GrowthCap is pleased to announce The Top 25 Software Investors of 2022. In a year marked by challenging economic conditions and volatility across sectors, it was particularly interesting to see which investors and investment firms performed the best in software. Although several hundred firms were originally considered at the start of this awards process, only 65 remained in the final rounds. This is our fourth year running these awards and what has become apparent over time is that while there are thousands of investors in the software space, the ability to produce solid consistent performance seems to be concentrated among a select group of firms.
The 2022 awardees are some of the most experienced, accomplished, and exceptional individuals in software investing. Nominees were evaluated based on the quality of the feedback they received from firm colleagues, portfolio company CEOs, and/or peers in the industry. The most highly endorsed were then selected for final rounds where they were further evaluated based on breadth of deal experience, recent investments and exits, demonstrated leadership, and uniqueness of capabilities, among other attributes.
Please join us in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of The Top 25 Software Investors of 2022.
Firm: TPG
Title: Partner
Nehal Raj is a Partner with TPG based in San Francisco, where he serves as Co-Managing Partner of TPG Capital, TPG’s large scale US and EU private equity platform, and Co-Managing Partner of TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD), TPG’s fund focused on flexible capital solutions for the technology industry. He co-leads TPG’s investment activity in software and enterprise technology (S&ET) across its private equity platforms.
Prior to joining TPG in 2006, Nehal was an investor at Francisco Partners and worked in the Technology M&A group at Morgan Stanley. He received an AB with distinction in economics, an MS in industrial engineering from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar).
Nehal currently serves on the boards of the following TPG investments: AfterNext HealthTech Acquisition Corp., Boomi, Digital.ai, Kaseya, Nintex, Noodle.ai, Planview, WellSky, and Wind River. Nehal was previously a director of a number of TPG investments prior to their successful exits, including: C3 AI, CCC Information Services, IQVIA, Intergraph and Zscaler. Nehal also serves on Stanford University’s H&S Council and Undergraduate Cabinet, the Board of Trustees of San Francisco University High School, and the Advisory board of Breakthrough San Francisco.
“Our team brings nearly two decades of experience investing in software and enterprise technology and we continue to leverage that history and knowledge to guide how we source, invest in, and create value through our investments in the space. We’re excited to see what the next decade of innovation in software will bring and to expand the ways we partner with dynamic companies that are transforming industries.”—Nehal Raj
Firm: TA Associates
Title: Managing Director
Hythem El-Nazer is a Managing Director at TA and a member of the firm’s executive, management, core investment, and portfolio committees. He is also co-head of TA’s North America Technology Group, focusing on investments in enterprise software and technology-enabled companies.
Hythem has more than 22 years of experience working with and investing in some of the leading enterprise software companies in the world. As an active, value-add investor, he partners with founders and management teams of TA’s technology portfolio companies to accelerate organic growth and execute strategic acquisitions, leveraging the Firm’s industry knowledge, experience and global resources.
Since joining TA in 2004, Hythem has led or co-sponsored 28 investments across North America, Europe, India, and the Middle East, and has helped build over a dozen multi-billion-dollar enterprise value companies. He has also originated or enabled more than 300 strategic add-on acquisitions for the portfolio companies he supports.
Hythem currently serves on the Board of Directors of Advantive, Appfire, Aptean, Gamma, Insightsoftware, Ivanti, Lumivero, MRI Software, PDI, Revalize and Sovos. Outside of TA, he is a board member and member of the executive committee of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), the Columbia University Business School’s Private Equity Advisory Board, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, the President’s Leadership Council at Brown University, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Board of Overseers
“With over 40 years of experience investing in enterprise software companies, TA offers founders and management teams a unique perspective on building enduring scale and value. It is a privilege to partner with forward-thinking leaders and companies to accelerate their growth journey and help them reach their full potential.”—Hythem El-Nazer
Firm: General Atlantic
Title: Managing Director, Global Head of New Investment Sourcing and Co-Head of Emerging Growth
Alex Crisses is a Managing Director, Global Head of New Investment Sourcing and Co-Head of Emerging Growth at General Atlantic. Alex plays an integral role on General Atlantic’s Technology investing team, with a particular focus on opportunities in enterprise software. Since joining the firm, Alex has led 35 technology deals and played a key role in establishing the firm’s Emerging Growth Platform and new office in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has been active on the boards of AppsFlyer, Atera, Benevity, Inc., Evisort, Flipp, Gympass, HiBob, JumpCloud, Seismic, ThreatLocker, Typeform, Vast Data and Zoomin.
Alex joined General Atlantic in 2016 and was previously a Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners, where he focused on software and internet investments globally. He earned his bachelor’s degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
“Since joining General Atlantic in 2016, I am continuously amazed by the firm’s commitment to empowering global entrepreneurs. Every day, I have the opportunity to work with and identify new and promising technology companies, and I am honored to support some of the world’s leading pioneers of technological innovation to scale solutions that help to fuel global growth.”—Alex Crisses
Firm: Thoma Bravo
Title: Partner
Brian Jaffee is a Partner on the Flagship team at Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, where he leads the firm’s investing efforts in fintech and application software. Brian is widely regarded as a strategic dealmaker and decision maker, an invaluable mentor to Thoma Bravo team members, and a thoughtful collaborator with portfolio company management teams, currently serving as a board member to five. He also plays a key role in driving portfolio company growth, including supporting the execution of over 20 add-on acquisitions representing $2.5 billion in additional TEV.
In the past year, Brian has led Thoma Bravo’s $2.6 billion take-private of Bottomline Technologies, the $6.5 billion take-private of Auctane (f/k/a Stamps.com), the ~$4 billion acquisition of Calypso Technologies, and the successful exit of Frontline Education for $3.725 billion following six strategic acquisitions that drove significant revenue and margin growth. Brian was also instrumental in Thoma Bravo’s $11 billion sale of Ellie Mae to Intercontinental Exchange, one of the largest private equity software exits ever completed, and has led successful exits of TravelClick and iPipeline and Instructure’s IPO.
Brian holds an MBA from University of Chicago and graduated magna cum laude with a BS in finance from Miami University.
“Since joining Thoma Bravo in 2014, it has been incredibly rewarding and energizing to apply the firm’s software sector expertise and partnership-oriented culture to support and grow software companies that are shaping the future of their industries.”—Brian Jaffee
Firm: Insight Partners
Title: Managing Director
Rebecca Liu-Doyle is a Managing Director at Insight Partners, where she focuses on investments in high-growth application software, payments/fintech, and consumer internet. Since joining the firm in 2016, Rebecca has helped deploy over $1 billion in capital to more than 30 companies that she self-sourced or helped win, including Divvy (exited to Bill.com), Prose, Quantum Metric, UserTesting (IPO in November 2021), Linktree, BeautyPie and Mural.
Previously, she spent time on Insight’s Onsite team, where she worked closely with portfolio executives on growth strategy. Rebecca started her career as a Management Consultant in McKinsey & Company’s New York office, advising clients in the technology, financial services, and consumer goods industries. Her work at McKinsey spanned a number of topics, including M&A, product development, and frontline transformation.
Rebecca graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a BA in ethics, politics, and economics. She mentors at 1776, is a member of the Acumen Junior Council, and helped launch the Parity Professional Program.
“The opportunity to be a part of our founders’ growth journeys—and thanks to them, a part of digital transformation—is a great privilege and joy for all of us at Insight Partners. A privilege to learn in partnership through easy and hard moments alike, and a joy to celebrate continuous change and impact. I’m grateful to Insight and my colleagues for making this incredible work possible day in and day out.”—Rebecca Liu-Doyle
Firm: Blackstone Growth
Title: Managing Director
Brian Dunlap is a Managing Director and focuses on software & enterprise technology at Blackstone Growth. He is based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2019, Brian was a member of TPG’s software & enterprise technology investment team spanning both TPG Growth and TPG Capital, leading minority growth and buyout investments in horizontal and vertical market software, EdTech, FinTech, HCIT and Cybersecurity. Additionally, he served as Head of Technology for TPG RISE, which was co-founded alongside Bono and Jeff Skoll.
Prior to TPG, Brian worked at JMI Equity, a software specialist investment firm, where he focused exclusively on investments in SaaS and cybersecurity. Prior to JMI, he worked at General Atlantic in New York, focusing on growth equity investments in enterprise software, consumer internet, and financial technology. Half Peruvian and fluent in Portuguese, Brian moved from New York to São Paulo in 2010 as an early member of GA’s Latin America investment team, and executed technology investments in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. Prior to General Atlantic, he worked in M&A at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Brian received a BA in public policy from Stanford University, an MA in international policy studies from the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brian serves on the Impact Investing Advisory Board for Echoing Green, a leading non-profit providing seed funding to social enterprises worldwide.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by GrowthCap alongside many friends and investors I respect highly. I believe that BXG is bringing a unique approach to growth equity at scale and I am grateful to the special group of companies that have placed their trust in Blackstone as a partner.”—Brian Dunlap
Firm: B Capital
Title: General Partner
Rashmi Gopinath is a General Partner at B Capital Group where she focuses on enterprise software investments in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, devops, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. She brings over two decades of experience investing and operating in enterprise technologies. She led B Capital’s investments in companies such as DataRobot, FalconX, Clari, Phenom People, Synack, Innovaccer, Hypersonix, Yalo, Labelbox, Armory and Fabric.
Rashmi was previously a Managing Director at M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, where she led investments globally in the enterprise space and sat on several boards including Synack, Innovaccer, Contrast Security, UnravelData, Incorta, among others.
Prior to M12, Rashmi was an Investment Director with Intel Capital where she was involved in the firm’s investments in startups including MongoDB (Nasdaq: MDB), ForeScout (Nasdaq: FSCT), Maginatics (acq. by EMC), BlueData (acq. by HPE), among others. Rashmi held operating roles at high-growth startups such as BlueData (acq. by HPE) and Couchbase where she led global business development, product and marketing roles. She began her career in engineering and product roles at Oracle and GE Healthcare. She earned an MBA from Northwestern University, and a BS in electrical engineering from University of Mumbai in India.
“At B Capital, we are proud and grateful to work alongside so many innovative founders and entrepreneurs in the enterprise software space who are shaping the future through technology. We are dedicated to being active partners with our portfolio companies and providing crucial resources that accelerate growth at every stage of the startup cycle. I’m honored to partner and work with trailblazing entrepreneurs who are building companies that can truly change the world.”—Rashmi Gopinath
Firm: FTV Capital
Title: Partner
Robert Anderson is a partner at FTV Capital where he leads investments in financial technology and payments, with a number of recent investments at the intersection of software, payments, and embedded finance. At FTV, Rob has been actively involved in nearly 20 investments, totaling over $1.2 billion in capital deployed.
Rob’s current investments and board seats include Derivative Path, Docupace, EBANX, LoanPro, Neon One, Plate IQ, SingleOps, Solid, Tango Card, Vagaro and Xplor. His representative exits and IPOs include Cashstar (acquired by Blackhawk Network), Enfusion (NYSE: ENFN), InvestCloud (recapitalized by Motive Partners and Clearlake Capital) and VPay (acquired by Optum/UnitedHealth Group). FTV Capital has a proven track record of investing in software businesses since its founding in 1998, and has consistently been recognized as a top founder-friendly investment firm.
Prior to joining FTV in 2010, Rob was an investment banking associate in the financial institutions group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He received an AB in economics and a certificate of finance from Princeton University.
“Software is integral to every enterprise across every sector, and it’s exciting to partner with founders who are delivering creative technology solutions that spur lasting innovation across industries. For more than two decades, FTV’s goal has been to help founder-owned companies and great management teams maximize their success by leveraging our strong track record, deep sector expertise, differentiated Global Partner Network and expert operational resources. I’m honored to be investing alongside the talented team at FTV as we continue our successful tradition investing in software.”—Rob Anderson
Firm: TPG
Title: Partners
Tim Millikin is a Partner at TPG based in San Francisco, where he co-leads TPG’s software and enterprise technology (S&ET) practice. He currently serves as a director or observer for Catalis, Delinea, Infinidat, and Renaissance Learning, and has led or been involved with many of the firm’s current and prior technology investments including Box, Domo, Ellucian, Expanse, Guardicore, McAfee, SunGard, Tanium, and Zscaler.
Prior to joining TPG in 2007, Tim worked in the Technology M&A group at Morgan Stanley, where he advised on and executed M&A transactions across the enterprise software, Internet, technology hardware, and services sectors. Tim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a BA in economics from Dartmouth College. Tim serves as Chairman Emeritus of Minds Matter San Francisco.
“We pride ourselves on partnering with companies across all stages of growth that are enabling consumers and businesses to operate more efficiently and safely. We work with best-in-class management teams to shape the growth of their organizations while staying true to their missions to provide innovative technology solutions.”—Tim Millikin
Mike Zappert is a Partner with TPG based in San Francisco, where he leads technology investing and strategy across the TPG Growth and The Rise Fund platforms, and is actively involved with TPG Tech Adjacencies. Mike currently serves on the boards of the following TPG investments: Everlaw, Onfido, MX and Greenhouse, and he is actively involved with TPG’s investment in Salsify.
Prior to joining TPG, Mike was a Partner at Adams Street Partners, and he previously held various roles at 3i and Credit Suisse. Mike received a BA in economics with honors and an MS in management science & engineering from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
“TPG backs best-of-breed SaaS, cloud, and security companies with our global network and operational support to help take their growth to the next level. We are pleased to be recognized as a partner of choice for software companies whose products are at the forefront of digital transformation in the enterprise.”—Mike Zappert
Firm: Blackstone Growth
Title: Managing Director
Ramzi Ramsey is a Managing Director at Blackstone Growth, focusing on investing in the enterprise software and financial technology sectors. Since joining Blackstone in 2021, Ramzi has led Blackstone’s investments in Cloudinary, Dynamo, and Hotel Engine.
Prior to Blackstone, Ramzi was a Partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund and led investing activity in the enterprise software sector. Prior to SoftBank, Ramzi was an investor at TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) and began his investing career at TA Associates. Ramzi has been a board member or investor in companies including Attentive Mobile, Automation Anywhere, Avvo, Cloudinary, Dynamo, Financial Software Systems, Hotel Engine, Ion Trading, Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY), OneTrust, Qualtrics (NASDAQ: XM), Rover (NASDAQ: ROVR), SeatGeek, Wall Street Systems, and Zillow (NASDAQ: Z). From 2019 through 2021, Ramzi was recognized as a Top 40 under 40 Growth Investor by GrowthCap.
Ramzi received his BS from Carnegie Mellon University with university and college honors and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School.
“Thank you to GrowthCap for this recognition. We’ve been honored to partner with some great software companies and will continue to look for opportunities to invest through this period of dislocation. At BXG, we seek to benefit from the scale of the broader Blackstone ecosystem, leverage decades of business building experience and enormous operating resources to be a better partner to high-growth companies navigating execution risk.”—Ramzi Ramsey
Firm: TA Associates
Title: Director
Mike Libert is a Director in TA’s Boston office, where he focuses on investments in software companies. He aims to drive value for TA’s portfolio companies through organic and inorganic growth strategies, offering more than ten years of cross-border experience as a software investor. Throughout his time at TA, Mike has led or co-sponsored investments in 14 platform software companies, closed transactions in 20 countries and completed four public-to-private transactions.
He has also originated or enabled more than 200 strategic add-on acquisitions for the portfolio companies he supports. Mike currently sits on the Board of Directors of Advantive, Appfire, Aptean, Gamma, HelpSystems, Idera, insightsoftware, Kofax, Lumivero, MRI Software, Netwrix, Precisely and Revalize. Mike previously worked at Bain & Company and Nintex, a former TA portfolio company. He received an AB degree from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“At TA, we strive to serve as true partners to our portfolio companies, providing deep software industry experience, operational knowledge and value-add capabilities. There is nothing more rewarding than helping ambitious founders, entrepreneurs and management teams execute on their strategic vision and accelerate growth.”—Mike Libert
Firm: Great Hill Partners
Title: Co-Founder and Managing Director
Chris Gaffney is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Great Hill Partners, where he is responsible for transaction origination, investment policy, fundraising, investor relations and the general management of the firm. Chris is also a member of the firm’s executive and investment committees. Throughout the course of his over 30-year career in private equity, Chris has participated in over 50 investment opportunities covering a range of industries, including software, information services, e-commerce, consumer and online services, financial technology, digital publishing, among others. Chris has served on over 50 boards from early-stage companies to publicly traded businesses with multiple investments grown from seed stage to unicorn.
He currently serves on the boards of directors of the following GHP portfolio companies: Domino Data Lab, Terminus, Varicent, Intapp, EDB, Auvik, Totango, Ikon Science, Mission and Evolve IP. He also formerly served on the board of ZoomInfo when it was owned by Great Hill Partners. Chris was a personal Seed and A Round investor for Skillz, Inc. Paradox.ai and Locus Robotics, and currently serves as a board member for Paradox.ai and Locus Robotics. Chris began his career in the private equity industry in 1986, serving as an Associate, Principal, and General Partner for M/C Partners. Chris previously served as a commercial lending officer for the First National Bank of Boston in the specialized media lending unit. He earned a BS in economics and accounting from Boston College.
“Since its inception, Great Hill has focused on partnering with the next generation of leading software companies to help them capitalize on their growing market opportunities and achieve their full potential. I’m grateful to be able to collaborate closely with these innovative companies that are creating significant value for businesses through targeted innovation and technology.”—Chris Gaffney
Firm: Silversmith Capital Partners
Title: Managing Partners
Jim Quagliaroli co-founded Silversmith Capital Partners in 2015. His software investments are targeted on supporting competitive, team-oriented CEOs who want to invest in aggressive go-to-market initiatives to drive growth. With 20+ years of investment experience, Jim has served on the board of directors of 25+ technology companies throughout the US, Canada, and the UK, and has supported his portfolio companies’ M&A throughout North America, EMEA, and APAC.
Jim has led 13 software investments for Silversmith, including the firm’s first institutional investment in Absorb Software, JETNET, PDFTron, TMA Systems, and Validity, among many others. Jim received an AB, magna cum laude, in English & American literature from Harvard College.
“At Silversmith, our mission is to partner with truly exceptional entrepreneurs. For us, that means founders and CEOs who have built capital efficient, technology-driven businesses with huge potential. I love working with talented founders and management teams who compete every day. They are the ones who work relentlessly to create great companies and it is a privilege to support them.”—Jim Quagliaroli
Todd MacLean co-founded Silversmith Capital Partners in 2015 and focuses on building lasting partnerships with exceptional entrepreneurs within the SaaS & Information Services sectors. With 20+ years investing in the information technology sector, Todd has served on the boards of more than 15 growing SaaS companies and has led ten investments for the firm since its founding including ActiveCampaign, DistroKid, Higg, Onbe, Unily, Venminder, Webflow and Zonos.
Prior to co-founding Silversmith, Todd spent over 15 years as a growth equity investor at Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), Accel and Summit Partners. Todd joined BCV in 2006, serving as a Managing Director upon his return to the firm in 2012 from Silicon Valley where he co-led the growth equity effort at Accel Partners. While at BCV, Todd focused on growth equity investments in the technology sector, with a particular emphasis on application SaaS and information services and led the firms’ investments in SurveyMonkey (Nasdaq: MNTV) and Wrike (acquired by Citrix). Prior to BCV, Todd worked at Summit Partners as an Associate and later Vice President, as well as in operating roles at several private companies.
Todd received an AB, cum laude, in English from Dartmouth College and an MBA with Honors from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Steve Jobs said it is the people crazy enough to think they can change the world that actually do. Every day I go to work to a job where I’m paid to work with this group of crazy people and I couldn’t feel more fortunate for that opportunity.”—Todd MacLean
Firm: Great Hill Partners
Title: Managing Director
Matt Vettel is a Managing Director at Great Hill Partners, where he is responsible for investment policy, general management of the firm, and leads investments in the financial technology and software sectors. Matt is also a member of the firm’s executive and investment committees. Matt started his career as a software developer for Accenture and is a founding member of PureSpeech, Inc., a speech recognition software company acquired by Voice Control Systems. During his investment career, he has led investments in a variety of software companies across segments, including: MineralTree (AP automation) acquired by Global Payments, Inc.; Confirmation (audit confirmation/governance) acquired by Thomson Reuters; Passport Health Communications (revenue cycle management) acquired by Experian; bswift (benefits administration) acquired by Aetna; Secureworks (cybersecurity) acquired by Dell; BillMatrix (bill payment) acquired by Fiserv; and more. Matt currently serves as a director of Jumio, Blue Ridge, VersaPay, Paytronix, One Inc, Network Merchants, Inc., Vanco, and BlueSnap. He holds a BS in industrial engineering and management from North Dakota State University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
“Great Hill has been lucky enough to work with some of the most talented founders and companies in the software industry to help them scale and unlock significant growth. We’re thrilled to have invested in several leading software disruptors over the past year and we look forward to continuing our efforts to capitalize on the opportunities ahead in the sector.”—Matt Vettel
Firm: Spectrum Equity
Title: Managing Director and Co-Head
Ben Spero is a Managing Director and co-head of Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm that specializes in partnering with internet-based software and data services companies. Ben joined Spectrum in 2001 and has been instrumental in shaping the firm’s culture and investment strategy. Ben has spearheaded the firm’s investments in online marketplaces, consumer subscriptions, and product-led growth software. Representative investments include AllTrails, Ancestry, Grubhub, Headspace Health, Lucid Software, Momentive (formerly known as SurveyMonkey), and The Knot Worldwide. He also has extensive experience in company building and has guided M&A, global expansion, and IPOs across the Spectrum portfolio.
Prior to joining Spectrum, he was a consultant at Bain & Company and co-founded a venture-backed startup. He is Board Chair at Destination: Home, a public private partnership to end homelessness in Santa Clara County, and is a board member at Tipping Point Community. Ben received an AB, magna cum laude, from Duke University.
“At Spectrum, we are privileged to work closely with extraordinary founders and management teams who are transforming the way consumers, small businesses, and large enterprises connect, process, and consume information. The most rewarding part of our jobs is partnering with our teams to help build category-leading companies.”—Ben Spero
Firm: Summit Partners
Title: Managing Director
Michael Medici joined Summit Partners as an Associate in 2005 and today serves as a Managing Director at the firm. Over the last 17+ years, Michael has invested in and partnered with numerous high-growth companies across the technology landscape, building deep sector expertise within several software subsectors, including commerce enablement, marketing automation, infrastructure and DevOps, industrial technology and supply chain.
Michael is currently a board director at Klaviyo, MacStadium, Markforged (NYSE: MKFG), Mavrck and Sifted. His prior board and investment experience includes Acacia Communications (NASDAQ: ACIA, later acquired by Cisco), Accedian Networks (acquired by Bridge Growth Partners), Anesthetix (acquired by TeamHealth), Clarabridge (acquired by Qualtrics), Diagnostic Hybrids (acquired by Quidel Corporation), Fermentas International (acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific), Hiperos (acquired by Opus Global), Logi Analytics (acquired by Marlin Equity Partners), Mi9 Retail (acquired by General Atlantic), and Telerik (acquired by Progress Software). Michael holds a BS in finance and international business from Georgetown University.
“For the past 17 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside passionate and dedicated leaders who continue to transform and advance important technologies used by both businesses and consumers. It is truly a privilege to represent Summit Partners in supporting the vision, innovation and tenacity of these individuals and the companies they lead.”—Michael Medici
Firm: Insight Partners
Title: Managing Director
Insight Partners Managing Director Teddie Wardi focuses on high-growth software and internet companies across both Enterprise and SMB software. As a former founder and CTO, Teddie is able to apply an operator’s lens to his investments, providing both capital and business know-how to support the ambitious founders and management teams he works with. His business acumen is highly valued by the rapidly scaling companies in his portfolio, including Wiz, 6sense and SentinelOne.
Prior to joining Insight, Teddie was a Partner at Atomico, one of the largest European venture funds based in London. He sourced and led multiple growth investments in SaaS companies, being active at both the board and company level supporting rapid growth and international expansion.
Previously, Teddie worked at Dawn Capital, a SaaS-focused early stage fund based in London, where he sourced and led investments in Automile and Showpad, among others. Before moving to venture investing, Teddie was the co-founder and CTO of Nervogrid, a leading cloud service marketplace platform. Nervogrid was acquired by ALSO, Europe’s largest IT distributor that is listed on the Swiss stock exchange. Teddie holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. from Aalto University in Helsinki, where he focused on finance and computer science.
“At Insight we have the opportunity to partner with world-class founders building transformational software ScaleUps across a variety of exciting product categories. I’m grateful to be able to work together with my colleagues to help these founders realize their vision and build generational companies.”—Teddie Wardi
Firm: Sageview Capital
Title: Partner
Jeff Klemens is a Partner at Sageview Capital, a growth equity firm that backs industry-defining innovators to build enduring software and tech-enabled businesses. In his role, Jeff is responsible for helping lead the firm’s investment ideation, sourcing efforts, transaction activity, and post-investment value creation. Jeff joined Sageview in 2006 as a Principal, and during his time has focused on software and tech-enabled businesses in compliance, e-commerce, security, and infrastructure sectors. Jeff has been heavily involved in ten investments at Sageview, including the firm’s three highest returning investments. Jeff’s current investments include Anitian, Elastic Path, Ezoic, MetricStream, and Pax8. His prior investments include Avalara, GoPro, Reflexis, Alfresco, and Rapid RTC.
Before joining Sageview, Jeff was an Associate at SPO Partners & Co. He started his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Industrial and Financial Sponsors groups of the Investment Banking Division. Jeff graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California in 2001 with a BS in business administration and was awarded the Order of the Torch, which recognizes 12 graduating seniors for outstanding leadership, academic achievement, service and mentorship, and contributions to the USC community.
“Our strategy is to partner with ambitious entrepreneurs with exceptional products and help them scale to industry leaders. We look to collaborate with our companies on a customized approach, leveraging our decades of industry experience, operational expertise, and network to create meaningful value.”—Jeff Klemens.
Firm: Kayne Partners
Title: Managing Partner, Co-Head, and Co-Portfolio Manager
Nishita Cummings is the Managing Partner, Co-Head, and Co-Portfolio Manager of the growth private capital funds (“Kayne Partners”) at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. (“Kayne”), a leading alternative investment management firm. Since joining Kayne, Nishita has ascended from being an Associate to being named Co-Head of the growth equity strategy in 2016 and appointed to Kayne’s Board of Directors in 2021. In her nearly 15 years at Kayne, Nishita has played a key role in many of the 48 platform investments and 25 exits completed by the Kayne Partners team across six funds and six co-investment vehicles. She has also been responsible for helping grow the platform to over $1.2 billion under management across both the growth equity and credit strategies. She also works to grow and cultivate talent within the team, while being focused on diversity throughout Kayne and across the portfolio, and she recently launched The Women’s Technology Circle, a Kayne Partners initiative, bringing together over 100 leading women of some of the fastest growing technology businesses across North America.
Throughout her tenure at Kayne, Nishita has overseen more than thirteen exits by the team since the end of 2020, including the realizations of Circle Cardiovascular Imaging and Riviera Partners to Tier 1 private equity firms. Another notable exit was Conservice, a proptech utilities billing management platform. Over the course of her career, Nishita has advised many more through successful exit processes, and her investments have attracted the interest of strategic and financial buyers alike. The diversity of acquirers is a function of the strong fundamentals and strategic value that Nishita is able to create in partnership with great management teams.
“At Kayne Partners, we are continuing to grow our platform to provide flexible capital to experienced and motivated entrepreneurs that have strong conviction in their businesses and built clear competitive advantages, shown an efficient use of capital, and share attractive investment characteristics. By providing specific investment expertise and access to a strong network of resources to support companies at this stage of growth, we continue to build strong partnerships with our management teams leading to successful exits to leading strategics and financial sponsors.”—Nishita Cummings.
Firm: JMI Equity
Title: General Partner
Suken Vakil is a General Partner at JMI Equity, focusing on software businesses. He is currently a board director of ButterflyMX, HackerRank, Huntress, Lytics, and SOCi, and Whistic and a board observer at Code42 and Seismic Software. His investment experience includes prior investments in Adaptive Insights (Acquired by Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY), Arena (Acquired by PTC, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTC), Avecto (Acquired by Bomgar), and Internet Brands (Acquired by KKR). As a General Partner of JMI Equity, Suken leads both minority and majority investments in enterprise software companies. He collaborates with management teams to define and achieve market-leading growth strategies. Prior to joining JMI in 2012, Suken worked at Hellman & Friedman, Google, and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, with a bachelor of arts in computer science and a BS in business administration. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“The opportunity to partner with some of the best software companies in the industry is a privilege. I am honored to be included among this inspiring group of investors.”–Suken Vakil
Firm: Mainsail Partners
Title: Partner
Vinay Kashyap is a Partner at Mainsail. Vinay has been investing in founder-owned software companies for over fifteen years. Vinay currently serves on the boards of Fexa, JobNimbus, PlanHub, Fullbay, and GTreasury. He formerly served on the boards of ServiceCore, Nexus Systems (acquired by Bottomline Technologies), SentryOne (acquired by SolarWinds), PlayMaker Health (acquired by Trella Health), and Zen Planner (acquired by Daxko).
Prior to Mainsail, Vinay worked at Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm, where he sourced, executed and supported over $200 million of growth equity investments across North America, Europe and Asia. He started his career with Deloitte Consulting. Vinay received his AB in economics and international relations from Bowdoin College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“At Mainsail, we partner with founders of growing bootstrapped software companies to help them realize their full potential. I find the most rewarding part of my job is building long term relationships with founders, CEOs and management teams, and collaborating with them to maximize the positive impact they have on their customers, employees and the broader communities in which they operate.”—Vinay Kashyap
Firm: JMI Equity
Title: General Partner
Brian Hersman is a General Partner at JMI Equity, focusing on enterprise software. He is currently a director of Eptura, Greenlight Guru, Intradiem, and Swiftly, and is a board observer at CompanyCam. He was previously a director of a number of JMI investments prior to their successful exits, including Arena Solutions, BigMachines, EMS Software, and PowerPlan.
Brian leads both minority and majority investments, collaborating with management teams to define and achieve market-leading growth strategies. Prior to joining JMI in 2008, Brian was a Senior Associate at Vista Equity Partners, where he executed enterprise software transactions and assisted portfolio companies with growth initiatives, strategy, acquisitions, and operational improvement. He also worked with software and services companies as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University with his BA in economics and computer science and MS in management of information systems. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“I feel so lucky to work with the passionate and immensely talented leaders in the JMI portfolio. It is incredibly rewarding to partner with these entrepreneurs who are creating businesses of lasting value.”—Brian Hersman
Firm: Kayne Partners
Title: Managing Partner, Co-Head, and Co-Portfolio Manager
Nathan Locke is a Managing Partner, Co-Head, and Co-Portfolio Manager of the growth private capital funds (“Kayne Partners”) at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. (“Kayne”), a leading alternative investment management firm. Since joining Kayne in 2008 as an Associate, Nate has ascended within the organization and was named Co-Head of the growth equity strategy in 2016. In his nearly 15 years at Kayne, Nate has played a leading role in developing and evolving the team’s sourcing strategies, identifying investment themes, developing actionable new investment opportunities, and deal execution.
He’s also been actively involved in building a highly experienced and diverse team of 17 professionals. As Co-Portfolio Manager, he has also played a key role in partnering with many of the 48 platform investments and contributing to the 25 exits completed by the Kayne Partners team across six funds and six co-investment vehicles. Nate has also helped lead the teams latest fundraising efforts, and under his leadership, the team closed its largest growth private equity fund to date and its inaugural growth credit strategy offering a capital efficient alternative for strong technology businesses that want to take advantage of a lower cost capital structure from a value-add partner.
Throughout his tenure at Kayne, Nate has advised on multiple boards through representation as a board director or board observer. He has also sold a number of software companies to larger strategic buyers and completed recapitalizations with larger financial sponsors. Select transactions have included the sale of Chicago-based, 4C Insights, MaintenanceNet, Learn.com, 3CInteractive and the recapitalizations of Source Intelligence, and myKaarma. The dynamic mix of acquirors is a reflection of the strategic value and resources that Nate and the team at Kayne are able to bring to its diverse and talented management teams.
“We are in exciting times at Kayne Partners as we continue to build and expand our platform of capital solutions for the lower middle market. Our dedicated growth equity and credit strategies enable us to tailor flexible capital to meet the needs of today’s entrepreneurs. We bring a unique combination of firm resources, domain knowledge, and stage expertise to businesses at a key inflection point in their life cycle.”—Nate Locke
Firm: Mainsail Partners
Title: Partner
Michael Anderson is a Partner at Mainsail Partners. He has spent twenty years as an investor in private companies. Michael currently serves on the boards of Apptega, Boostlingo and Syncro. He formerly served on the boards of Inspect Point, PeraHealth (acquired), Bio-Optronics (acquired by Advarra) and FairWarning (acquired by Imprivata).
Prior to joining Mainsail, Michael was a Principal at Summit Partners, a private equity and venture firm. Prior to Summit, Michael worked for Danaher Corporation, Onex Corporation, Nassau Capital and Gleacher Partners. Michael’s prior board experience includes CareCentrix, Medspring Urgent Care (acquired by Fresenius Medical Care), National Veterinary Associates (acquired by Ares Management) and Integrated DNA Technologies (acquired by Danaher Corporation). Michael received an AB in economics, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
“I love the culture that we’ve created at Mainsail. It provides the foundation for an upbeat, supportive environment that’s based on helping bootstrapped founders on every step of their journey. We are energized by the people with whom we partner, and we respect what they have built – not just the products but the cultures.”—Michael Anderson
Firm: Battery Ventures
Title: Partner
Jordan Welu is a partner at Battery Ventures based in Boston, Massachusetts who focuses on growth-stage and buyout investments in the software sector, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure software and financial technology. In his years at Battery, Jordan has led investments in seven Battery Ventures portfolio companies: Alogent, Concurrent Real-Time (acquired by Spectris), DomainTools, Enviance (acquired by Cority), Learnosity, Plixer and ResourceWise. Jordan’s background as a former operator with a focus on finance, business development and corporate development enables him to serve as a valuable partner to infrastructure software and fintech companies.
Prior to Battery, he built a successful career in technology investment banking and equity research and, more recently, as a software industry executive. Jordan spent nine years across two infrastructure software companies, cybersecurity vendor Webroot and cross-platform development tools vendor Rogue Wave Software. Jordan holds a BA in American studies from Georgetown University, where he was a John Carroll Scholar and graduated magna cum laude.
“In my career, I have had the privilege of partnering with some of the most exceptional software company founders to grow and scale their businesses. As a former software industry executive myself, I have a unique appreciation for the pressures and commitments of the portfolio company leaders with whom I work, and I never take their efforts for granted.”—Jordan Welu
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Copyright: GrowthCap’s Top 25 Software Investors of 2022 publication is copyrighted material, produced and published by GrowthCap, LLC. For information pertaining to content permissions, please refer to GrowthCap’s award usage regulations.
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