PRINCETON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Edison Partners, a leading growth equity investing firm, today announced the closing of its 10th fund, Edison Partners X, oversubscribed at $450 million. Fund X is the firm’s third consecutive fund dedicated to growth equity since 2015 and the largest in the firm’s 36-year history.
Differentiated deals in underserved markets
Edison Partners Fund X addresses the gap in the $10 million to $30 million emerging growth equity investment market in geographies outside of Silicon Valley. Fund X exemplifies Edison Partners’ deal flow leadership in markets with fewer capital sources, such as the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southeast, and the Rocky Mountains. Fund X investments include a total of seven investments, five of which are from underserved geographies: Kaiyo (New York), MacroFab (Houston), Prepaid Technologies (Birmingham), Recycle Track Systems (New York) Slingshot Aerospace (Austin), Solutions by Text (Dallas), and Spiffy (Charlotte, N.C.).
“Fund X continues Edison Partners’ successful track record, some would call an ‘old-school,’ disciplined approach to investing in and growing capital-efficient, high-growth businesses in fintech, healthcare IT, and enterprise SaaS outside Silicon Valley,” said Edison Partners Managing Partner Chris Sugden. “Our strategy of thoughtful, high growth, but not growth at all costs, and building enterprise value through value-added service, is the antithesis of the current growth equity environment. Capital formation tied to the business’ growth strategy, not fund size, is our mantra. We go far beyond writing checks, through meaningful partnership with our portfolio companies. The Edison Edge platform offers centers of excellence to optimize operations, executive education programs, and a director network for independent board director formation and development.”
“We are very excited to partner with Edison Partners, as they bring a wealth of operational experience through the personal careers of their team, and their track record of successful investments with innovative, high-growth companies,” said Alpay Koralturk, founder and CEO, Kaiyo. “As fierce operators ourselves, it’s particularly energizing to work alongside an organization that brings on-the-ground experience and an operational network. Their Edison Edge program will allow us to accelerate our current growth trajectory and unlock new opportunities to realize our mission of making great furniture accessible to everyone and better for the planet.”
Edison Edge value-added resources for portfolio companies
Edison Partners’ industry-leading and differentiated value-creation platform, Edison Edge, offers extensive operating expertise and best practices at no cost to portfolio companies. Edison Edge includes five proprietary centers of excellence, executive education programs, comprehensive board director support with the Edison Director Network (EDN), and corporate development and exit management services. More than 90% of portfolio companies are actively engaged with the Edison Edge platform, and these companies average 70% to 80% annual revenue growth.
Strong track record of success in emerging growth equity
Since its inception in 1986, Edison Partners has invested in more than 240 companies and completed 180 total exits. Recent exit successes include TripleLift, Zelis, HRS, Solovis, Clearpool, Jornaya, Bento for Business, Gambling.com, and MoneyLion. The firm’s active portfolio currently consists of 53 companies, and the firm now has more than $1.6 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2021, with an aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion.
Edison Partners solidified its growth equity model in 2015 and has consistently performed in the top quartile. Edison IX, a $375 million growth equity fund closed in 2018 and made its final investment in GoHenry. In 2021, the firm achieved its fifth consecutive year of record proceeds, 65% higher than its 2020 record.
Edison Partners is the first institutional capital and lead investor for most of its investments. At the time of first investment, portfolio companies typically present with $10 million to $30 million in revenue. Edison Partners and its funds and portfolio companies have succeeded in all economic cycles and conditions throughout Edison Partners’ 36-year history.
Diverse expert leadership
Edison Partners is led by 17 investment professionals who are sector experts and have spent their careers investing or operating in growth-stage tech companies. Over two-thirds of the team are women and minorities. Edison Partners committed $30 million to $50 million of Fund X investments to include the most underserved tech CEO populations: women and minorities. Edison Partners is also committed to diversity across both the management team and the board of directors of its portfolio companies. Seventy-two percent of management teams are gender and/or ethnically diverse, while 72% of portfolio companies’ boards are diverse; 55% include women; 43% are ethnically diverse and 55% are gender diverse.
Insights from Fund X portfolio companies and limited partners
“Our continued support for Edison Partners speaks volumes to their strategic and unique approach to growth equity,” said Steve Neel, deputy chief investment officer, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board. “We’ve invested multiple times in the past with Edison Partners and always see a strong ROI because of their capabilities and the value-add they deliver to the companies they invest in.”
Edison’s Fund X investors include corporate and public pension plans, endowments, fund-of-funds, insurance companies and family offices, including Rutgers University, American Family Insurance, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board and Renaissance Venture Capital Fund.
About Edison Partners
For 36 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams grow and scale their companies. The firm’s investment team brings more than 275 years of combined investing and operating experience to each investment. Through a unique combination of growth capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of operating centers of excellence, executive education programs, and the Edison Director Network, Edison employs a truly integrated approach to accelerating growth and creating value for businesses. With experts in enterprise solutions, financial technology and healthcare IT, Edison targets high-growth companies located outside Silicon Valley with $10 million to $30 million in revenue. Investments also include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, and secondary stock purchases. Edison’s active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners manages $1.6 billion in assets. For more information on Edison Partners, please visit edisonpartners.com and follow on LinkedIn.
