GrowthCap is pleased to announce The Top 25 Software Investors of 2021. This year represented the most competitive nomination pool since the start of this annual awards process three years ago. Hundreds of nominations were submitted representing investors from over ninety firms. The 2021 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 portfolio company CEOs, firm colleagues, as well as peers in the industry. The most highly endorsed were then selected for final rounds where they were further evaluated based on demonstrated leadership, breadth of deal experience, and uniqueness of capabilities, among other attributes.
As those in the industry are well aware, the private equity and growth equity fields are meritocratic environments where most emphasis is placed on work ethic, integrity, intellect, and diligence. As such, while the investors that comprise this year’s awards list come from diverse backgrounds, the one thing they have in common is a time-tested commitment to excellence. Notably, certain firms are represented by more than one awardee and while some investors are repeat performers from prior years, many are appearing on the list for the first time. Please join us in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of The Top 25 Software Investors of 2021.
Firm: TA Associates
Title: Managing Director and Member of Executive Committee
Hythem El-Nazer is a Managing Director at TA Associates and a member of TA’s Executive, Management, Core Investment, and Portfolio Committees. He is also co-head of the firm’s North America Technology Group, focusing on investments in enterprise software and technology-enabled companies.
Hythem has more than 21 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 software 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 sponsored 25 investments across North America, Europe, India and the Middle East, and has originated or enabled more than 100 strategic add-on acquisitions for TA’s software portfolio. Hythem has served on the Board of Directors of more than 20 TA portfolio companies. He is currently a Board Member of several organizations outside of TA as well, including Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), the President’s Leadership Council at Brown University, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Board of Overseers.
“We are privileged to back and partner with management teams of exciting companies that are transforming industries and sectors. Our ambition is to help accelerate the growth of the companies in which we invest through organic initiatives, as well as strategic acquisitions. We believe our more than 40 years of experience investing in enterprise software companies gives us a unique perspective on building enduring scale and value.” – Hythem El-Nazer
Firm: TPG
Title: Partner, Co-Managing Partner of TPG Capital, and Co-Managing Partner of TPG Tech Adjacencies
Nehal Raj is a Partner with TPG based in San Francisco, where he serves as Co-Managing Partner of TPG Capital, TPG’s dedicated 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 also co-leads the firm’s software & enterprise technology practice. 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 and MS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar).
Nehal serves on the board of the following TPG investments: AfterNext HealthTech Acquisition Corp., Boomi, Digital.ai, Kaseya, Nintex, Noodle.ai, Planview, WellSky, and Wind River. He is also closely involved with the firm’s investments in Checkmarx and Sonatype. 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 the Stanford University Undergraduate Cabinet and the advisory board of Breakthrough San Francisco, and previously served on the Board of Trustees of San Francisco Day School.
“It’s an exciting time to be a software investor, as organizations across industries adapt their businesses to be digital-first. We’re proud to support a diverse portfolio of companies that are enabling enterprises to better serve the evolving needs of their customers, whether it’s providing new cyber solutions that protect entirely cloud-based IT networks, or innovative tools that allow an increasingly distributed workforce to strategize and execute in faster and more efficient ways.” – Nehal Raj
Firm: Sageview Capital
Title: Founding and Managing Partners
Ned Gilhuly is a Founding and Managing Partner of Sageview Capital, a growth equity firm with over $1.5 billion in assets under management that provides capital to and partners with the management of leading lower middle-market software and tech-enabled businesses to help them scale to industry leaders. In his role, Ned is responsible for all aspects of Sageview’s business and sits on the firm’s Investment and Portfolio Committees. Before founding Sageview Capital, Ned spent 19 years at KKR and was a member of the firm’s investment committee. During his tenure at KKR, Ned started and oversaw all aspects of the firm’s European business from 1998 until 2005. Ned has served on over 30 private and public company boards throughout his career, including Alfresco, Avalara, Cinedigm, Demandbase, Elastic Path, GoPro, MetricStream, and Pantheon. Ned graduated from Duke University Magna Cum Laude with a BA in History and Economics. He received an MBA from the Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. In addition, Ned is a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Duke Management Company. He is also a director of Legrand, SA (a CAC 40 company), on the board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, and trustee emeritus of the California Academy of Sciences.
“We look to back companies that are well-positioned to become the industry leaders of tomorrow and we use all our expertise and resources to help them achieve their potential. With our experience, skills, and rich network (especially among the Global 2000), all developed over 35+ years, we bring knowledge of best practices, connections to the right people, and a capacity to help that are exceptionally valuable to our companies in helping them grow. In addition, over 20% of our capital comes from the Sageview Team, truly aligning our interests with our companies’ and investors.” – Ned Gilhuly
Scott Stuart is a Founding and Managing Partner of Sageview Capital, a growth equity firm with over $1.5 billion in assets under management that partners with leading lower middle-market software and tech-enabled businesses to help them scale to industry leaders. In his role, Scott is responsible for all aspects of Sageview’s business and sits on the firm’s Investment and Portfolio Committees. Before founding Sageview Capital, Scott spent 19 years at KKR and was a member of the firm’s investment committee. During his tenure at KKR, Scott oversaw investments across the consumer products, media, industrial, and power sectors. Scott has served on over 25 private and public company boards throughout his career, including Pax8, Specright, Drivewyze, NAM, Reflexis Systems, United Capital, and EverBank. In addition, Scott is currently the Chair of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Board of Trustees and Governing Trustees. In 2021, Scott and his wife Lisa launched the Lisa & Scott Stuart Center for Adolescent & Young Adults Cancers at MSK to revolutionize cancer treatment for individuals ages 15 to 39. Scott is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Dartmouth College, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an MBA from Stanford Business School and an AB in English from Dartmouth.
“Our strategy is to back ambitious entrepreneurs with proven products that are looking for a partner to help them scale to the leader in their industry. We look for companies in which our decades of industry experience, Global 2000 network, and operational expertise can have a meaningful impact on value creation. We run a concentrated portfolio to ensure we have enough capacity to be actively involved in each investment.” – Scott Stuart
Firm: Insight Partners
Title: Managing Director
Jeff Lieberman has been at Insight Partners since its earliest days. An active investor in both software and consumer internet companies, Jeff is focused on partnering with great entrepreneurs across the globe and helping them scale their businesses. He has led or co-led more than 100 deals across four continents since joining the firm in 1998.
Jeff has a demonstrated eye for investing in promising companies – he was an investor in Qualtrics, which sold to SAP for $8 billion in 2018 in the largest VC-backed software M&A exit in history. Jeff led the previous two rounds of investments in the company. In addition to Qualtrics, Jeff has taken many notable companies public, including HelloFresh and Delivery Hero in 2017, Mimecast in 2016, Cvent in 2013 and Shutterstock in 2012. Jeff currently serves on the board or oversees Insight’s investments in DeliveryHero (IPO), HelloFresh (IPO), Hootsuite, GainSight, Mimecast (IPO), OpenEnglish, SiftScience and Udemy.
This year alone, Jeff led significant follow-on investments in existing Insight portfolio companies Quantum Metric, SimpleNexus and Glia as growth soared with businesses and consumers shifted to more online behaviors. In 2020, Jeff’s investment, meal delivery service Freshly, was acquired by Nestlé USA to fuel additional growth opportunities in the U.S. market.
Prior to Insight, Jeff was a consultant at McKinsey and Co. Jeff received dual degrees in systems engineering and finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering and Wharton School of Business, respectively, where he graduated with honors.
Firm: Kayne Anderson
Title: Managing Partner, Co-Head of Growth Equity, and Co-Portfolio Manager
Nishita Cummings is a Managing Partner, Co-Head of Growth Equity, and Co-Portfolio Manager for Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors’ growth private equity activities. She has played a leading role in building a team of 18 people with a focus on diversity with the team being over 50% female or minority. During her time at Kayne, Nishita has been responsible for 28 platform investments and 19 exits, across four funds and five co-investment vehicles. She is responsible for playing a pro-active leadership role in refining the team’s proprietary sourcing strategy over time, including the expansion into Canada, identifying investment themes, developing actionable new investment opportunities, deal execution and driving enterprise value creation within existing portfolio companies. She is also a founding member of The Women’s Technology Circle (a Kayne Partners Fund Initiative), member of Kayne Partners Investment Committee and was recently appointed to the Board of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P.
Nishita is currently serving in a Board Director or Board Observer capacity for the following companies: Circle Cardiovascular, CreatorIQ, Drivewyze, Freightwaves, Ideas United, Riviera Partners, and Zafin.
Firm: Silversmith Capital Partners
Title: Managing Partners
Todd co-founded Silversmith Capital Partners in 2015 and focuses on building lasting partnerships with exceptional entrepreneurs within the SaaS & Information Services sectors. Thematically, Todd believes in the underlying power of data as the twenty-first century moat as well as how innovative cloud models can democratize access to technology that grows, and often creates, new markets. With more than 20+ years investing in the information technology sector, Todd has served on the board of 15 growing SaaS companies and has led nine investments for the firm since its founding including, ActiveCampaign, Digital Map Products (acquired by LightBox), DistroKid, 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’s other past investments include Appriss (acquired by Equifax), Archer Technologies (acquired by RSA/EMC), Dealer.com (acquired by Dealertrack) and iPay Technologies (acquired by Jack Henry & Assoc.).
Todd grew up on the North Shore of Boston. He received an AB, cum laude, in English from Dartmouth College and an MBA with Honors from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I feel lucky to be at a firm whose entire reason for being is to partner with amazing founders and operators – and to help them make their vision a reality. While we work tirelessly to help in that regard, at the end of the day the credit for that success sits entirely with them, for their brilliance and passion and willingness to take risk to build something new.” – Todd MacLean
Jim Quagliaroli co-founded Silversmith Capital Partners in 2015. In his role as Managing Partner, Jim focuses on investments across the firm’s two core verticals, SaaS & Information Services and Healthcare IT & Services, and has served on the board of more than 20 companies during his career. Jim partners with passionate founders of growing SaaS companies focused on product leadership. His software investments are targeted on supporting competitive, team-oriented CEOs who want to invest in aggressive go-to-market initiatives to drive growth. At Silversmith, Jim’s investments in the software segment include Absorb Software (acquired by WCAS), Comlinkdata, Impact, Net Health, PDFTron Systems, RedAwning, TMA Systems and Validity. Jim received an AB, magna cum laude, in English & American Literature from Harvard College.
Firm: TCV
Title: General Partner
Tim joined TCV in 2010 and focuses on investments in the enterprise software, security, and tech-enabled services markets. His current investments include Aviatrix, FinancialForce, GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB), OneTrust, Oversight, and Vectra. His prior investments include Alarm.com (NASDAQ: ALRM), Avalara (NYSE: AVLR), Rapid7 (NASDAQ: RPD), Silver Peak (acquired by HPE), Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK) and TOA Technologies (acquired by Oracle).
Tim was previously a partner at Trinity Ventures, a leading early- to mid-stage venture capital firm, where he focused on investments in the software and security sectors. Prior to Trinity, Tim was a vice president at GTCR in Chicago. He started his career in the early 1990s at TA Associates in Boston.
Tim received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with a BA in Classical Archaeology from Dartmouth College.
“It’s such an honor to work with disruptive entrepreneurs in the current environment of hyper digitization—it’s the most exciting time to be a tech investor I’ve encountered in my 30 years of investing. I am inspired and humbled every day by these technology iconoclasts with limitless energy and creativity.” – Tim McAdam
Firm: Great Hill Partners
Title: Managing Directors
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 investments covering a range of industries, including software, information services, e-commerce, consumer and online services, financial technology, digital publishing, and others. Chris has served on over 50 boards from early stage to publicly traded businesses with multiple investments grown from seed stage to unicorn status. 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 formerly served on the Board of ZoomInfo when it was owned by Great Hill Partners. Chris was a personal Seed and A Round investor and serves as a board member for Skillz, Inc., 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.
“At Great Hill Partners, we are focused on partnering with entrepreneurs and executives at high-growth, disruptive software companies who are building game-changing products that are transforming the way we live and work,” said Christopher Gaffney, Managing Director at Great Hill Partners. “There is nothing more rewarding than leveraging our team’s strong sector experience to help bring promising companies into their next stage of growth.”
Matt Vettel is Managing Director at Great Hill Partners, where he 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 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’s investment philosophy is centered around partnering with driven and talented executives to build innovative businesses with differentiated products, distribution advantages and dynamic cultures,” said Matt Vettel. “Our thematic investing approach positions Great Hill to be a supportive and valuable partner to best-in-class management teams.”
Firm: IVP
Title: General Partner
Steve Harrick joined IVP in 2001 as a General Partner and has over 20 years of venture capital experience. He focuses on investing in later-stage technology companies with exceptional growth potential. Specifically, Steve targets enterprise infrastructure, security, data analytics and disruptive consumer-focused companies which have the potential to become leaders in their respective markets. He enjoys working closely with committed entrepreneurs to help create businesses that are both respected and revolutionary. Steve led IVP’s investments in Aerohive Networks (HIVE), AlienVault (T), Anomali, AppDynamics (CSCO), Aster Data (TDC), Ayasdi (SAI), Business.com (DEXO), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Cyence (GRWE), eHealth (EHTH), Eucalyptus Systems (HPQ), Harness, LegalZoom (LZ), MarkMonitor (TRI), MySQL (ORCL), Personal Capital (Empower), Productiv, Spiceworks (ZD), Sumo Logic (SUMO), Teros (CTXS), Tripwire (Thoma Bravo), and Yellowbrick Data.
He was actively involved in IVP’s investments in ArcSight (HPQ), Buddy Media (CRM), Danger (MSFT), HashiCorp, MuleSoft (CRM), Pure Storage (PSTG), and Yext (YEXT). Steve was recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world by his inclusion in the Midas List three times. Before joining IVP, Steve worked for the Internet Capital Group (ICG) as a Vice President of Acquisitions. Prior to ICG, Steve worked for Highland Capital Partners in Boston, Massachusetts. Steve’s experience in venture capital investing on both the East and West Coast allows him to provide valuable guidance to management teams within IVP’s portfolio. Before entering the venture capital industry in 1997, Steve worked in Business Development for Netscape Communications and in Mergers and Acquisitions for Morgan Stanley in New York. Steve earned a BA in History from Yale University, where he was a Varsity wrestler and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“When it comes to investing in leading growth-stage software companies, the only constant is change. At IVP, we feel honored to be in the position to work with some of the most visionary entrepreneurs in tech – whether they are solving significant enterprise challenges involving cybersecurity or helping a profession like law advance through digitization. Now is an even more exciting time to be a tech investor, and I look forward to meeting and backing the next generation of great entrepreneurs.” – Steve Harrick
Firm: TPG
Title: Partners
Tim Millikin is a Partner at TPG based in San Francisco, where he co-leads TPG’s software & enterprise technology practice. He currently serves as a director or observer of Government Brands, Infinidat, McAfee, Renaissance Learning, ThycoticCentrify, and has led or been involved with many of the firm’s current and prior technology investments including Box, Domo, Ellucian, Expanse, Guardicore, 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 believe that when you have deep conviction and invest for the long-term, you can inflect meaningful growth and transform the trajectory of a business over time. We work closely with management teams to execute on a collective vision and build companies that emerge as strategically important platforms in their markets. This approach has defined our investment strategy for more than a decade and continues to guide our partnerships today.” – Tim Millikin
Mike Zappert is a Partner at TPG based in San Francisco, where he leads software & enterprise technology investing across the TPG Growth and The Rise Fund platforms. Mike currently serves on the board of the following TPG investments: Everlaw, Greenhouse, MX, and Onfido. 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 MS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
“Software investing is a key area of focus for TPG and the unique set up of our team has proven to be an important differentiator in a highly competitive investing landscape. In an industry as dynamic as technology and software, our ability to invest across different pools of capital has allowed us to partner with companies at various stages in their lifecycle. At TPG Growth, we bring decades of business building expertise to help entrepreneurs build market-leading, next-generation businesses and leverage our operational expertise to help accelerate their growth along the way.” – Mike Zappert
Firm: Hg
Title: Senior Partner and Executive Chairman
Nic is Senior Partner and Executive Chairman of Hg and Head of the Saturn funds. He has ultimate responsibility for Hg’s strategy, management and governance. He focuses on larger software investments that provide daily-use mission critical applications for accountants, lawyers, tax / compliance professionals and designers / engineers / scientists.
Nic is currently a director on the boards of IRIS, Benevity and Visma. He has led or co-led more than 30 investments over the last 30 years, including Addison (accounting software – sold to Wolters Kluwer), CSG (legal/ERP software – sold to Advanced plc), e-conomic (SaaS ERP – sold to Visma), Foundry (design & VFX software – sold to Roper Technologies Inc), Geneva Technology (telecom OSS software – sold to Convergys Inc), IRIS (Accounting/ERP software), NextGenTel (telecoms), RAET (payroll software – sold to Visma), Rolfe & Nolan (banking software – sold to ION Trading), Visma (ERP software), Xyratex (storage networking – listed on Nasdaq and sold to Western Digital).
Nic started his investing career in 1990. He focused exclusively on Technology/software since 1994 and joined Hg in 2001 as founder of the firm’s Technology Team. From 1990-2001 he was a director at Barclays Private Equity (now Equistone), Geocapital and 3i plc. He holds a first class degree in Electronic Engineering and was a IEEE and National Engineering Council scholar. He is a World Fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and supporter of The Royal Foundation, Impetus and The Nature Conservancy.
Firm: Thoma Bravo
Title: Partner
Robert (Tre) Sayle is a Partner at Thoma Bravo, where he heads the firm’s growth investment strategy. Tre led the recent growth investments in FTX, Illumio, and ServiceTitan along with several others in the process of being finalized. He also recently served as CEO of the firm’s first Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) taking ironSource – a leading business platform that enables mobile content creators to prosper within the App Economy – public at a $11.1 billion valuation. He currently sits on the boards of Aternity, ConnectWise, Conga, FTX, Illumio and Infovista.
Thoma Bravo is one of the most successful software investment firms in the world with over 40 years of experience and more than $83 billion in assets under management. Throughout Tre’s 16-plus-year career at Thoma Bravo, he has been instrumental in orchestrating 22 deals representing approximately $50 billion of transaction value. Prior to joining Thoma Bravo in 2005, he worked with JPMorgan’s Investment Banking Division and was a member of the Technology, Media and Telecom Industry Group. He also previously worked with Hambrecht & Quist. Tre received a BA degree in Economics with a concentration in Psychology from Harvard University.
“As we continue to invest in hyper growth software and technology companies, we are excited to apply Thoma Bravo’s collaborative approach, deep sector expertise and proven strategic and operational capabilities to accelerate growth at the companies in which we invest.” – Tre Sayle
Firm: Sumeru Equity Partners
Title: Co-founder and Managing Director
Jason Babcoke is a co-founder and Managing Director at Sumeru Equity Partners, a growth focused investment firm specializing in partnering with founders and management teams to scale strong product-led companies into category leaders.
At Sumeru, Jason focuses on software investments, including Blackline (NASDAQ:BL), Buildium (Acquired), Talend (IPO), Snow Software, Criteria, Tasktop and Loopio.
Prior to Sumeru, Jason was a principal at Silver Lake Sumeru (predecessor fund to Sumeru Equity Partners) and, as an operator, the Director of Engineering for Angstron Systems, a venture backed startup he helped lead to a successful acquisition. Jason earned a BS in Engineering from UC Berkeley, an MS in Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“Working with founders and product-oriented teams to help build leading companies is our focus, nothing is more exciting or rewarding.” – Jason Babcoke
Firm: Vista Equity Partners
Title: Senior Managing Director
René Stewart is Co-Head of Vista’s Endeavor Fund, which she helped to launch and today leads in partnership with Rachel Arnold, making Endeavor one of the world’s largest tech funds led exclusively by women. Endeavor seeks to capture the opportunity among high-growth enterprise software companies in the lower-middle market – the largest and fastest growing part of the software sector. Since launch, Vista’s Endeavor platform has successfully raised two funds and now manages over $1.7 billion, investing in a growing portfolio of innovative businesses with $10 to 30 million in annual recurring revenue.
René joined Vista in 2007 and currently sits on the boards of iN2L, Dispatch, Kazoo, RadarFirst, Tripleseat and Zapproved, and earlier in her career was actively involved in the firm’s investments in Accruent, AGDATA, Bullhorn, Lone Wolf and Mitratech. She is a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for the overall management of Vista’s private equity platform.
Prior to joining Vista, René worked at Yahoo! in the Corporate Finance Group, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, and business development opportunities for the company. She has a BA in Economics from Columbia University.
“Vista pioneered later-stage enterprise software buyouts and remains a leader in that category. The Endeavor fund’s launch opened the door for Vista to leverage its experience and operational expertise to support earlier-stage investments in fast-growing companies through both minority and majority deals. For me personally, I’m thrilled to support founders and leadership teams as they level up and expand their organizations. Now we’re in our second fund and starting to see some of those investments mature, it’s exciting to see validation of the strategy.” – René Stewart
Firm: IVP
Title: General Partner
Eric Liaw joined IVP in 2011 and is now a General Partner. He is focused primarily on later-stage investments in high growth companies across a variety of sectors, including enterprise software, Internet, and mobile. Eric serves as a Board Director or Observer for IVP portfolio companies Aiven, App Annie, Deputy, Glossier, The Honest Company (HNST), IEX, Lulus, MasterClass, NextRoll, Supermetrics, WHOOP, and ZipRecruiter (ZIP) and led IVP’s investments in Ajaib, Datadog (DDOG), Dream Games, FightCamp, GitHub (MSFT), Klarna, Robinhood (HOOD), Sorare, and UiPath (PATH). He was actively involved in the firm’s investments in Coinbase (COIN), Cribl, CrowdStrike (CRWD), Curology, Grammarly, Hims & Hers (HIMS), Niantic, Podium, Tala, TaxBit, and Whisper and previously served as a Board Director or Observer for Dropcam (GOOG), MINDBODY (MB), OnDeck (ONDK), RetailMeNot (SALE), Supercell (Tencent), The Players’ Tribune (Minute Media), and Wikia (TPG).
The New York Times and CB Insights recognized Eric as one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world in 2019. Prior to joining IVP, Eric was with TCV where he completed minority and control investments in private and public companies across the Internet and software sectors. Earlier in his career, Eric was a member of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Investment Banking Group. Eric also held technical and marketing positions with Trend Micro and Canon Software Publishing. Eric holds a BA degree in economics and an MS degree in management science and engineering, both from Stanford University.
“Despite some initial headwinds at the outset of the pandemic, software companies have flourished tremendously over the last 12 months. Companies of all sizes, in all vertical markets and geographies recognize the existential necessity of digital capabilities. This explosion in end-customer demand allows software companies to grow faster than ever and generate significant revenue within a very short timeframe. We continue to see incredible opportunities for our current and future portfolio companies. Every day I am energized by the opportunity to talk to talented entrepreneurs and partner with them to create a better future.” – Eric Liaw
Firm: JMI Equity
Title: General Partner
David is a General Partner at JMI Equity, focusing on software businesses. David has over fifteen years of experience with JMI helping to build leading software companies. He is currently a Board Director of Bloomerang, Businessolver, Employee Navigator, RainFocus, and Unanet. His investment experience includes prior investments in automotiveMastermind (Acquired by IHS Markit – NASDAQ: INFO), CoreHR (Acquired by The Access Group), Intelex (Acquired by Fortive – NYSE: FTV), and ServiceNow (IPO NYSE: NOW). Prior to joining JMI in 2006, David was an associate at Cascadia Capital and an analyst at Houlihan Lokey. David graduated from Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a BS of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting.
“I’m grateful to work alongside outstanding founders, entrepreneurs and executives leading amazing growth companies. Partnering with these talented people and building long-term, trusted relationships is the most rewarding part of software investing.” – David Greenberg
Firm: JMI Equity
Title: General Partner
Suken is a General Partner at JMI Equity, focusing on software businesses. Suken is currently a Board Director of Applied Systems, HackerRank, Huntress, Lytics, and SOCi, 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). Prior to joining JMI in 2012, Suken was an associate at Hellman & Friedman, where he invested in software and digital media companies. Suken has also worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and as a product manager at Google. 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.
“It’s a privilege and an inspiration to work alongside such brilliant, committed and passionate software entrepreneurs.” – Suken Vakil
Firm: Insight Partners
Title: Managing Director
Rachel Geller joined Insight in 2008. She helps lead investments in high growth software and internet companies, with a focus on application software and marketplaces. Prior to joining the investment team, Rachel started her career at Insight as part of the firm’s ScaleUp engine, Insight Onsite, where she scaled and led the strategy and M&A team.
Rachel has helped evaluate hundreds of potential Insight investments, and has provided investment, growth and M&A support for more than 50 portfolio companies, including next-gen legal platform LawVu and HR and employee benefits platform Employment Hero most recently. She also counts Conga, Qualtrics (acquired by SAP), HealthcareSource (acquired by Francisco Partners), Kinnser (acquired by Mediware), eVestment (acquired by NASDAQ), and HauteLook (acquired by Nordstrom) among her investments.
Prior to joining Insight, Rachel worked as a strategy consultant and product marketer at American Express. Rachel’s background sets her distinctly apart in the investment ecosystem and the CEOs of her investment companies value her hands-on practical experience and sage advice in scaling a software company. Rachel graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a BS in Economics.
Firm: PSG
Title: Managing Director
Marco Ferrari, a managing director at PSG, has been with the firm since 2014. He brings over 20 years of investing and operating experience in the technology sector, adding value to PSG’s portfolio companies in a variety of different ways. At PSG, Marco has led strategic investments in middle market software and technology-enabled services companies, including Payrix Payments Technology, a technology platform for flexible payment facilitation, and Impact, a provider of partnership automation. He currently serves on the boards of seven PSG portfolio companies: Broadlume, Impact, LivTech, patientNOW, Payrix, Therapy Brands and Transit Technologies.
Previously, he was a principal at BV Investment Partners, where he focused on technology, communications and business services investments. Before BV Investment Partners, Marco was an investment partner at Siemens Venture Capital. Marco received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Harvard University.
Firm: PSG
Title: Managing Director
Tom Reardon, a managing director at PSG, has been with the firm since 2015. He plays a key role on PSG’s team of investment professionals and partners with portfolio company founders and management teams to help them reach their full potential. To date, he has led a number of investments, including PSG’s majority investment in Traliant, a provider of online workplace compliance training solutions, and PSG’s strategic investment in Singlewire, a provider of mass notification software for safety, emergency and workflow communications. Consistent with PSG’s culture, Tom takes a collaborative approach to partnering with PSG’s portfolio companies and serves on eight boards: Code Climate, DigitalEd, FluentStream, Formstack, Singlewire Software, Skybox Security, Traliant and Validity.
Previously, he was a general partner at WestView Capital Partners and focused on software and technology-enabled business service investments. Prior to WestView, Tom was a director at CIBC Capital Partners. Before that, he co-founded Revolution Partners as an associate and worked at Robertson Stephens & Co. as an analyst in the software group. Tom received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Harvard College.
Firm: Blackstone Growth
Title: Managing Director
Paul is based in London and leads Blackstone Growth in EMEA. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2021, Paul was a partner at Battery Ventures, focusing on later-stage software investments. From 2012 to 2016, Paul was based in Battery’s San Francisco office before moving to London in 2016 to open Battery’s presence in Europe. Paul was involved on the boards of Battery portfolio companies Guardsquare, InCloudCounsel, PageUp, PrimeRevenue, Quinyx, Shippeo, Intacct (acquired by Sage) and WebPT (acquired by Warburg Pincus). Paul was also involved in Battery’s investments in Gainsight (acquired by Vista Equity Partners) and Nitro (ASX:NTO).
Prior to Battery, Paul spent time with Goldman Sachs’ investment-banking division focusing on the technology, media and telecom sectors. While Paul was at Goldman, he worked on a variety of debt and equity financings, M&A transactions and strategic-advisory assignments. In 2017, Paul was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of leading young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers. Paul graduated from Stanford University, where he earned a BS in economics and played four years on the varsity men’s tennis team.
“Thank you to GrowthCap for the tremendous recognition. There is so much opportunity in the software space; I’m excited about what we are building at BXG and look forward to the long road ahead partnering with world-class companies and colleagues.”
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, OwnBackup, Pendo, Clari, Phenom People, Synack, Innovaccer, Hypersonix, Yalo, Labelbox, Armory, Fabric among others.
Rashmi was previously a Managing Director at M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, where she led investments globally in enterprise software and sat on several Boards including Synack, Innovaccer, Contrast Security, Incorta, Frame, Paxata, among others.
Prior to M12, Rashmi was an Investment Director with Intel Capital where she was involved in the fund’s investments in 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 (Nasdaq: BASE) 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.
“B Capital partners with visionary market leaders who leverage technology and innovation to accelerate digital transformation and create a monumental impact. Our goal is to be the most value-added investor on the cap table and help our portfolio companies scale from early stages to IPO and beyond. I’m fortunate to work with such a passionate and phenomenal group of founders and executives building companies that can truly change the world.” – Rashmi Gopinath
Firm: Index Ventures
Title: Partner
Nina focuses on venture and growth investments in enterprise SaaS, vertical SaaS, and AI. She is excited by the combination of software and payments to help legacy industries transition from using pen and paper workflows to adopting more modern, vertical-specific solutions. Nina also believes that the combination of voice and AI is unlocking new business applications and soon will become the new system-of-record for enterprises. She works with transformational companies like ServiceTitan, Shopmonkey, productboard, Monograph, CodeSignal, and Gong.
Previously, Nina was an FP&A Lead for Google’s AdSense team where she managed a multi-billion dollar book of business covering Amazon, IAC and eBay. Nina started her career as a high yield bond trader at Citigroup. She also started HIVE Ventures, the first seed venture fund focusing on Armenian entrepreneurs, where she invested in over 30 companies. Nina graduated from Harvard University with a BA in government and is a recipient of the Michael C. Rockefeller Scholarship.
Firm: IVP
Title: General Partner
Tom Loverro joined IVP in 2015 and is currently a General Partner. He focuses on investing in later-stage, high-growth consumer and enterprise companies. Tom currently serves as a Board Director or Observer for Attentive, HashiCorp, NerdWallet, Paper, Podium, Skydio, and TaxBit. He was a Board Observer for Coinbase (COIN) until April 2021. He was actively involved in sourcing, executing, and managing investments in Ajaib, Amplitude (AMPL), Datadog (DDOG), GitHub (MSFT), IEX, OnDeck (ONDK), and Tanium. Forbes Magazine recognized Tom as one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world by his inclusion in the 2021 Midas List. In 2019, he was recognized as one of venture capital’s up-and-comers by his inclusion in the Forbes Midas Brink List.
He began his career at Goldman Sachs & Co. in technology, media, and telecommunications investment banking. Following Goldman, he joined RRE, a leading early-stage venture firm based in New York. Tom’s involvement in RRE portfolio company Drobo led to him joining the company full-time for a period where he led Marketing. Tom holds an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management, where he was an Austin Scholar, and a BA degree from Stanford University, where he graduated with distinction.
“IVP invests in the fastest-growing technology companies and software is the majority of what we do. We are highly selective. We partner with exceptional management teams to build software companies of consequence. There are more high quality, high growth software companies every day and they are growing faster and with better metrics than every generation before it.” – Tom Loverro
Firm: Bregal Sagemount
Title: Partner
Blair Greenberg is a Partner at Bregal Sagemount and is a member of the firm’s investment committee. Blair also currently serves on the boards of DentalXChange, Open Lending Corporation (Nasdaq: LPRO), and Scorpion Enterprises and has previously served on the boards of Accela, Align Financial Holdings, Discovery Data, and Irth Solutions.
Prior to joining Bregal Sagemount, Blair worked as an investment professional at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) where he focused on investing in technology and financial services companies. Before TCV, he worked for UBS Investment Bank in the Financial Institutions Group.
Blair received a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, graduating with High Distinction, and an MBA with concentrations in Finance, Management & Strategy, and Marketing from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
“The rapid pace of innovation and adoption of software is reshaping material portions of the global economy. As an investor in software companies, it’s exciting to be a part of such an impactful sector.” – Blair Greenberg
________________________
Copyright: The Top 25 Software Investors of 2021 publication is copyrighted material, produced and published by GrowthCap, LLC. For information pertaining to content permissions, please refer to GrowthCap’s award usage regulations.
Disclaimer: The data provided in this publication is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, endorsement, nor recommendation. GrowthCap believes the information in this publication to be accurate but does not verify its accuracy independently and does not warrant or guarantee that it is accurate or complete. GrowthCap has no obligation to provide any updates or changes to the information. No investment decisions should be made using this information.
Discover unique insights from growth investors and leading executives.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter.
