Who is Francisco Partners?
Francisco Partners is a technology-focused private equity firm founded in August 1999, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London and New York. Co-founder Dipanjan Deb remains CEO. Francisco Partners has raised more than $75 billion across its funds and has acquired or invested in more than 500 technology companies.
Francisco Partners closed $21 billion in July 2026 across Francisco Partners VIII, which exceeded a $14 billion target, and Agility IV, a middle-market fund that exceeded a $3.5 billion target. The prior flagship, Fund VII, closed at $13.5 billion in July 2022 alongside the $3.3 billion Agility III. Public profiles listed Francisco Partners at roughly $45 billion in assets under management as of 2024.
Francisco Partners is a fund investor, not a permanent holder. A control sale to Francisco Partners starts a clock toward a second transaction, a resale or a listing, within the fund’s life.
What does Francisco Partners buy?
Francisco Partners buys control of technology and technology-enabled businesses. Disclosed transactions run from the $444 million Sandvine take-private in 2017 to the $6.5 billion New Relic take-private in 2023 with TPG. The Agility funds pursue smaller middle-market deals, which is where a lower-middle-market founder is most likely to meet the firm.
| Criterion | Francisco Partners profile | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Deal types | Control buyouts and public take-privates, divisional carve-outs, add-ons through platforms | Fund releases; deal record below |
| Deal size | Disclosed control deals from $444 million to $6.5 billion; smaller Agility fund deals are undisclosed | Wikipedia deal list; July 2026 fund release |
| Sectors | Software, payments, healthcare IT, security, internet, and infrastructure technology | franciscopartners.com; deal record |
| Capital source | Fund VIII above $14 billion, Agility IV above $3.5 billion, plus FP Credit vehicles | July 2026 fund close release |
| Geography | North America and Europe primarily, with global reach | Office listing; deal record |
| Revenue and EBITDA bands | Not published; Francisco Partners discloses no revenue floor or EBITDA requirement | Not disclosed |
What has Francisco Partners actually acquired?
Francisco Partners has one of the deepest disclosed deal records in technology private equity. The table below lists major transactions with dates and disclosed values.
| Company | Year | Transaction | Disclosed terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandvine | 2017 | Take-private, network intelligence | $444 million |
| Verifone | 2018 | Take-private, payments technology | $3.4 billion |
| LogMeIn | 2020 | Take-private with Evergreen Coast Capital | $4.3 billion |
| IBM Watson Health assets | 2022 | Carve-out, relaunched as Merative | Reported about $1 billion |
| New Relic | 2023 | Take-private with TPG | $6.5 billion |
| Sumo Logic | 2023 | Take-private, observability | $1.7 billion |
| Jama Software | 2024 | Purchase from Insight Partners | $1.2 billion |
| AdvancedMD | 2024 | Purchase from Global Payments | Reported $1.13 billion |
| The Weather Company | 2024 | Carve-out from IBM | Reported $1.1 billion |
| Black Duck (Synopsys Software Integrity) | 2024 | Carve-out with Clearlake Capital | $2.1 billion |
| Jamf | 2026 | Take-private, Apple device management, closed January 2026 | $2.2 billion |
Corporate carve-outs are a Francisco Partners specialty. The firm bought IBM’s Watson Health assets in 2022 and stood the business up as Merative, then bought The Weather Company from IBM in 2024, and a decade earlier acquired Dell’s software group with Elliott Management. Carve-out capability matters less to a founder than the direct-purchase record, which includes founder-built companies like Jama Software and, in 2025, legal technology provider Elite on undisclosed terms.
What does Francisco Partners typically pay?
Francisco Partners discloses prices mainly on take-privates and carve-outs, where disclosure is required or negotiated publicly. Recent disclosed prices include $2.2 billion for the Jamf take-private and $1.2 billion for Jama Software; the table above lists nine more data points. Terms for private founder-owned companies, and for platform add-ons, are almost never disclosed.
Public disclosures rarely pair price with audited revenue or EBITDA, so clean purchase multiples for Francisco Partners deals mostly do not exist in the public record. A founder cannot benchmark a Francisco Partners bid from press releases alone, and Francisco Partners knows the pricing of hundreds of private transactions the founder cannot see.
How does Francisco Partners find companies?
Francisco Partners sources through sector-focused deal teams that track companies for years. CEO Dipanjan Deb described the model at the July 2026 fund close as long-term success created through relationships built on years of trust. The partner who calls a founder has usually followed the company well before the call.
Francisco Partners wins deals in banked auctions and in exclusive negotiated settings alike. The repeated IBM carve-outs show comfort winning bilateral negotiations without competing bidders present, which is exactly the setting a founder should think hardest about before entering.
Approaches also arrive through portfolio companies. NMI, a Francisco Partners payments platform, acquired IRIS CRM and then Agreement Express’s payments assets in 2022, with terms undisclosed in both cases. A founder courted by the corporate development team of a Francisco Partners platform is effectively negotiating with Francisco Partners capital.
What does a Francisco Partners approach look like?
A Francisco Partners approach to a private company typically comes from a sector partner, or from the Agility team for middle-market businesses, and opens with a relationship conversation rather than a number. Requests for financial detail precede any valuation discussion. An approach can also arrive as an add-on inquiry from a platform CEO, as with NMI’s payments acquisitions.
A founder holding an approach should establish in writing whether the interest is for control before sharing sensitive data. Windsor Drake’s offer-received hub covers sequencing, and the guide to whether a banker is worth it addresses representation directly. The difference between financial buyers like Francisco Partners and strategic acquirers is covered in strategic versus financial buyers.
Standard letter-of-intent conventions apply when Francisco Partners puts terms in writing. A buyer’s exclusivity ask runs 30 to 90 days, 30 to 45 days is the recommended grant, and roughly one in three signed LOIs fails to close on original terms.
What is life like after selling to Francisco Partners?
Inc. named Francisco Partners to its Founder-Friendly Investors list for the fifth consecutive year in 2025, a designation based partly on founder input gathered by Inc. Independent first-person accounts from founders who sold control to Francisco Partners are scarce in the public record, so the designation should be weighed accordingly.
The operating pattern is visible in outcomes. Jamf continued under its existing brand after the January 2026 close, and Merative was launched as a standalone company with its own management after the IBM carve-out. A fund-life hold means a second sale or listing follows, typically within several years.
Who else competes with Francisco Partners?
Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners compete for the same control software deals, and Clearlake Capital co-invested with Francisco Partners on Black Duck. Insight Partners sits on both sides of the market, having sold Jama Software to Francisco Partners in 2024 while competing for growth buyouts. In the lower middle market, Serent Capital and Valsoft pursue founder-led companies below the flagship fund’s range.
Windsor Drake maintains a universe of software and technology acquirers and opens a typical sell-side process with 150 to 300 potential acquirers. Francisco Partners bids differently when other capable buyers are demonstrably at the table.
What would a competitive process change?
Windsor Drake calls the gap between what a serial acquirer pays in an unbanked bilateral negotiation and what the same business clears in a competitive process The Proprietary Discount, and Windsor Drake puts the bilateral-versus-competitive gap at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value. Francisco Partners has completed more than 500 technology investments; a founder typically sells once.
A structured process does not exclude Francisco Partners. A structured process makes Francisco Partners bid against other qualified buyers rather than against silence, and Windsor Drake runs a process alongside a live offer in four to six months.
Windsor Drake’s Approach Response engagement exists for founders holding a live approach from Francisco Partners or one of its platform companies.
Questions founders ask
Does Francisco Partners buy 100 percent of companies?
Yes. Control acquisitions are the core Francisco Partners model, including the $2.2 billion Jamf take-private completed in January 2026 and the $1.2 billion Jama Software purchase in 2024. The Agility funds make smaller control investments in middle-market technology companies.
How big does a company need to be for Francisco Partners?
Francisco Partners publishes no revenue floor. Disclosed control deals range from $444 million (Sandvine, 2017) to $6.5 billion (New Relic, 2023, with TPG), and the Agility IV fund, which exceeded a $3.5 billion target, pursues middle-market deals below the flagship range.
What is Francisco Partners’ Agility fund?
Agility is Francisco Partners’ middle-market fund family. Agility IV exceeded a $3.5 billion target at its July 2026 close and pursues smaller technology deals than the flagship Fund VIII, which exceeded a $14 billion target.
Is Francisco Partners only a carve-out buyer?
No. Francisco Partners is known for carve-outs like IBM Watson Health, but the record includes direct purchases of founder-built and sponsor-backed companies such as Jama Software, plus public take-privates such as Jamf and Sumo Logic.
Why is a Francisco Partners portfolio company contacting me?
Francisco Partners platforms make add-on acquisitions, as NMI did with IRIS CRM and with Agreement Express’s payments assets. An add-on approach is a Francisco Partners-funded negotiation even when the platform’s own team makes the contact.
What does Francisco Partners pay for private companies?
Terms for private founder-owned deals are almost never disclosed. Public data points come from take-privates and carve-outs, and the disclosures rarely pair price with audited financials, so no reliable public multiple exists for Francisco Partners deals.
Should a founder hire an advisor before responding to Francisco Partners?
Windsor Drake measures the bilateral-versus-competitive gap, The Proprietary Discount, at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value. A founder facing a firm with more than 500 completed technology investments gives up that gap by negotiating alone.
Last reviewed July 28, 2026 by Jeff Barrington, Founder and Managing Director, Windsor Drake. Content on this page may be cited with attribution and a link to https://windsordrake.com/acquirers/francisco-partners/