Summit Partners, a global alternative investment firm, today announced the first and final closings of two funds with combined capital commitments of USD2.2 billion. Summit Partners Europe Growth Equity Fund III closed at its hard cap with EUR1.1 billion in total commitments and will target equity investments between EUR20 and EUR70 million in Europe-based companies. Summit Partners Venture Capital Fund V also closed at its hard cap with USD1.0 billion in commitments and will target equity investments of USD10 to USD60 million in growth stage companies based primarily in North America. Both funds were significantly oversubscribed.
“For more than 35 years, Summit Partners has served as the partner of choice for category-leading growth companies. With our latest Europe and Venture Capital funds, we will continue to leverage our deep sector knowledge, our extensive global network, and our platform of value enhancement resources to support the needs of our portfolio companies and their leadership teams,” says Peter Chung, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the firm. “In the midst of tremendous disruption around the world in recent months, we are deeply grateful for the ongoing trust of our limited partners and their steadfast support of the Summit Partners growth equity strategy.”
With more than 100 investment professionals across offices in Boston, Menlo Park and London, Summit Partners makes both minority and majority investments primarily in profitable, growing companies across select industry sectors, including technology, healthcare, financial technology and services, consumer products and business services. Summit Partners offers capital, experience and dedicated resources to help the firm’s portfolio companies accelerate growth and build businesses of enduring value. Since the firm’s inception in 1984, Summit Partners has raised more than USD31 billion.
In addition, Summit Partners today announced that Melanie Whelan has joined the firm as a Managing Director focused on investment opportunities in high-growth consumer and technology-enabled services. Prior to Summit Partners, Whelan served as CEO of SoulCycle. Under her leadership, the company grew from eight New York City-based studios to nearly 100 studios in 18 markets across three countries and launched a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform and an audience-expanding media engine. Most recently, Whelan served as a member of Summit Partners’ Executive-in-Residence program. She holds a BA in engineering and economics from Brown University and is a member of the Aspen Institute’s 2018 class of Henry Crown Fellows.
“During her time as an Executive-in-Residence, Melanie has demonstrated a unique combination of distinguished brand- and company-building experience, deep subject matter knowledge and strong leadership capability. As a senior member of the investment team, she will further enhance our ability to support what we view to be category-leading companies and entrepreneurs across the consumer, business services and technology-enabled services landscape,” says Chung.
