Spectrum Equity is an American growth equity firm that invests in businesses related to the

information economy Information economy is an economy with an increased emphasis on informational activities and information industry, where information is valued as a capital good. The term was coined by Marc Porat, a graduate student at Stanford University, wh ...

. The company operates out of offices in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, MA and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, CA. The company was an early investor in

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

and

Grubhub Grubhub Inc. is an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery platform. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2004, it is a subsidiary of the Dutch company Just Eat Takeaway since 2021. Grubhub has been crit ...

and has raised a total of $2.2 billion for growth investments in internet software and data services companies.

History

Founded in 1993 by Brion Applegate and William Collatos, Spectrum Equity raised its first fund in May 1994. It started out by primarily investing in communication companies. As of 2022, most investments have been in Internet-enabled software and information services companies. Spectrum Equity has raised nine private equity funds since its founding, totaling $8 billion of capital.

Past investments

, 2003 *

BATS Global Markets Bats Global Markets is a global stock exchange operator based in Lenexa, Kansas, with additional offices in London, New York, Chicago, and Singapore. Bats was founded in June 2005, became operator of a licensed U.S. stock exchange in 2008 and o ...

, 2013 * Definitive Healthcare * GoodRx *

* Lucid Software, 2018 * Lynda.com, 2013 *

SurveyMonkey Momentive Inc. (formerly SurveyMonkey Inc.) is an experience management company that offers cloud-based software in brand insights, market insights, product experience, employee experience, customer experience, online survey development, and a ...

, 2009 *

The Knot Worldwide The Knot Worldwide, formerly XO Group and The Knot Inc., is an American media and technology company that provides content, tools, products and services for couples who are planning weddings, creating a home, and starting a family. The company g ...

, 2018 *

Verafin Verafin Inc. is a fraud detection technology and anti-money laundering software subsidiary of Nasdaq, Inc. based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The company was established in 2003 by Brendan Brothers, Jamie King, and Raymond Pret ...

, 2014

References

External links

Official site
{{Venture capital firms Venture capital firms of the United States Private equity firms of the United States Companies based in Boston Companies based in Menlo Park, California Financial services companies established in 1994 1994 establishments in California