A little over three years ago, private equity investor Orlando Bravo called FTX the "most cutting-edge, sophisticated cryptocurrency exchange in the world," as his buyout firm helped lead a $900 million investment in the company at a valuation of $18 billion. Bravo now tells CNBC that he and his firm, Thoma Bravo, are permanently out of crypto after that disaster. FTX spiraled into bankruptcy in late 2022, and founder Sam Bankman-Fried is in the early days of serving a 25-year prison sentence for the massive fraud and conspiracy that doomed FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research. "Once you make a mistake and once you get burned on something, our philosophy and my philosophy is you never touch it again," Bravo said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Thursday. FTX marked a sideways turn for San Francisco-based Thoma Bravo, which has emerged as a giant investor in technology, orchestrating multibillion-dollar acquisitions in recent years of companies including cybersecurity software vendor Proofpoint, property management software company RealPage, finance and supply chain software developer Anaplan and spend management software company Coupa.

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Persons: Orlando Bravo, Thoma, spiraled, Sam Bankman, Bravo Organizations: Bravo, CNBC, Thoma Bravo, Alameda Research, San Locations: Alameda, San Francisco