Which private equity firms buy SaaS companies with $5M to $100M in ARR? At the lower end, software specialists such as Mainsail Partners, Level Equity, LLR Partners and Strattam Capital. In the middle, growth and buyout firms such as JMI Equity, Riverwood Capital, Accel-KKR and Alpine Investors, alongside the dedicated smaller vehicles of large firms such as Thoma Bravo Explore. At the top of the range, mid-market control buyers such as Eterna Growth Partners. And across every band, PE-backed platforms buying add-ons.
That buyer set looks different from the usual ranking by assets under management, and 2026 has widened the gap. Platform deals accounted for 41% of private equity deal value in software through May, the lowest share in at least a decade, while add-ons rose to about 45%.
This page maps the private equity firms that buy SaaS, AI and software companies by the ARR band their own stated criteria point to, and by where they invest: the US, Europe or Latin America. It is written for scaleup founders exploring an exit, and for sponsors preparing to sell a software portfolio company.
Key takeaways
What a software private equity firm is, and how deal size sorts buyers
A software private equity firm is an investment firm that raises capital from limited partners to acquire majority or significant minority stakes in software companies, grow them and later sell them.
Founders usually meet three kinds of capital. Buyout funds take control, typically with debt alongside equity. Growth equity funds take minority or majority positions with less leverage. Structured capital sits between debt and equity and is designed to limit dilution.
PE sponsors buy companies in two ways:
- A platform acquisition anchors a new investment thesis.
- An add-on is bought by a portfolio company the sponsor already owns, to extend its product, geography or customer base.
Deal size decides which of these buyers or acquisition types is more realistic because while many founders think in ARR, sponsors will underwrite enterprise value.
At the 3.9x EV/Revenue average for non-outlier tech deals below $1bn in 2026, $5M of ARR implies roughly $20M of enterprise value, $20M about $78M, $50M about $195M and $100M about $390M (EV = ARR × 3.9).
Most financial buyers then test that price against earnings. L40°'s analysis of SaaS EBITDA multiples sets out the payback math behind those offers.
How private equity is buying software in 2026
Software was the most actively targeted sector for private equity in 2025. In 2026, however, sponsors have become more selective. According to PitchBook, US private equity deal value in software reached $16.24 billion in the first five months of the year, compared with a record $156 billion for the full year 2025.
The slowdown was most pronounced in large platform buyouts. Add-on acquisitions proved more resilient, supported by smaller equity commitments and lower financing requirements, and accounted for approximately 45% of software deal value.
Activity rebounded selectively in the third quarter. Software deal value increased 51.1% quarter-over-quarter, despite fewer transactions. Add-ons accounted for 74.9% of US buyout transactions through Q3, while investment remained concentrated in business and productivity software.
AI disruption has become a central consideration in investment decisions. Approximately 64% of private equity firms surveyed by EY reported becoming more selective in software investments due to AI-related risks. Meanwhile, large take-private transactions have returned at the upper end of the market, with announced deals involving Bumble, CCC Intelligent Solutions and Varonis Systems in early Q4.
For software companies generating $5 million to $100 million in ARR, L40° sees the most relevant private equity buyers as specialist funds, dedicated investment vehicles within larger firms and PE-backed platforms, rather than the flagship funds of large buyout firms.
Software private equity firms at a glance
The PE firms on this page were selected on four tests: a stated focus on software, size criteria or a fund strategy that overlaps $5M–$100M of ARR, software investments in 2025 or 2026, and a clear record of where they invest. Each firm appears in the band where its criteria center, although many span two. Firms are grouped, not ranked.
Criteria are quoted in the unit each firm uses, from its own website or announcements. Where a firm publishes no size range, the table says so. "Where they buy" combines a firm's stated geography with the location of its recent deals.
Disclosure: L40° has no referral fees or paid placements with any firm listed here.
$5M to $20M ARR: lower-mid-market software specialists
At this size, the buyer is usually a specialist fund that sources directly from founder-owned companies and often provides a company's first institutional capital. Deals range from minority growth investments to majority recapitalizations.
Mainsail Partners
Mainsail invests in founder-owned B2B software companies in the US and Canada writing equity checks of $25M–$200M. That range points to the upper end of this band and above. It closed its $1.535bn Fund VII in May 2025.
Level Equity
Level's growth equity strategy targets companies with $5M+ of recurring revenue and little institutional capital, through minority or majority investments, and invests in North America, Europe and Israel, and Australia and New Zealand. It closed $1.4bn of growth funds in 2025 and made a growth investment in Munich-based cplace that January.
Five Elms Capital
Five Elms invests in B2B software companies and closed its $1.1bn Fund VI, taking assets under management above $3bn. It publishes no size range. Its most recent announced deal is a growth investment in DashFuel, petroleum distribution software, in October 2026.
Strattam Capital
Strattam makes majority investments in B2B software and tech-enabled services companies with enterprise values up to $100M, revenue of $10M–$30M and positive EBITDA, plus add-on opportunities. In April 2026 it invested in PurchasePlus, an AI-driven procurement platform.
LLR Partners
LLR's investment criteria include minimum revenue of $5M and equity of $10M–$200M per transaction, and it seeks add-ons of all sizes for its portfolio. In June 2026 it made a strategic investment in AxisCare, home care management software based in Waco, Texas.
Main Capital Partners
Main Capital invests only in enterprise software, in Northwestern Europe and North America. Its Foundation funds write equity tickets below €20M and its flagship funds above that. In 2026 it raised Main Capital IX (€4.0bn) and Main Foundation III (€1.25bn). In 2025 it became majority owner of Documaster, a Norwegian document management provider.
$20M to $50M ARR: growth buyouts and dedicated vehicles
In this band, checks get larger, majority stakes become more common and the company is often the platform for a new thesis. It is also where large software investors compete through dedicated smaller funds.
JMI Equity
JMI invests in software and AI-driven companies with high recurring revenue and typically commits $20M–$500M per company, with nearly 200 investments to date. In August 2026 it announced a growth investment in First Due, software for fire and EMS agencies.
Riverwood Capital
Riverwood provides growth capital to technology companies from offices in Menlo Park, Miami, New York and São Paulo. It publishes no size range. Recent deals include Urban SDK in the US (March 2026) and, in Latin America, a $35M investment in AgendaPro in Chile and Paytrack in Brazil.
Accel-KKR
Accel-KKR invests in middle-market software and tech-enabled businesses through buyouts, minority growth and credit, with over $23bn of cumulative capital commitments and offices in Menlo Park and London. In March 2026 it took a majority stake in Whip Around, a New Zealand-founded fleet maintenance software company.
Alpine Investors
Alpine buys software and services businesses with EBITDA of $0–$50M and enterprise value up to $1bn, in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand through buyouts, recapitalizations, add-ons and carve-outs. It reports 700+ add-ons over five years, many through platforms such as Alpine Software Group.
Thoma Bravo Explore
Explore is Thoma Bravo's lower middle-market platform, targeting software companies with less than $100M of ARR. It is a $3bn business within Thoma Bravo, deploying a $1.8bn second fund. Its deals include Tanda in Australia and the CAD 650M take-private of Kneat in Canada.
Bregal Milestone
Bregal Milestone invests in mission-critical European software, AI and cybersecurity businesses. Bregal Milestone III closed at its increased €915M hard cap in July 2026. In April it announced a majority growth investment in CoreGo, a Finnish payments and event technology company.
PSG
PSG partners with software and tech-enabled services companies from offices in Boston, Kansas City, London, Madrid, Paris and Tel Aviv, and reports more than 500 add-ons facilitated. PSG Europe III closed at over €4.4bn in September 2026. In June it made a strategic investment in CHR Group, European food safety software.
$50M to $100M ARR: mid-market control buyers
At the top of the range, buyers underwrite full control, a platform thesis and diligence at quality-of-earnings depth, and price largely on EBITDA.
Several firms from the previous band also invest here. JMI's range reaches $500M per company and Alpine's enterprise-value ceiling is $1bn. What changes is the size of the equity check, the leverage in the structure and the depth of diligence.
Eterna Growth Partners
Eterna completed its spinout from Charlesbank in February 2026 and makes control investments in technology businesses with enterprise values of $50M–$400M. It manages $2.3bn of committed capital across two funds and 19 portfolio companies, in application software, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare IT and infrastructure software.
Keensight Capital
Keensight is a European growth buyout investor in technology and healthcare, with more than €8bn of assets under management and investment tickets of €10M–€800M.
Vista Equity Partners (Endeavor and Foundation)
Vista invests across the software lifecycle: Endeavor in small-cap businesses and Foundation in middle-market emerging leaders. It does not publish size ranges for either strategy.
Above $100M ARR
Beyond this range, the buyer set shifts to flagship funds. Hg Mercury typically requires over €100M of equity, with Genesis and Saturn above that. This is also where take-privates sit, such as the GTCR-led consortium's agreement to acquire CCC Intelligent Solutions. These are the names on most rankings, and often the eventual buyers of today's platforms.
Buying across borders: US, European and LatAm sponsors
Where a firm invests narrows the buyer list as much as size does. Stated mandates and deal history do not always match, which is why the table reflects both.
- United States: the deepest pool in every band, from LLR, Strattam and Mainsail to JMI, Accel-KKR and Eterna. Several US funds also buy abroad: Level Equity invests in Europe, Israel and Australia, Alpine in Europe and Australia, and Thoma Bravo Explore has invested in Australia and Canada.
- Europe: Main Capital, Bregal Milestone, Keensight and PSG's European funds deploy capital in European software, while Main Capital also invests in North America. That overlap opens cross-border routes in both directions, covered in L40°'s guide to selling a European software company to a US buyer.
- Latin America: few software private equity firms deploy capital in this ARR range in the region. Riverwood, with an office in São Paulo, is one with recent deals in Chile and Brazil. In L40°'s experience, much of the current buying in LatAm software comes from strategic acquirers and software holding companies rather than funds, as set out in how to sell a LatAm software company.
Cross-border buyers also raise practical questions: currency, governance, tax structure and where the holding company sits. These are resolved in the process, with advisers on both sides, rather than on a buyer list.
For a seller whose buyers sit in more than one region, the list built across all three is wider than any domestic one.
The buyer most lists miss: the PE-backed platform
A PE-backed platform is a portfolio company that acquires smaller businesses to extend its product, geography or customer base, with its sponsor's capital behind it. It accounts for most private equity buyout activity: add-ons were 74.9% of US buyout transactions through Q3 2026.
The scale shows in firm disclosures. PSG reports more than 500 add-ons facilitated and Alpine more than 700 in five years.
For the seller, price follows the platform's thesis rather than the fund's, and integration, retention and equity rollover terms differ from a platform deal. L40°'s published transactions include Big Red Cloud's sale to a Melior Equity Partners-backed buyer. How a sponsor process runs is covered in selling software to private equity.
Software holding companies are a separate buyer type, not private equity. Firms such as Constellation Software, Valsoft and Banyan Software buy with permanent capital to hold, without a fund's exit clock. Elipse.ai's acquisition by an affiliate of Runtime Enterprises is one L40°-advised example.
What this means for founders
A buyer map built from this page is a starting point. Five practical steps turn it into a usable list.
- Start with stated criteria, then the vehicle: a large firm may reach a company of your size only through a specific fund, such as Thoma Bravo Explore or Vista Endeavor.
- Check whether the fund is deploying: recent closes, including Main Capital IX and Main Foundation III, Bregal Milestone III, PSG Europe III and Mainsail VII, signal fresh capital and active platform searches.
- Read the fund's timing as well as its size: in L40°'s view, where a fund sits in its investment period shapes how long it can hold, the structure it offers and when it will look to sell.
- Map platforms, not only funds: the add-on buyer with a clear strategic fit can pay for it, and is often the bidder a fund-only list misses. The buyer types are compared in financial vs strategic buyers.
- A list is not a process: competitive tension comes from running sponsors, platforms and strategic acquirers in parallel, on the same timeline. That is the core of a structured sell-side process.
When the buyer becomes the seller: PE portfolio exits
Every firm on this page is also a future seller. More than 27% of active private equity portfolio companies in North America's software industry, as of April 2026, were acquired at least five years earlier. Globally, 34% of portfolio companies had been held for more than five years, up from 28% in 2025.
Selling a portfolio company calls for the same discipline as a founder exit, with a different buyer mix: other sponsors, PE-backed platforms and strategic acquirers, often across borders. The equity story has to hold up against each buyer's own AI-risk screen, and management rollover and incentives are negotiated alongside price. Where a founder still runs the business, buyers will also test key person risk.
L40° advises PE and VC sponsors on sell-side processes for software, SaaS and AI portfolio companies, through the same sell-side advisory practice it runs for founders.
The right buyer is defined by size, vehicle and geography
The private equity buyer for a $5M–$100M ARR company is defined by its fund size, the vehicle it invests through, its thesis and where it deploys. Price is set in the process. Building a buyer map for your company, or preparing a portfolio-company exit? Talk to an L40° partner.
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