Who is Silversmith Capital Partners?
Silversmith Capital Partners is a growth equity firm founded in Boston in 2015. The managing partners named in the firm’s fund announcements are Jim Quagliaroli, Jeff Crisan, and Todd MacLean, joined today by Lori Whelan and Sri Rao.
Silversmith invests from closed-end funds and has raised five in ten years. Fund IV closed at its $1.25 billion hard cap in July 2022 in a single first and final close about ninety days after launch, with $90 million committed by the Silversmith team. Fund V closed at $1.7 billion on July 31, 2025, also in one close, with $110 million from the firm. Total commitments across all funds exceed $5 billion.
| Fund | Year closed | Size | Public source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fund I | 2015 | $460 million | Silversmith Fund IV announcement |
| Fund II | 2018 | $670 million | Silversmith Fund IV announcement |
| Fund III | 2020 | $880 million | Silversmith Fund IV announcement |
| Fund IV | 2022 | $1.25 billion (hard cap) | Silversmith Fund IV announcement |
| Fund V | 2025 | $1.7 billion (hard cap) | Silversmith Fund V announcement |
At the Fund IV close, Silversmith reported 41 portfolio investments since inception and 16 full or partial exits generating $1.7 billion in proceeds.
What does Silversmith invest in?
Silversmith invests $20 million to $125 million in SaaS and healthcare IT companies with more than $10 million of annual revenue, growth above 20 percent, and breakeven or better profitability.
| Criterion | Stated criteria | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Greater than $10 million annually | Silversmith approach page |
| Growth rate | Greater than 20 percent annually | Silversmith approach page |
| Profitability | Breakeven or profitable, grown with constrained resources | Silversmith approach page |
| Check size | $20 million to $125 million | Silversmith approach page |
| Structure | Minority and majority | Silversmith Fund IV announcement |
| Sectors | SaaS and Information Services; Healthcare IT and Services | Silversmith approach page |
| Capital history | Founder-led companies without prior institutional capital; over 70 percent of dollars deployed as first institutional investor | Silversmith Fund IV and Fund V announcements |
The bootstrapped focus is explicit. Silversmith states that over 70 percent of its capital has gone to companies where Silversmith was the first institutional money in. Silversmith built its model around founders who never raised outside capital, which is exactly the founder most likely to be reading this page after an unexpected email.
What has Silversmith actually invested in?
Silversmith discloses check sizes more often than most growth firms, while valuations stay private in every deal Windsor Drake reviewed.
| Company | Date | What it does | Check | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDFTron (now Apryse) | May 2019 | Document processing SDKs for software developers | $71 million | Not disclosed |
| Appfire | June 2020 | Apps for the Atlassian ecosystem; first institutional funding | $49 million | Not disclosed |
| Gearset | June 2022 | DevOps platform for Salesforce teams | $55 million | Not disclosed |
| Impel | January 2023 | Customer engagement software for vehicle retailers | $104 million | Not disclosed |
| ActiveCampaign | Release undated | Marketing automation software | $20 million | Not disclosed |
| DistroKid | Initial terms not stated | Music distribution for independent artists | Not disclosed | Later valued at $1.3 billion in an Insight Partners investment, per Silversmith’s announcement |
What does Silversmith typically pay?
Silversmith’s entry valuations are undisclosed. The check is public in many deals, and the ownership stake purchased is not, which means the implied valuation is not either.
Windsor Drake’s published valuation research puts private equity platform acquisitions of SaaS at 4 to 6 times revenue and finds strategic acquirers pay 15 to 30 percent premiums over financial buyers. A capital-efficient SaaS business growing over 20 percent sits at the attractive end of any financial buyer’s range, which is precisely why Silversmith screens for it.
Unknown publicly: ownership percentages, liquidation preferences, secondary components for founders, and board control terms. In a growth equity deal those terms decide how much of the headline number the founder actually keeps, and none of them are visible in Silversmith’s public record.
How does Silversmith find companies?
A firm that deploys over 70 percent of its dollars as first institutional capital cannot rely on banked processes, because bootstrapped companies rarely run them. Outbound sourcing to unbanked founders is structural to the Silversmith model, not incidental.
Silversmith’s own language confirms the posture. In the Fund V announcement, managing partner Jim Quagliaroli praised a colleague who builds trust and meets founders where they are. Translated for a founder: expect years of warm, well-researched contact from Silversmith before any term sheet, and understand that the warmth is also a pipeline.
What does a Silversmith approach look like?
A Silversmith approach typically arrives as a personalized email or call that references the company’s metrics and category with unusual accuracy, followed by offers to introduce portfolio founders as references. The firm’s stated criteria mean the target already fits a defined box before the first conversation.
Standard deal mechanics still apply at term sheet stage. The exclusivity ask runs 30 to 90 days, Windsor Drake recommends conceding no more than 30 to 45 days, and roughly 1 in 3 signed LOIs fails to close on original terms. Windsor Drake’s guides on handling an acquisition approach and whether you need a banker cover what to do before sharing numbers.
What is life like after taking Silversmith money?
Silversmith claims an 89 percent founder retention rate against a cited industry average of 42 percent. Those figures come from the firm’s own website, and Windsor Drake has not verified them independently.
The Appfire record after Silversmith’s 2020 investment shows the acquisitive path available to portfolio companies: Appfire completed a long series of Atlassian-ecosystem acquisitions and announced passing $100 million of ARR. DistroKid took a later round from Insight Partners at a $1.3 billion valuation while Silversmith remained an investor.
Growth firms plan for follow-on rounds and markups, and the founder’s dilution path through those later rounds is set by the first deal’s terms. Public first-person founder accounts of the Silversmith experience exist mainly in firm-produced content, and Windsor Drake has not verified independent testimony for this page.
Who else competes with Silversmith for bootstrapped software companies?
Frontier Growth pursues vertical B2B SaaS at a slightly earlier revenue stage. Serent Capital targets capital-efficient B2B software and services companies with a similar outbound model. For founders who want a full exit rather than a partner, Riverside Micro-Cap buys control of companies below $10 million of EBITDA, and consolidators such as Valsoft acquire software companies outright and hold them permanently.
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’s client work puts that gap at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value. Silversmith’s entire sourcing model is built to reach founders before competition exists.
A structured process that opens with a buyer universe of 150 to 300 potential acquirers puts Silversmith’s term sheet next to rival growth firms and control buyers at the same table. Silversmith competes well in that setting on speed and sector depth. The founder’s gain is that the price and the preference terms get set by the market instead of by a single bilateral conversation.
Founders holding a live Silversmith approach can use Windsor Drake’s Approach Response engagement to run that market check in 4 to 6 months without cooling the relationship.
Questions founders ask
What does Silversmith Capital Partners invest in?
Silversmith invests in SaaS and healthcare IT companies with more than $10 million of revenue, growth above 20 percent, and breakeven or better profitability, with a stated preference for founder-led companies that never raised institutional capital.
How big are Silversmith’s checks?
Silversmith’s published range is $20 million to $125 million per investment, in both minority and majority structures. Disclosed examples include $49 million into Appfire, $71 million into PDFTron, and $104 million into Impel.
How much money does Silversmith manage?
Silversmith has raised five funds since 2015: $460 million, $670 million, $880 million, $1.25 billion, and $1.7 billion, for more than $5 billion in total commitments as of the July 2025 Fund V close.
Does Silversmith disclose valuations?
No. Silversmith frequently discloses check sizes but has not disclosed an entry valuation in any deal Windsor Drake reviewed, so founders have no public benchmark for what Silversmith pays.
Is Silversmith a good fit for a bootstrapped founder?
Silversmith states that over 70 percent of its capital has been deployed as the first institutional investor in bootstrapped companies, and the firm claims an 89 percent founder retention rate. The fit question is separate from the price question, and only competition answers the price question.
Does Silversmith buy majority control?
Yes. Silversmith’s Fund IV announcement describes both minority and majority investments within its $20 million to $125 million check range.
What should I do if Silversmith approaches me?
Take the meeting, share nothing sensitive, and establish a market view of value first. Windsor Drake’s client work puts the gap between an unbanked bilateral price and a competitive-process price, The Proprietary Discount, at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value.
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/silversmith-capital/