Industrial Growth Partners (IGP) has acquired Marki Microwave, marking a significant milestone for one of the RF and microwave industry’s most respected family-built companies. Founded in 1991 by Ferenc and Christine Marki, the company has spent more than three decades earning a reputation for technical excellence, scientific honesty, and a culture that consistently pushes the boundaries of high-performance RF and millimeter-wave design. With this transition, CEO Chris Marki will continue leading the company, and the Marki family will retain a meaningful ownership share, ensuring continuity in its values and long-held commitments. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Industrial Growth Partners (IGP) is a San Francisco - based private equity firm focused exclusively on partnering with industrial technology and manufacturing companies. With more than three decades of experience, IGP specializes in helping founder-led businesses scale through strategic investment, operational support, and long-term growth planning.
“This is an exciting milestone in Marki Microwave’s history,” said CEO Chris Marki. “Partnering with IGP gives us the resources and support to accelerate our roadmap while preserving what makes Marki special - our technical excellence, customer focus, and long-term commitment to the RF and millimeter-wave community.”
In a post on sub-stack, Chris Marki wrote about has less of a turning point than natural evolution of the company. Marki Microwave has undergone several reinventions throughout its history - from its modest beginnings as a family enterprise to its rapid expansion in the 2010s, and then through a major internal restructuring between 2020 and 2023. That period, which Chris describes as “rebuilding an organization mid-flight,” brought new facilities, a 5x expansion of R&D, a world-class leadership team, and entirely modernized processes. It was a grueling but transformative effort that enabled the company to grow from a small family operation into a durable, medium-sized industry player capable of weathering a pandemic, supply chain shocks, inflation, and global uncertainty—all while strengthening its position in aerospace, defense, test & measurement, space, and quantum markets.
Now, as the company looks ahead, Chris openly acknowledges that the needs of the business and the needs of the family were beginning to diverge. Continuing to scale would require reinvestment and risk at a level he could no longer ask his family to bear alone. “Selling our controlling stake was the most difficult decision of my life,” he wrote in a message to stakeholders. “But this decision was made with great care to ensure the company’s long-term prosperity.” He emphasized that Marki Microwave has never simply been a line item on a balance sheet - it has been a “fifth family member” for more than 34 years. After months of reflection, he chose IGP because they share his conviction about the company’s future and can help accelerate the next stage of its development.
With the IGP partnership in place, Marki Microwave is now entering what Chris calls Marki v4.0 - an era defined not by changing who the company is, but by expanding what it can do. The goal is to evolve from a specialist component manufacturer into a comprehensive RF and microwave solutions provider with global scale and the ability to tackle customers’ most complex challenges. Backed by the resources of IGP, the company plans to accelerate R&D, explore strategic acquisitions, and invest in technologies and capabilities that strengthen its position across defense, aerospace, space, quantum systems, and advanced test equipment.
Importantly, the leadership team and employees remain in place, and the values that shaped Marki from day one remain unchanged. Chris notes that private equity is often misunderstood - IGP’s involvement is not about replacing Marki’s identity but amplifying it. The new ownership structure also introduces benefits and alignment opportunities for employees that were not possible under purely family ownership. Throughout this transition, Marki’s core philosophy endures: as a framed sign from Chris’s father reminds him, “You can’t fool Mother Nature.” That spirit of scientific rigor and truth-in-engineering continues to anchor the company’s culture.
The decision, he admits, came with many emotions - plenty of tears, many sleepless nights, and immense reflection. But Chris believes the result is a stronger, more capable Marki Microwave, poised to become the preeminent RF solutions company in the industry. “Our goals are ambitious,” he said, “but I’ve seen this team rise to the occasion before. We will do it again. We are just getting started.”
Chris also hinted that he will share more updates and deeper industry analysis on his Substack in the coming weeks, including upcoming RF and microwave announcements tied to this next phase of growth. For now, Marki v4.0 begins—and the next chapter of innovation, built on 34 years of family legacy, is officially underway.
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