Growth Equity Shops - Tiers?
Hi all,
Can we get a running list of the tiers of GE shops?
Obviously this is subjective, but I think it would be helpful to have an idea of how good some funds are relative to others. This list I found seems to be the overall best firms in GE, so anyone on the list should be proud as is, but if we had to put them in a 5 tier system, what would you say?
- Activant
- Frontier
- Apax Digital
- Arrowroot Capital
- K1 Investment Management
- TCV
- Bregal Sagemount
- Guidepost Growth Equity
- Turn/River Capital
- Five Elms Capital
- Adams Street Partners
- Resurgens Technology Partners
- Lead Edge Capital
- Updata Partners
- Level Equity
- General Atlantic
- JMI Equity
- Spectrum Equity
- Platinum Equity
- NewSpring Capital
- TA Associates
- Volition Capital
- The Riverside Company
- Susquehanna Growth Equity
- Stripes Group
- Aquiline Capital Partners
- Spring Lake Equity Partners
- Sageview Capital
- Blueprint Equity
- Providence Equity
- Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors
- Norwest
- Anthos
- Accel
- BMV
- L Catterton
- Edison Partners
- Summit
- Insight Equity Partners
- Alpine Investors
- The Riverside Company
- Anthos Capital
- Georgian Partners
- Silversmith
- Bain Capital Ventures
- KKR NGT
- Battery
- NEA
- General Catalyst
I'm assuming you're a first or second year in college based on the nature of this post, so here's the *growth equity* analyst programs on the list that you should target (there are mostly-PE or mostly-VC than growth shops on your list so I'm not including those and I'm reading off your list so no particular order): Lead Edge, Level, GA, JMI, Spectrum, Volition, SGE, Stripes, Norwest, Accel, Summit, Insight, Silversmith. If I didn't include a firm they A) don't have an analyst program (TCV and TA have great reputations but no analyst program) B) I'm not familiar with them or C) Haven't heard great things about them (Arrowroot, Apax Digital, and a few others). If you have any particular firms you want more color on I can elaborate
And just to humor you most ppl consider the "Tier 1" pure-growth firms to be GA, Insight, and Summit.
Not OP but can you expand on Apax Digital and the other shops you haven’t heard great things about? would be great to get some more insight on that
They're a relatively new group so fewer data points to work with, but at the junior level it's entirely sourcing and teams are relatively siloed by vertical. Not sure if internal promotion is possible, which is a concern given that analysts don't do any deal execution and thus have little to go off of if they leave after 2 years. On that note, have heard mixed things about the culture and junior retention isn't great. Also personally just not a fan of MF PE shops that develop growth arms in general, they tend to invest in incredibly late stage and mature companies (not surprising given these firms' core is still PE)
Personally the brightest folks I've met at the junior level are from/at GA, Insight, Accel, and Stripes
Apax Digital has a SA program for 2023
What’s your opinion on the Canadian GE arms of some of the pensions? OTPP and OMERS both have dedicated growth funds that from what I understand have done pretty well (with teachers recently committing more capital to the space)
Omers is not comparable even though they have had a GE arm for way longer than otpp's TVG (recently changed names). You can easily tell they are becoming a major player in the field with their rapid location expansion/increase in headcount. Worked with their NA MD before and know their team is very strong. Many of their team members came from top tier funds (sequoia, summit, ares, GS, FT partners, temasek, accel...)
I am was in 2 of the mentioned shops from the OP for internships (summit/battery/bessemer tier) and didn't hear about otpp then. But now they are a clear up-and-coming shop and often see them competing for deals with Tiger for series d deals.
Does anyone have a POV on the "Growth" investing teams at Tier 1 VCs like a16z, Sequoia, Accel, Bessemer, etc.? How would they compare to an Insight or a GA?
Would assume their Growth arms would be comparable to firms like Insight/GA [not 100% sure though]
In bessemer, you get much more opportunities to actually work on deals. Analysts try to focus on a specific sector (e.g. enterprise saas). In Insight and GA, you are sourcing 24/7 so you better like sourcing companies.
Anyone have opinion on DFJ Growth?
Alright shop, my impression (which should be taken with a grain of salt) is that they FOMO into some later stage deals and not sure how they'll do in a downturn. Had a few conversations with them and wasn't as impressed with the team as I was with other later-stage firms.
b
~30 firms on Growth Cap rankings is a good place to start
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