshore teams for private equity portfolio companies
Portfolio companies look offshore when a seat will not fill locally, when a close or a bolt-on adds work faster than headcount, and when the value creation plan needs hours nobody budgeted. Kayana builds those teams as Mini-GCCs. Our operators work inside the operation itself, in the loan pipeline, on the engineering team, and in the numbers leadership runs on. They work your business day, in roles we design with you before anyone is hired. Then we stay, for as long as the seat runs.
Inside the operation
Offshore has a back-office reputation. Our operators work in the operation.
The back office is where many companies start, and it is a good place to start. It is a small part of where an embedded operator can work. What decides is the role. If the work can be defined, measured, and owned on your business day, it can be embedded in your team.
Lending operations
Loan origination, processing, and servicing, appraisal coordination, and collections. The work that moves a file from application to funded.
Engineering and design
SolidWorks modeling, mechanical design and documentation, and AI automation built into the way the team works.
Data and reporting
BI and Power BI reporting, and the dashboards and analysis leadership runs the business on.
Operations management
Business operations, projects, purchasing, and the coordination that keeps work moving between teams.
Growth
Marketing operations, content, digital marketing, and the analysis behind them.
Finance and the executive office
The close, financial reporting, treasury, payables, and senior executive support.
Where offshore teams fit
The moments that send a portfolio company looking.
Most searches start with a specific problem. These are the ones we see most, each with a longer answer in our Insights library.
The controller seat that will not fill
What happens to the close, the audit, and lender reporting while a search runs for months.
Read the answer
Month-end close and reporting
Which parts of the close an offshore finance team can own, and which stay with your controller.
Read the answer
Sponsor reporting and FP&A
The reporting a portfolio company owes its sponsor, and who should build it.
Read the answer
After a bolt-on acquisition
Where the back-office work goes when two companies become one.
Read the answer
Carve-outs before the TSA ends
Standing up a finance function while the transition clock runs.
Read the answer
The hours the value creation plan never counted
Why plans stall on capacity nobody budgeted, and where embedded operators close the gap.
Read the answer
Also in the library: assessing back-office capacity in diligence, exit readiness and the back office, and shared services across portfolio companies.
What buyers call this
Offshore staffing, BPO, EOR, GCC. Where a Mini-GCC fits.
Buyers compare several models under different names. Here is what each one sells, in plain terms.
A Global Capability Center is built for enterprise scale. A foreign entity, a site leader, and a build measured in years do not shrink with the team. A Mini-GCC gives a middle-market company the same architecture, a senior team embedded in the business, without the entity, the real estate, or the multi-year build.
After the hire
We do not step back after the first ninety days.
A seat succeeds or fails on what surrounds it. So our work continues for as long as the seat runs, and it pushes from both ends.
With you
A monthly meeting with every client, and a direct line when something needs attention. We push for the clear direction and steady feedback an embedded operator needs to do their best work.
With your operator
Regular one to one check-ins, training that keeps running, and coaching that catches a small issue while it is still small. We hold the operator to the standard your team holds.
For your operator
Raises and bonuses pass through to the operator in full. Each November we meet with every client to advocate for their operator's bonus. People who are invested in stay.
Roughly nine in ten placements succeed. Once an operator clears the first ninety days of full engagement, failure is rare.
Questions operating partners ask
Is offshore staffing only for back-office work?
No. The back office is where many companies start, and it is a good place to start. Our operators also work inside the operation, in loan origination and servicing, engineering design and documentation, BI reporting, operations management, and marketing. What decides is the role. If the work can be defined, measured, and owned on your business day, it can be embedded in your team.
What offshore staffing options do private equity portfolio companies use?
The common routes are a staffing agency, a BPO, an employer of record, or, at enterprise scale, a company's own Global Capability Center. Middle-market portfolio companies often need what a GCC provides, a senior team embedded in the business, without the entity, the real estate, or the multi-year build a GCC requires. That is the gap a Mini-GCC fills.
How do PE-backed companies fill finance and accounting roles they can't hire locally?
By widening the market they hire from, and by designing the role before they fill it. Our operators include staff and senior accountants, CPAs, and specialists in financial reporting, intercompany accounting, cash and treasury, accounts payable, and collections. Each one works your business day inside your team. We start by defining the seat with you, then recruit senior people against that definition.
What should an operating partner look for in an offshore partner for a portfolio company?
Six things decide whether the seat works. The role is defined before anyone is recruited. Candidates are validated on how they work as well as what they have done. The operator works the company's full business day. Someone owns the health of the seat after the hire. There is a plan for continuity if a person leaves. And access to money and systems follows the same controls you would apply to any employee.
Can one model work across several portfolio companies?
Yes. Teams can be centralized to support several portfolio companies or embedded in each one, with consistent reporting across the portfolio. The same seat design and standards carry from one company to the next, so each new team starts from what the last one learned.
How quickly can an operator start after a close?
We recruit continuously, so we are not starting a search from zero when you describe a role. The operator you choose then works forty hours inside your team before you commit.
Start with the seat
Tell us the seat you are trying to fill.
We will help you define it, introduce the people who clear the bar, and stay with the seat after it is filled.