Top 30 Growth Equity PEF 2026

This report forms part of the Capital Ranking Growth Equity Private Equity series, which evaluates specialist growth equity firms, growth-oriented private equity platforms, and expansion-stage investment managers active across technology, software, healthcare, financial technology, consumer, business services, data, and other high-growth private markets.

Growth equity firms play a central role in supporting companies that have moved beyond early-stage venture risk but still require capital, strategic guidance, operating support, and market-expansion resources. Unlike traditional buyout firms, growth equity investors often provide minority or flexible capital to founder-led, management-owned, or rapidly scaling businesses with established revenue models and significant expansion potential.

Over the past two decades, growth equity has become one of the most important segments of private capital. The category sits between venture capital and traditional private equity, providing capital to companies that are already commercially validated but still need support in scaling operations, entering new markets, professionalizing management, expanding product lines, or pursuing strategic acquisitions.

Growth equity managers are particularly relevant in markets where companies require more than capital alone. Firms with strong networks, operating resources, sector expertise, and founder-partnership models can help businesses scale while preserving entrepreneurial momentum and long-term strategic flexibility.

This ranking identifies growth equity firms that demonstrate sustained investment capability, institutional credibility, sector relevance, and active engagement in high-growth private-company markets.

Market Overview

The global growth equity market continues to evolve as investors navigate valuation resets, tighter capital markets, higher expectations for profitability, and changing demand for private-company liquidity. Growth companies remain attractive, but investors are now more selective about revenue quality, margin structure, customer retention, market leadership, and capital efficiency.

Technology, software, fintech, healthcare, data, digital services, and consumer platforms remain major areas of growth-equity activity. However, the strongest firms increasingly focus on companies with proven business models rather than speculative growth. This has shifted attention toward businesses with recurring revenue, strong customer relationships, defensible market positions, and credible paths to profitability.

Founder-led companies continue to represent an important source of growth-equity opportunity. Many such businesses are too mature for venture capital but not yet ready for traditional buyout ownership. Growth-equity investors can provide partial liquidity, expansion capital, strategic resources, and board-level support while allowing founders and management teams to retain meaningful ownership.

Within this environment, firms that combine flexible capital with sector specialization, operating resources, and long-term partnership credibility continue to maintain competitive positioning.

Industry Trend — 2026

In 2026, the growth-equity landscape reflects a more disciplined investment environment following the valuation excesses and capital-market volatility of earlier years. Investors are placing greater emphasis on profitable growth, customer retention, efficient sales execution, and resilience across market cycles.

A major trend is the continued convergence between growth equity and private equity. Many growth-equity firms now provide structured minority investments, majority recapitalizations, continuation capital, and strategic acquisition support. This flexibility allows them to support companies at multiple stages of maturity without imposing a single transaction model.

Another important trend is the growing importance of software, AI-enabled workflows, financial technology, healthcare technology, data platforms, and vertical SaaS. These sectors continue to attract growth capital where businesses demonstrate product-market fit, recurring revenue, and clear expansion paths.

At the same time, founder partnership has become more important. As companies evaluate capital options, many management teams seek investors that can provide institutional resources without imposing unnecessarily aggressive financial engineering or an immediate loss of strategic control.

As competition intensifies, firms that demonstrate sector focus, founder credibility, flexible capital, operating support, and disciplined underwriting are expected to maintain stronger positions than broad platforms whose growth exposure is only one strategy within a much larger investment institution.

Methodology — Core Eligibility Criteria

To ensure structural consistency within the category, firms considered for this ranking were evaluated based on the following eligibility conditions:

• Operates primarily as a growth-equity, growth-oriented private-equity, or expansion-stage investment platform
• Provides minority growth capital, flexible equity, recapitalization capital, or growth-oriented buyout capital to established private companies
• Demonstrates visible activity in technology, software, healthcare, fintech, consumer, business services, data, or other high-growth sectors
• Maintains sector-specific investment judgment, operating resources, network value, or founder-partnership capability
• Exhibits active market presence, operational traceability, and institutional credibility
• Maintains a sufficiently distinct institutional identity and publicly traceable investment platform

Large generalist private-equity platforms, venture-capital firms with limited growth-equity depth, and strategy labels embedded within broader institutions were excluded or de-emphasized where the underlying platform did not present a sufficiently distinct growth-equity identity.

Methodology — Ranking Factors

Firms included in the ranking were evaluated using a combination of qualitative and structural considerations. Key factors include:

• Growth-equity investment track record
• Strength of founder and management-team partnership model
• Experience with profitable-growth companies, scale-ups, and expansion-stage businesses
• Ability to support market expansion, product development, operational scaling, and strategic acquisitions
• Relevance across technology, healthcare, fintech, consumer, business services, and data-driven sectors
• Clarity and consistency of investment mandate
• Independence or meaningful standalone institutional identity
• Institutional credibility within global growth-equity markets
• Current market activity and continuity of investment capability
• Depth of operating, functional, and sector-specific resources

The objective of the ranking is to identify firms that maintain sustained relevance within the growth-equity ecosystem.

The ranking universe consisted of approximately 100 growth-equity and growth-oriented private-equity firms, from which 30 institutions were selected for inclusion.

Tier classifications reflect relative institutional positioning and do not represent investment recommendations, fund-performance rankings, or endorsements of any investment product.

Company Profiles and Further Reference

Firm names appearing in this ranking are linked to their corresponding profiles in The Economy Wiki for companies, where available. These profiles provide additional background on each organization, including its principal activities, sector focus, market positioning, leadership, corporate information, and related rankings and analysis across The Economy Network.

The Economy Wiki profiles are maintained as editorial reference pages and may be updated as new public information becomes available.

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Tier I — Leading Growth Equity Platforms

General Atlantic

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 1980

General Atlantic is one of the most established global growth-equity firms, with a long history of partnering with high-growth companies across technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer, and life-sciences markets. The firm has played a central role in institutionalizing growth equity as a distinct private-markets strategy.

General Atlantic’s model emphasizes long-term partnership with entrepreneurs and management teams. The firm supports companies at critical expansion points, including international growth, product development, management professionalization, strategic acquisitions, and preparation for larger-scale institutional ownership.

Its global platform provides access to growth companies across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other markets. This international reach is particularly important because many category-leading companies require capital and strategic support to scale across borders.

General Atlantic fits Tier I because it remains one of the clearest global benchmarks for growth equity. Its operating history, international reach, sector breadth, and influence on the development of the asset class establish the institutional standard for the ranking.

Insight Partners

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 1995

Insight Partners is a global software-focused growth-equity and private-equity firm investing in high-growth technology, software, internet, and scale-up companies. The firm has built a strong identity around helping software businesses scale through capital, operating support, and market-expansion resources.

Insight’s relevance comes from its ability to support companies beyond early-stage venture funding. Many of its target companies have established products and revenue traction but require assistance in go-to-market execution, customer acquisition, sales productivity, product strategy, and organizational scaling.

The firm’s operating resources and sector specialization give it a distinctive position within growth equity. In software markets, growth investors must understand recurring revenue, customer retention, implementation quality, sales efficiency, and product defensibility.

Insight Partners fits Tier I because it is one of the defining growth-equity platforms in software and technology. Its scale, visibility, specialist operating model, and long record of technology investing make it an essential top-tier inclusion.

Summit Partners

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 1984

Summit Partners is a global growth-focused investment firm with a long history of backing profitable and high-growth companies across technology, healthcare, life sciences, growth products, and services. The firm is one of the most established names in the growth-equity market.

Summit’s investment approach combines capital with support for management teams pursuing expansion, product development, international growth, and operational scaling. The firm frequently invests in businesses that have already proven their revenue models but still possess significant room for market penetration.

Its long operating history provides credibility across multiple private-market cycles. Growth equity requires discipline because fast-growing companies can face changing valuation environments, competitive pressure, and execution risks as they scale.

Summit Partners fits Tier I because it is one of the foundational growth-equity platforms. Its combination of history, international reach, sector breadth, and experience with durable growth companies supports its leading-tier position.

TA Associates

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 1968

TA Associates is a global growth private-equity firm with a long record of investing in profitable growth companies. The firm operates across technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer, and business-services markets, supporting companies through minority investments, majority investments, and recapitalizations.

TA’s model sits between classic growth equity and traditional private equity. The firm can support management teams with capital, strategic resources, international reach, and operational support while maintaining a growth-oriented investment philosophy.

Its experience across multiple sectors gives it a broad view of how companies scale beyond their early growth stages. This includes market expansion, product development, salesforce buildout, acquisitions, and professionalization of management systems.

TA Associates fits Tier I because it is one of the longest-standing and most credible growth-oriented private-equity platforms. Its scale, history, flexible investment structures, and international capabilities make it an important authority anchor for the ranking.

Vitruvian Partners

• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
• Founded: 2006

Vitruvian Partners is an international growth-focused private-equity firm investing in high-growth companies across technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer, and services sectors. The firm has developed a strong European base while expanding across global markets.

Vitruvian’s strategy centres on backing companies with strong growth potential, international expansion opportunities, and scalable business models. Its investment approach emphasizes partnership with management teams and support for companies seeking to move from regional success to broader global relevance.

The firm’s European identity gives the ranking important geographic balance. Growth equity is often presented through a U.S.-centric lens, but European scale-up and growth-buyout markets have become increasingly important in technology, healthcare, digital services, and consumer sectors.

Vitruvian Partners fits Tier I because it is one of the most credible international growth-equity platforms outside the United States. Its scale, geographic reach, focused mandate, and experience supporting cross-border expansion justify its top-tier inclusion.

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Tier II — Established Growth Equity Firms

(Alphabetical order)

Bregal Sagemount

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 2012

Bregal Sagemount is a growth-equity firm providing flexible capital and strategic support to established, high-growth companies. The firm invests across software, financial technology, business services, healthcare technology, information services, and consumer-oriented platforms.

Its approach emphasizes partnership with entrepreneurs and management teams. Bregal Sagemount generally targets companies that have demonstrated commercial traction but require capital, acquisition resources, operating support, or strategic guidance to reach the next stage of growth.

The firm can use minority investments, structured equity, recapitalizations, and growth-oriented control transactions. This flexibility allows it to work with companies facing different ownership, liquidity, and expansion requirements.

Bregal Sagemount fits Tier II because it combines meaningful institutional scale with a clearly defined growth mandate. Its flexible capital model and experience across technology-enabled sectors support its established-tier position.

FTV Capital

• Headquarters: San Francisco, United States
• Founded: 1998

FTV Capital is a sector-focused growth-equity firm investing in enterprise technology and services, financial technology, and financial-services businesses. The firm has developed a clear identity around high-growth companies serving corporate, financial, and technology-driven markets.

FTV’s model combines growth capital with sector knowledge, operating resources, and a large strategic partner network. This is particularly relevant in fintech and enterprise technology, where customer relationships, regulatory understanding, go-to-market execution, and implementation credibility can materially influence growth.

The firm’s long operating history gives it credibility across multiple technology and financial-services cycles. Its concentration in sectors with structural growth demand supports its continuing relevance within the broader growth-equity ecosystem.

FTV Capital fits Tier II because it is an independent, established, and highly specialized growth investor. Its sector focus, operating platform, and sustained market activity justify a strong established-tier placement.

Great Hill Partners

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 1998

Great Hill Partners is a growth-oriented private-equity firm investing in high-growth companies across software, financial services, healthcare, consumer, and business services. The firm can make both minority and majority investments in companies that have progressed beyond the earliest stages of development.

Its strategy emphasizes businesses benefiting from structural changes in how consumers and enterprises live, work, transact, and access services. Great Hill combines capital with sector knowledge, executive networks, strategic guidance, and support for acquisitions and organizational expansion.

The firm has backed companies across several generations of digital-market development. Its experience ranges from software and data businesses to technology-enabled consumer platforms, healthcare services, payments, and financial infrastructure.

Great Hill Partners fits Tier II because it possesses substantial institutional scale and a long record of investing in disruptive growth businesses. Its multi-sector capability is balanced by a coherent growth-oriented investment philosophy.

JMI Equity

• Headquarters: Baltimore, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., United States
• Founded: 1992

JMI Equity is a specialist growth-equity investor focused on software and AI-driven companies. The firm partners with businesses possessing proven products, recurring-revenue models, intellectual property, and opportunities for sustained expansion.

JMI can provide primary growth capital, shareholder liquidity, or a combination of the two. Its investment approach includes both minority and majority positions, allowing the firm to accommodate different founder, management, and ownership objectives.

The platform supports companies through strategic guidance, team development, operational scaling, product expansion, and preparation for larger institutional outcomes. Its exclusive long-term focus on software gives it substantial pattern recognition across technology cycles.

JMI Equity fits Tier II because it is one of the largest and longest-established specialist software growth investors. Its focused mandate, accumulated investment experience, and ability to provide flexible transaction structures give it a leading position within the established tier.

Lead Edge Capital

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 2011

Lead Edge Capital is a growth-equity firm investing in software, internet, and technology-enabled businesses. Its model is distinguished by a network of operating executives, entrepreneurs, and strategic investors that it uses to support portfolio companies as they scale.

Lead Edge typically provides capital for growth, acquisitions, shareholder liquidity, and market expansion. This flexibility makes the firm relevant to companies that are commercially established but require resources to expand more efficiently.

Its network-driven approach gives the firm a differentiated value proposition. In growth equity, access to customers, executives, strategic relationships, operating experience, and market intelligence can be as valuable as capital itself.

Lead Edge Capital fits Tier II because it is an active and recognizable growth-equity firm with a clear standalone identity. Its technology orientation, flexible capital, and network model support its established-tier placement.

PSG Equity

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 2014

PSG Equity is a growth-equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled services companies. The firm partners with management teams to support transformational growth, strategic acquisitions, operating improvement, and expansion across software markets.

PSG’s model emphasizes active support for portfolio companies, including go-to-market strategy, product development, add-on acquisitions, international expansion, and organizational scaling. This makes the firm particularly relevant for software companies that require more than passive capital.

The firm’s software orientation gives it strong category coherence. PSG has constructed an institutional platform directly around growth-equity investing and software-enabled business building rather than treating growth as a secondary strategy.

PSG Equity fits Tier II because it is active, scaled, visible, and directly aligned with the modern software-growth market. Its operating resources and international expansion capability reinforce its established-tier position.

Silversmith Capital Partners

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 2015

Silversmith Capital Partners is a growth-equity firm investing in technology and healthcare companies with strong revenue growth, scalable business models, and established commercial traction. The firm typically partners with founders and entrepreneurs building durable businesses.

Silversmith’s investment approach emphasizes long-term partnership, strategic guidance, and support for companies that have moved beyond early-stage venture risk. Its focus on technology and healthcare provides exposure to sectors where growth is supported by digitization, innovation, and long-term structural demand.

The firm combines focused sector selection with institutional investment and operating capabilities. It has established a recognizable market position despite its comparatively recent founding.

Silversmith Capital Partners fits Tier II because it is focused, visible, and strongly aligned with modern growth equity. Its sector specialization, founder-partnership model, and institutional development support its established-tier placement.

Spectrum Equity

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 1994

Spectrum Equity is a growth-equity firm investing in software, data, information services, internet-enabled businesses, and consumer-internet companies. The firm has a long-standing presence in growth equity and has developed a strong identity around category-leading businesses with scalable models.

Spectrum generally partners with management teams seeking capital and strategic support for expansion, product development, market entry, acquisitions, and operational scaling. Its focus on companies with established revenue models makes it a clear fit for the category.

The firm’s sector orientation gives it strong relevance in markets where software, subscription models, proprietary data, and digital platforms continue to expand. These categories frequently combine durable demand with scalable economics.

Spectrum Equity fits Tier II because it is one of the most established specialist growth-equity firms. Its history, sector focus, investment discipline, and standalone identity support its established-tier placement.

TCV

• Headquarters: Menlo Park, United States
• Founded: 1995

TCV is a growth-equity firm focused on technology companies, with a long history of partnering with high-growth businesses across software, internet, fintech, digital media, and technology-enabled markets. The firm has played a significant role in the development of technology growth investing.

TCV’s strategy emphasizes partnership with companies that have the potential to achieve market leadership and global scale. The firm supports businesses through capital, strategic advice, executive networks, international expansion, and preparation for later-stage market opportunities.

Its technology focus gives it strong relevance within growth equity, even though it also operates near crossover and late-stage technology investing. Its long operating history and consistent sector orientation support its institutional credibility.

TCV fits Tier II because it is a major technology growth-equity platform with substantial institutional relevance. It is prominent enough to strengthen the ranking while remaining more category-specific than broad multi-strategy private-equity institutions.

Verdane

• Headquarters: Oslo, Norway
• Founded: 2003

Verdane is a European growth-equity investor focused on technology-enabled and sustainability-oriented businesses. Its investment themes centre on digitalization and decarbonization, covering technology-enabled B2B and B2C companies, energy transition, and resource efficiency.

The firm can make minority or majority investments in individual companies or portfolios. This flexible mandate allows Verdane to support founder liquidity, corporate divestitures, portfolio transactions, expansion capital, and more conventional growth-equity situations.

Verdane also maintains an internal operating platform supporting portfolio companies across commercial development, talent, technology, cybersecurity, finance, data, and sustainability. Its offices across the Nordic region, DACH, and the United Kingdom give it broad access to European growth markets.

Verdane fits Tier II because it combines substantial institutional scale with a distinctive European growth-equity identity. Its thematic focus, flexible transaction model, geographic reach, and operating resources make it one of the most relevant specialist platforms in Europe.

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Tier III — Specialist Growth Equity Firms

(Alphabetical order)

Edison Partners

• Headquarters: Princeton, United States
• Founded: 1986

Edison Partners is a growth-equity firm focused on technology-enabled businesses, including enterprise software, financial technology, healthcare IT, and related sectors. The firm targets companies with meaningful revenue traction that require capital and operating support to accelerate growth.

Edison’s model is particularly relevant for companies that are too mature for early-stage venture capital but still need help with scaling, sales execution, leadership development, product expansion, and strategic positioning.

Its long operating history provides experience across multiple technology and capital-market cycles. The firm’s middle-market orientation allows it to work closely with businesses approaching important institutional inflection points.

Edison Partners fits Tier III because it is experienced, active, and clearly aligned with growth equity. Its regional depth, technology focus, and middle-market positioning support its specialist-tier placement.

Five Elms Capital

• Headquarters: Kansas City, United States
• Founded: 2006

Five Elms Capital is a growth-equity investor focused on B2B software and AI-enabled companies. The firm partners with founders building specialized software products that have demonstrated customer demand and are positioned for further institutional growth.

Its strategy emphasizes vertical-market software, recurring revenue, customer retention, and products that serve essential business workflows. Five Elms provides flexible capital together with operating support across talent, sales, marketing, finance, product development, customer success, and AI adoption.

The firm has expanded into a substantial software-investment platform while retaining a focused mandate. Its experience with founder-led and comparatively capital-efficient businesses gives it a distinct position within the software-growth market.

Five Elms Capital fits Tier III because it combines strong recent institutional development with a clear specialist identity. Its software focus, hands-on value-creation resources, and founder-oriented model make it a meaningful addition to the ranking.

Frontier Growth

• Headquarters: Charlotte, United States
• Founded: 1999

Frontier Growth is a growth-equity firm focused on vertical SaaS companies. The firm partners with domain-focused software businesses that have established products, recurring revenue, customer loyalty, and opportunities to become leaders in specialized markets.

Its target companies generally use software to modernize the operations of a particular profession or industry. These businesses may serve healthcare providers, government agencies, legal professionals, financial advisers, service companies, or other narrowly defined customer groups.

Frontier combines investment capital with support for leadership development, operating systems, sales execution, product strategy, and organizational scaling. Its concentrated approach allows it to develop expertise in the challenges faced by vertical-software companies.

Frontier Growth fits Tier III because it has a highly specific and defensible growth-equity mandate. Its vertical-SaaS specialization adds focused lower-middle-market depth to the ranking.

Guidepost Growth Equity

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 2007

Guidepost Growth Equity is a growth-equity firm partnering with entrepreneur-led technology companies. The firm focuses on growth-stage businesses using technology to transform established industries and address expanding market opportunities.

Its partnership model is designed for companies that have already achieved meaningful commercial validation but require additional resources to scale. Guidepost supports management teams through operating experience, strategic advice, organizational development, and access to specialist networks.

The firm’s value-creation resources assist companies in identifying and implementing high-impact growth initiatives. This is particularly relevant to entrepreneur-led businesses moving from founder-dependent operations toward more repeatable institutional systems.

Guidepost Growth Equity fits Tier III because it maintains a focused growth-stage mandate and a clear entrepreneur-partnership identity. Its operating orientation and technology focus support its specialist-tier placement.

Keensight Capital

• Headquarters: Paris, France
• Founded: 2000

Keensight Capital is a European growth-oriented private-equity firm focused primarily on technology and healthcare. The firm invests in profitable or near-profitable companies with established market positions and opportunities for sustained organic and acquisition-led growth.

Its approach combines growth capital with strategic support in areas such as international expansion, organizational development, digital transformation, operating improvement, and acquisitions. Keensight can support both founder-led companies and management teams navigating changes in ownership.

The firm’s technology and healthcare specialization provides exposure to sectors characterized by recurring demand, innovation, and opportunities for cross-border consolidation. Its European footprint also broadens the geographic representation of the ranking.

Keensight Capital fits Tier III because it combines a focused sector mandate with a long-established European investment platform. Its profitable-growth orientation distinguishes it from both early-stage venture firms and more leveraged traditional buyout managers.

Kennet Partners

• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom, and Silicon Valley, United States
• Founded: 1997

Kennet Partners is a growth-equity firm focused on capital-efficient B2B software companies in Europe and North America. The firm typically partners with founder-led businesses that have achieved commercial traction and seek support for international expansion and operational scaling.

Kennet’s focus on bootstrapped or lightly capitalized software companies gives it a distinct identity within growth equity. These businesses often differ from heavily venture-backed companies because they have developed revenue discipline earlier and may seek growth capital without excessive dilution.

The firm’s transatlantic footprint provides useful geographic balance. It is particularly relevant for software companies seeking to move from regional success to broader international market penetration.

Kennet Partners fits Tier III because it is specialized, active, and strongly aligned with growth equity, particularly in B2B software. Its capital-efficiency focus and transatlantic model support its specialist-tier position.

Level Equity

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 2009

Level Equity is a growth-capital firm focused on rapidly growing software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. The firm provides growth capital, structured equity, and operational support to companies with established and scalable business models.

Level Equity is particularly relevant in the current market because it emphasizes capital-efficient businesses rather than speculative growth. This aligns with investor demand for companies that can scale while maintaining revenue quality and financial discipline.

The firm’s operating resources support portfolio companies in areas such as sales execution, leadership development, go-to-market strategy, acquisitions, and organizational scaling. These capabilities are important for founder-led software businesses seeking institutional support while retaining strategic flexibility.

Level Equity fits Tier III because it is focused, active, and directly aligned with lower-middle-market growth equity. Its software orientation and capital-efficient investment model give it a clear specialist position.

Mainsail Partners

• Headquarters: Austin and San Francisco, United States
• Founded: 2003

Mainsail Partners is a growth-equity firm investing in bootstrapped and founder-led B2B software companies. The firm focuses on businesses that have developed proven products and customer relationships, often before receiving substantial external institutional capital.

Its model combines growth investment with operating support across product development, sales, marketing, pricing, customer experience, finance, talent, and AI implementation. This structure is designed to help companies professionalize their operations while preserving the strengths of their founder-led cultures.

Mainsail’s emphasis on vertical-market and capital-efficient software distinguishes it from firms oriented toward heavily financed technology companies. Its flexible approach can address both company growth and founder or shareholder liquidity.

Mainsail Partners fits Tier III because it has a highly coherent software-growth mandate, a substantial operating platform, and a long history of working with bootstrapped founders. Its category fit is particularly strong within the lower-middle-market segment.

One Peak

• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
• Founded: 2014

One Peak is a growth-equity investor focused on software companies in Europe and Israel. The firm backs technology businesses with proven products, strong unit economics, international potential, and opportunities to become category leaders.

The firm provides flexible capital for expansion, shareholder liquidity, management buyouts, and acquisitions. Its investment model is designed to accommodate the different ownership and capital needs of founder-led and management-led software companies.

One Peak supports portfolio companies in strategy, recruitment, acquisitions, financing, international expansion, and exit preparation. Its dedicated software focus provides experience with recurring-revenue economics, product scalability, and global go-to-market execution.

One Peak fits Tier III because it combines meaningful institutional scale with a concentrated European software mandate. Its international orientation and flexible investment structures strengthen the ranking’s coverage of European growth equity.

Riverwood Capital

• Headquarters: Menlo Park, United States
• Founded: 2008

Riverwood Capital is a private-equity and growth-equity firm focused on high-growth technology and technology-enabled companies. The firm targets businesses that require capital and operating expertise to scale internationally.

Riverwood’s approach is especially relevant for companies with strong products and established market traction but significant room for international expansion, go-to-market improvement, strategic acquisitions, and operational scaling.

The firm’s global perspective includes exposure to both North American and international technology markets. This gives it differentiated reach relative to growth firms concentrating primarily on domestic lower-middle-market opportunities.

Riverwood Capital fits Tier III because it is focused, active, and aligned with technology growth equity. Its cross-border perspective and operating orientation give it a differentiated specialist profile.

Serent Capital

• Headquarters: Austin and San Francisco, United States
• Founded: 2008

Serent Capital is a growth-oriented private-equity firm focused on founder-led software and technology-enabled services companies. The firm invests in established businesses where capital, operating support, and strategic collaboration can accelerate growth.

Serent’s model integrates investment capital with active involvement in scaling initiatives. The firm supports companies in leadership development, product expansion, go-to-market execution, operational improvement, acquisitions, and market positioning.

Its focus on smaller growth companies gives it a differentiated role within the growth-equity ecosystem. Many businesses in this segment are commercially validated but lack the organizational infrastructure required to develop into larger institutional enterprises.

Serent Capital fits Tier III because it is independent, active, and closely aligned with growth-oriented software investing. Its founder-focused model and operating resources justify its specialist-tier placement.

Susquehanna Growth Equity

• Headquarters: Bala Cynwyd, United States
• Founded: 2006

Susquehanna Growth Equity is a growth-equity firm focused on technology, data, software, and technology-enabled businesses. The firm’s model is distinguished by its entrepreneur-backed capital base and emphasis on partnering with founder-led companies.

SGE is particularly relevant for companies that have achieved commercial traction but require capital and strategic support to scale. Its focus on technology and data businesses gives it substantial exposure to categories where recurring revenue, customer retention, and product quality are central to value creation.

The firm can provide patient and flexible capital without forcing every investment into a conventional fund timetable. This structure can be attractive to founders seeking long-term alignment and flexibility around growth, liquidity, or eventual exit decisions.

Susquehanna Growth Equity fits Tier III because it has a focused mandate, active market presence, and distinctive capital structure. Its founder-oriented model and technology specialization support its placement within the specialist tier.

Stripes

• Headquarters: New York, United States
• Founded: 2008

Stripes is a growth-equity firm investing in product-led companies across software, consumer, internet, fintech, digital services, and lifestyle categories. The firm focuses on businesses with strong products, brand relevance, and potential for scalable growth.

Stripes is particularly relevant because growth equity increasingly extends beyond enterprise software into consumer platforms, financial technology, digital services, and modern brand ecosystems. Its portfolio orientation provides exposure to companies where product quality and customer attachment are central to growth.

The firm’s model emphasizes partnership with entrepreneurs and support for scaling businesses that already demonstrate meaningful market traction. This contributes useful breadth to a category frequently dominated by enterprise-software investors.

Stripes fits Tier III because it is recognizable, active, and relevant to the growth-equity category while retaining a comparatively product-led and crossover-oriented profile. Its inclusion adds consumer and digital-market depth to the specialist tier.

Updata Partners

• Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
• Founded: 1998

Updata Partners is a growth-equity firm focused on B2B software and AI-driven companies. The firm generally invests in capital-efficient growth businesses outside Silicon Valley, including companies that may be receiving institutional capital for the first time.

Its target companies typically possess recurring revenue, established products, strong unit economics, and repeatable go-to-market models. Updata can make minority or majority investments and provide both expansion capital and shareholder liquidity.

The firm was established by software operators and maintains a value-creation approach spanning organizational development, product and technology leadership, commercial scaling, and exit preparation. This operating background supports its work with companies moving toward a more institutional stage of development.

Updata Partners fits Tier III because it combines a long specialist history with a clearly defined capital-efficient software mandate. Its regional sourcing model and operator-led approach provide meaningful differentiation within U.S. growth equity.

Volition Capital

• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Founded: 2010

Volition Capital is a growth-equity firm partnering with founders of high-growth companies, particularly in software, internet, consumer, and technology-enabled sectors. The firm typically provides growth capital to companies that have demonstrated meaningful traction and seek to scale while preserving substantial founder influence.

Volition’s founder-oriented model is closely aligned with the practical role of growth equity. Many companies in this segment require capital, strategic guidance, recruitment support, and market-expansion resources while retaining the entrepreneurial culture that contributed to their early success.

The firm concentrates on businesses with proven revenue models and opportunities for further expansion. Its approach addresses the space between venture capital and larger control-oriented private-equity transactions.

Volition Capital fits Tier III because it is focused, active, and directly aligned with growth equity. Its founder-partnership model and standalone investment identity make it a strong specialist-tier inclusion.

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Remarks

Growth equity remains a major component of global private markets, particularly as companies seek flexible capital between venture financing and traditional buyout ownership. The strongest firms in this category support businesses that have proven market demand but still require capital, operating resources, strategic guidance, and expansion support.

In 2026, growth equity is becoming more disciplined. Investors increasingly prioritize efficient growth, durable revenue, founder alignment, profitable scaling, and resilience across changing capital-market conditions. This environment favors firms with deep sector knowledge, flexible investment structures, and repeatable value-creation capabilities.

The expanded ranking demonstrates the breadth of the growth-equity market. Tier I contains globally established firms that helped define the asset class, while Tier II recognizes scaled specialist institutions with sustained market relevance. Tier III captures more focused firms differentiated by sector, geography, company size, capital structure, or founder-partnership model.

The ranking intentionally emphasizes firms with visible market activity, clearly articulated growth-equity mandates, and publicly traceable institutional platforms. Strategy labels embedded within much broader private-equity institutions were de-emphasized where the growth-equity operation could not be evaluated as a sufficiently distinct platform.

Tier classification reflects relative institutional positioning within the growth-equity segment and does not represent investment advice, fund-performance evaluation, or endorsement of any investment product.

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Recognition

Inclusion in the Top 30 Growth Equity PEF 2026 ranking is an editorial determination of The Economy Rankings and is independent of licensing, advertising, sponsorship, or other commercial participation.

Ranked organizations may factually refer to their inclusion in the ranking in their own communications. When describing the result, firms should accurately reflect the tier structure and methodology used in the published ranking.

How the ranking should be interpreted

• Tier I represents the Top 5 firms, and the published order within Tier I reflects the ranking order.
• Tier II represents firms ranked within the Top 15, following Tier I. Firms within Tier II are displayed alphabetically; their displayed order should therefore not be interpreted as an individual numerical ranking.
• Tier III represents firms ranked within the Top 30, following Tiers I and II. Firms within Tier III are also displayed alphabetically, and their displayed order should not be interpreted as an individual numerical ranking.
• A firm's tier, rather than its alphabetical position within Tier II or Tier III, should therefore be used when describing its standing.

Referencing the ranking

Depending on the firm's published tier, appropriate factual descriptions may include:

• Tier I: “Ranked Tier I” or “Ranked among the Top 5”
• Tier II: “Ranked Tier II” or “Ranked among the Top 15”
• Tier III: “Ranked Tier III” or “Ranked among the Top 30”

Firms should not describe an alphabetical position within Tier II or Tier III as a specific numerical rank.

Use of The Economy Rankings recognition materials

Editorial inclusion in a ranking does NOT by itself grant permission to use The Economy Rankings badges, seals, logos, official recognition graphics, licensed quotations, or other proprietary recognition materials.

Organizations wishing to use official The Economy Rankings recognition materials in corporate websites, marketing materials, investor communications, client presentations, social media, press releases, or other external communications should refer to the applicable licensing terms and usage policies:

• The Economy Rankings License Structure — available licence levels and permitted recognition uses
  Rankings License Structure | The Economy
• The Economy Rankings License Policy — licensing conditions governing use of The Economy Rankings recognition, marks, and related materials
  The Economy Rankings License Policy | The Economy
• Recognition Use Guide — guidance on permitted wording, presentation, attribution, and use of ranking recognition
  Recognition Use Guide | The Economy

Ranking inclusion remains editorially independent regardless of whether an organization purchases or holds a recognition-materials licence.

Recognized institutions may reference the designation in:

• corporate websites
• investor communications
• marketing materials
• client presentations

Licensing inquiries:
[email protected]