TPG Peppertree & Investing Behind an Increasingly Digital World

In 2025, TPG acquired Peppertree Capital Management, welcoming the TPG Peppertree team to the firm, driving the further expansion of TPG's cross-platform leadership in the Internet, Digital Media & Communications sector. In our latest edition of The TPG Take, we sit down with the team to explore investment opportunities fueling the future of digital infrastructure.

Discover how surging data demand, the evolution of wireless networks, and strategic partnerships are redefining the communications landscape—and how TPG Peppertree’s approach is powering the next generation of connectivity, digital infrastructure, and growth.

Note: The below is an edited transcript of the interviews. For more, please be sure to watch the full videos.

Investing Behind an Increasingly Digital World with John Flynn and David Trujillo

John Flynn: "We continue to believe that connectivity is the utility of the 21st century. None of the tools that we use as consumers or the tools that businesses use to operate work without having high-speed, high-quality, 100%-on broadband. And so, we remain extremely bullish behind the importance and continued rise of connectivity and broadband."

David Trujillo: "We’ve been invested in digital infrastructure for a while. It's been an area of good success for us across our real estate business with data centers, as well as our private equity buyouts business with cable companies like Astound Broadband and DIRECTV. But one of the areas we were never able to quite crack was cell towers, and we were pleased to be ultimately introduced to Peppertree."

John: "Peppertree Capital was early and strong to the tower development market. They actually started as operators developing towers themselves, and then transitioned that initial business model into an asset management business funding other developers to develop towers for the telecom companies in the US. So, they were able to use their knowledge and prior expertise to create a distinctive investment model, which makes it extremely easy for those developers.

One of the things that attracted us most significantly to Peppertree is that these are perpetual assets that will continue to accrete income over time, and we see significant growth opportunity to build a large perpetual business behind."

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Trends Driving the Digital Infrastructure Market with Howard Mandel and Ryan Lepene

Howard Mandel: "I think the best way to think about trends for the future is to go back in the past.

• When we started investing in this space, it was 10 years before the iPhone was invented, so it was a good decision, but only in hindsight, it became a great decision.
• Previously, if you wanted to go see a video, you'd go to a Blockbuster store and rent it. Now, you download it on Netflix.
• Autonomous cars were once science fiction, and now that's becoming a reality.
• All of this is data flowing through equipment on a tower."

Ryan Lepene: "It really just speaks to data demand. Any application that is out there will continue to present the need for more infrastructure. Many of the apps on your device didn't exist until the network became fast enough and had enough capacity, so it's all about increasing capacity and reducing latency. We'll continue to be at the forefront of that, providing the infrastructure everybody needs to run their devices."

Howard: "The reason why the tower market is so attractive is zoning. People now understand if they want to speak to their children at the elementary school or if they want first responders to respond, they need the tower network. We're building for carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and it's very difficult for that tenant to churn. Churn approaches 0% in this industry, so what that does is it drives other carriers to our site because they can't build a competing site. So you start with zoning, but what it leads to is recurring cash flow streams that grow."

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TPG Peppertree’s Investing Thesis with Howard Mandel and Ryan Lepene

Ryan Lepene: "When we started TPG Peppertree, the thesis – which continues to be the thesis today – was that the demand for data will overwhelm the wireless networks, and the best way to play it is by owning communication infrastructure assets. Our moat, or secret sauce, is that we back most of the tower platforms in the US.

I would say 95%+ of what we do is in the cell tower space, and from there, we use the term 'appropriate application.' For instance, you can't build a tower in Midtown Manhattan, so you need to think of the appropriate application, which could be a rooftop, which we would own and lease that back to the wireless carriers. Same with an arena on game day – that would be a distributed antenna system because the network is not designed for 50,000 people to converge on one point in the network. We would own that system and lease that back to the carriers."

Howard Mandel: "There's a lot of low hanging fruit and the people at TPG recognize that. Not only is our thesis, the demand for data will overwhelm the wireless networks for their foreseeable future. That's been our thesis for 20 years now, and there's no empirical data to say that's going to change, but there's a lot of adjacencies. There's ways to hang onto these assets much longer than we've been doing historically. And so to get these things off the ground is very difficult on our own. And TPG has the resources to do that."

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The TPG Peppertree Partnership with John Flynn, Howard Mandel and Ryan Lepene

John Flynn: "We have a long history of investing in the communication space and the broader TMT ecosystem. One area that we've not been active in is the core infrastructure components of communications technology in particular. In studying this market, Peppertree Capital rose to the top of our list after looking at a lot of opportunities to get into the digital infrastructure space. They have an amazing model where they partner with local developers, and through that touch over half of the new telecom towers that are developed in the United States every year. This is one of those kind of businesses you've never heard of, but you use every day of your life.

And they have two distinctive founders, Howard and Ryan, who we got to know over an extended period of time and recognized that we could partner very well together. So, last year we made the decision to bring them into the TPG fold."

Howard Mandel: "My partner Ryan Lepene and I have been together for more than 20 years doing basically the same thing – backing developers and acquirers of communication infrastructure and providing the back office for them. Along the way, we would recognize adjacent opportunities, whether in debt products or continuation vehicles. We had these strategies and ideas, but we didn't have the tactics, bandwidth, or expertise to execute. So we started talking to people who did, and obviously one of the premier names is TPG, and that's how the conversation began. It's been interesting to learn how many different knowledgeable groups there are at TPG. There's an expert and a department for all these topics, so it's been exactly what's been promised and more.

Ryan Lepene: "When we look at what we've built, we're not like a traditional communication infrastructure fund. Everything that we've talked about is much more granular, we're rolling up our sleeves and really unlocking that value. In those early meetings with TPG team, and again in the year plus of getting to know them, it became very apparent to us that the culture, the feel, the fit was similar to how we operate. And that really spoke volumes about our decision to come together and form TPG Peppertree."

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Important Note: Statements represent the subjective views of TPG and cannot be independently verified. Not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities and may not be used or relied upon in evaluating the merit of investing in any TPG Fund. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This communication should be neither construed nor relied upon as investment advice.

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ICYMI: Other News & Views from TPG...

At our second annual AI Themes Day, TPG teams from across the firm came together to exchange insights, pressure‑test ideas, and collaborate on the most compelling AI‑driven opportunities across the capital spectrum. The day underscored the power of our platform – sharpening perspectives and shaping our approach to AI across global markets. Check out highlights and hear how we’re thinking about AI themes for 2026 and beyond:

Following a successful IPO, we’re excited to feature Abhishek Bansal, Co-Founder and CEO at Shadowfax, in a new edition of Partnerships in Focus. Founded in 2015, Shadowfax is a leading logistics service provider in India for e-commerce, express parcel, and value-added services. Hear how the partnership with TPG NewQuest, our secondary private equity platform in Asia, helped shape the company’s pathway to market leadership and future growth.

Thank you to all of our followers and readers for joining us for another edition of The TPG Take. Please share the newsletter with anyone you think would be interested and we look forward to being back in your inboxes.

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