Profile

Level Equity is a private investment firm focused on providing capital to rapidly growing software and technology-driven businesses. Level provides long term capital across all transaction types in support of continued growth. The firm has raised $3.0 billion in committed capital, has backed over 100 companies since inception, and has offices in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Greenwich, CT.

www.levelequity.com

Awards

2022 The Top 25 Growth Equity Firms

2015 Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors, Sarah Sommer

Key People

Benjamin Levin, CEO

Ben is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Level Equity. Ben has been an investor in rapidly growing private companies since 1997 and one of the first institutional investors in numerous category-defining software and technology businesses. Prior to co-founding Level, Ben spent over six years at Insight Partners, most recently as a Managing Director. Ben was born in New York City, grew up in rural Massachusetts, and currently lives in Westchester, NY, with his wife and two children. Ben is a graduate of Harvard College.

Sarah Sommer, Partner

Sarah co-founded and is a Partner with Level Equity. She is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Joseph Wharton Scholar. She has been investing in growth-stage software and technology businesses since 2003. Prior to co-founding Level, Sarah was a Senior Associate at Insight Venture Partners. Recently, Sarah was profiled in Buyouts “Insider’s Women in Private Equity” feature article as one of ten standout women in private equity. Sarah was born and raised near Akron, OH, and now lives in Westchester, NY. Outside of work, Sarah is passionate about spending time with her two young daughters, cooking, golf, and fitness.

Charles Chen, Partner

Charles is a Partner at Level Equity where he works with entrepreneurs and management teams to build rapidly growing software, internet, and data services companies across a wide range of industries. Charles has spent his entire career in the technology vertical, advising and investing in technology companies since 2005. Prior to Level, Charles was an investor at TCV, where he originated, evaluated, and executed growth equity investments in software and internet businesses. He started his career as a member of the Technology Investment Banking Groups at Banc of America Securities and Morgan Stanley. Born in Orange County, CA, Charles currently lives in Westchester, NY, with his wife and two children. Charles received his BS in business administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gautam Gupta, Partner

Gautam is a Partner at Level Equity where he works with entrepreneurs and management teams to build rapidly growing software, internet, and data services companies across a wide range of industries. Gautam has been advising and investing in technology companies since 2006. Prior to Level, Gautam was a Vice President at Vista Equity Partners, where he originated, evaluated, and executed investments in enterprise software businesses and helped launch the firm’s debut credit fund. He also previously served as a member of Merrill Lynch’s Technology Mergers & Acquisitions team. Born in Chicago, Gautam currently lives in New York City with his wife and two dogs. Gautam received his BS in mathematics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Barry Osherow, Partner 

Barry is a Partner at Level Equity and manages the firm’s structured capital business, which provides creative debt and non-control senior equity solutions to growth-oriented businesses. Barry joined Level Equity in October 2016 and was most recently at Enhanced Capital Partners where he served as Managing Partner/Investment Committee Member of the firm’s $225M SBIC fund. Previously, Barry was at Technology Investment Capital Corp (NASDAQ: formerly TICC; now known as Oxford Square Capital Corp, NASDAQ: OXSQ), where he led the firm’s direct lending practice focused on technology businesses, Wit Capital (now SoundView Technology Group), where he was an investment banker for technology companies and part of the founding team, Spring Street Brewing Company where he was involved in conducting the world’s first public offering via the use of the Internet in the mid-90’s, and Lehman Brothers. Barry was born in Miami, FL, grew up in New Jersey, and currently lives in northern Westchester, NY, with his wife and two sons. Barry is a graduate of Babson College and holds a BS with a concentration in international business.

Funds Raised

Level invests across the capital structure in rapidly growing, privately held, capital efficient, technology businesses that it identifies proactively. The firm mostly sources its own deals by cold calling thousands of companies to create proprietary investment opportunities and leverage its deep technical stack to source and track opportunities.

Level’s Operating Partners team, collectively known as NextLevel Operations, provides value-add strategies that allow it to develop world class management teams, financial sophistication, M&A capabilities, and exit readiness for its portfolio companies. 

Key Investments

CloudCheckr: Invested March 2017, exited November 2021
Sector: Software & Data Services

CloudCheckr provides a SaaS-based platform for governance and performance monitoring of public cloud environments to enterprise and managed service provider customers. Acquired by NetApp.

HVR Software: Invested February 2019, partially exited September 2021
Sector: Software & Data Services

HVR sells a cross-platform data integration software that allows enterprises to replicate databases in real-time across a number of database types. Acquired by Fivetran.

Instaclustr: Invested April 2019, exited, May 2022
Sector: Software & Data Services

Instaclustr provides managed service provider for open-source databases with a focus on Apache Cassandra. Acquired by NetApp.

Optimere: Invested April 2019, partially exited, June 2022
Sector: Software & Data Services

Optimere provided cloud-based social media archiving, risk management, and analytics solutions. Optimere was acquired by CivicPlus

Planet DDS: Invested July 2019, partially exited July 2022
Sector: Software & Data Services

Planet DDS Provides a dental practice management software platform to single office and enterprise dental practices. Recapitalized by Aquiline Capital Partners.

simPro: Invested September 2016, partially exited January 2021
Sector: Software & Data Services

simPro provides cloud-based job management and field service software for trade contractors such as HVAC technicians, IT personnel, and electricians. Recapitalized by K1 Capital.

Wombat: Invested July 2014, exited February 2018
Sector: Software & Data Services

Wombat provides cyber-security awareness and training tools delivered via a SaaS model, which aims to improve enterprise security by way of employee behavior. Acquired by Proofpoint.

Capital Responsibility

Level Equity appreciates that environmental, social, and governance issues can have a material impact on financial performance and the communities in which both Level Equity and its portfolio companies operate. Level Equity is committed to working with its portfolio companies to integrate responsible investing considerations into business practices.

The firm believes that it is the responsibility of each of its partners, officers, and employees to act at all times in a manner consistent with the applicable regulations governing the protection of human rights, occupational health and safety standards and labor, environmental and business practices of the jurisdictions in which it conducts business.

CEO Reviews

Eric Giesecke, CEO, Planet DDS

“Level has been a great partner to Planet DDS from the beginning. The firm is filled with high-integrity people whose actions have always followed their words. The team at Level has a keen understanding of what motivates CEOs, allowing executives the room to solve problems while providing the support necessary to increase the likelihood that those decisions are correct. It’s been a ton of fun working with Level these past several years.”

Ray Carey, CEO, Optimere

“Level was awesome. Even NBA stars need coaches to push them to do more. Growth is hard and operators like me can easily get stuck in the day to day. Level helped us take a step back and look at the larger value creation path. From day one, Level identified the key value creation items we could improve upon and continually challenged us to execute on those. For us at Optimere, the primary leverage point was increased total addressable market. Level advised us on market landscape work, two acquisitions, debt and equity financings, integration and the subsequent exit strategy needed to drive an outstanding outcome, all in record time.”

Peter Lilley, CEO and Co-Founder, Instaclustr

“Level has been an awesome partner for Instaclustr right from the get-go and all along the way. Having a global firm that could help us scale internationally was crucial for us as we expanded the business around the world and their depth of experience in transacting really came through in what was to become the next step of our journey. Whether things were going well, or there were hard decisions to make, Level was incredibly supportive and valuable to the founding team.”

Joseph Ferrara, CEO, Wombat

“Level is a great partner because they’re excited to help and highly capable of doing so, but also happy to give you space to execute as a CEO. There’s a reason I chose to work with Level in back-to-back companies: they amplify success but with a low-ego, partnership approach.”