The global top performing growth capital firms
2025-05-07
The top performing growth capital firms
Software investors JMI Equity and Lead Edge Capital clinched positions in this year's ranking.
A niche life sciences and healthcare investor has topped a ranking of the best-performing growth capital private equity firms for the third year in a row.
Ampersand Capital Partners, a Boston-based buyout shop founded in 1988, has claimed the top spot once again in this year’s HEC-Dow Jones table.
The firm invests between $10m and $200m of equity across both majority and minority positions in North America, Europe and APAC, according to its website.
Two UK firms entered into the top 10 places this year: Apis Partners, a London-based private equity firm that focuses on financial services, took second place while UK technology-focused investor Sprints finished in eighth position. Japanese fund Whiz Partners also muscled into a top 10 spot.
The other seven places were held by US firms, down from nine out of the top 10 in last year’s list.
Other non-US entrants in this year’s list included Lighthouse Funds, an Indian growth-stage PE firm focused on the consumer and healthcare sectors.
Brazil-based Oria Capital and Vietnam-based PENM Partners also made the cut.
“Scale was no obstacle to stellar performance in this year’s ranking,” noted Oliver Gottschalg, a professor from HEC Business School Paris who compiled the list.
He added: “Insight, which is more than 17x the scale of the average other GP in the top 20, continues to secure a spot in the ranking.”
Gottschalg also noted that the ranking included some specialists, particularly in healthcare as well as software and IT, although it is dominated by generalist growth-cap funds.
Another entry into the top five was The Raine Group, which does both advisory and principal investments in the TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) ecosystem.
Best known for its advisory role on some of the world’s biggest sports deals, including the sale of Chelsea Football Club, Raine also invests in companies through its flagship growth equity strategy, such as online gaming developers and music platforms.
Industry news
Revealed: The top performing growth capital firms
US life sciences investor tops HEC Paris rankings of growth capital firms for third year running
The three top performing funds including one from the UK and two from the U Getty Images
By
Sebastian McCarthyFollow
Wednesday May 7, 2025 8:34 am
A niche life sciences and healthcare investor has topped a ranking of the best-performing growth capital private equity firms for the third year in a row.
Ampersand Capital Partners, a Boston-based buyout shop founded in 1988, has claimed the top spot once again in this year’s HEC-Dow Jones table.
The firm invests between $10m and $200m of equity across both majority and minority positions in North America, Europe and APAC, according to its website.
Two UK firms entered into the top 10 places this year: Apis Partners, a London-based private equity firm that focuses on financial services, took second place while UK technology-focused investor Sprints finished in eighth position. Japanese fund Whiz Partners also muscled into a top 10 spot.
The other seven places were held by US firms, down from nine out of the top 10 in last year’s list.
Other non-US entrants in this year’s list included Lighthouse Funds, an Indian growth-stage PE firm focused on the consumer and healthcare sectors.
Brazil-based Oria Capital and Vietnam-based PENM Partners also made the cut.
“Scale was no obstacle to stellar performance in this year’s ranking,” noted Oliver Gottschalg, a professor from HEC Business School Paris who compiled the list.
He added: “Insight, which is more than 17x the scale of the average other GP in the top 20, continues to secure a spot in the ranking.”
Another entry into the top five was The Raine Group, which does both advisory and principal investments in the TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) ecosystem.
Best known for its advisory role on some of the world’s biggest sports deals, including the sale of Chelsea Football Club, Raine also invests in companies through its flagship growth equity strategy, such as online gaming developers and music platforms.
Following the Raine Group in fifth place was Spectrum Equity, a firm founded in 1994 with offices in Boston, San Francisco, and London.
FTV, a firm founded in 1998 that invests in companies across enterprise technology and services as well as financial technology and services, was number 14 on the ranking. Last year, it opened an office in London as the firm’s first hub for UK and European deals.
Software investors JMI Equity and Lead Edge Capital also clinched positions in the ranking.
The criteria for selecting growth capital firms was raising a minimum of $100m via two or more funds in the period 2011-2020. Overall, 278 growth capital firms met the criteria, raising 505 funds with an aggregate equity volume of $329bn.
The ranking referenced herein is the opinion of the party conferring the ranking and not of Lead Edge Capital. The rankings list was issued by HEC-Dow Jones Performance Rankings/HEC Paris on May 7, 2025, and reviewed the period of 2011 - 2020. No compensation was paid in connection with the ranking.