Audax Private Equity (“Audax”), a capital partner for middle and lower middle market companies, took home several honors in the second half of the year, most notably being named to Inc.’s Founder Friendly Investors list, being honored alongside GrowthCap’s Top Private Equity Firms of 2025, and being ranked among the Top 5 in both new deals and exits in PitchBook’s Third-Quarter League Tables.

“We aspire to build better businesses every single day,” said Young Lee, Partner and Co-President of Audax Private Equity. “The collaboration with management teams and founders is, itself, rewarding, and we truly enjoy the challenge of teaming up with our business partners to build strategic assets. These distinctions, we believe, reflect the dedication of our team and the sense of partnership that permeates how we work with our portfolio companies, and we’re honored when the industry recognizes our differentiated approach.”

In the second half of the year, GrowthCap published its Top Private Equity Firms of 2025 and named Audax Private Equity among the honorees. GrowthCap selects its lists through an evaluation of the firm’s track record, leadership, culture and strategic and operational capabilities, in addition to other factors.

In the last week of October, Audax was also named among the honorees in Inc.’s 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors list that highlights private equity, VC firms, and lenders with a track record of supporting founder-led companies. To compile the list, Inc. surveyed founders who shared their experiences working with private equity firms. Honorees were selected based on track record, reputation, leadership and founder references.

Finally, in November, PitchBook published its third quarter private equity league tables, and Audax Private Equity was ranked as the No. 5 most active globally for new deals and the No. 4 most active globally for exits, reflecting both the firm’s consistent deployment and distribution activity during the period.

“We’re humbled by the recognition and, at the same time, incredibly proud of these honors,” added Keith Palumbo, Partner and Co-President of Audax Private Equity. “Since our inception in 1999, we’ve backed more than 75 founder-led platforms, and through our buy-and-build approach, our portfolio companies have acquired over 1,000 add-ons of founder-backed companies. We’ve invested in our private equity platform to not only create a dynamic sourcing engine, but also develop differentiated capabilities to work closely with founders, business partners and management teams to try to drive accelerated growth and build lasting value.”

DISCLAIMERS AND METHODOLOGIES:

The aforementioned recognition should not be considered an endorsement of Audax or its funds by the authors or distributors of the rankings or honors; these honors are not necessarily representative of any one client’s experience with Audax; and is not necessarily indicative of Audax’ future performance. These award programs are not intended to be a recommendation or investment advice, and do not take into account the specific objectives or circumstances of any particular investor or suggest any specific course of action. For additional information about the methodologies and links for the aforementioned award programs, please see below:

GrowthCap: The recognition was awarded on August 19, 2025 and based on the time period between September 2024 and August 2025. GrowthCap’s awards incorporate a range of inputs, including nomination materials, direct firm communications, online submissions, peer and CEO feedback, and proprietary research. No compensation was paid in connection with being considered for this award. However, a licensing fee was paid following selection. To learn more about GrowthCap’s methodology, please see here: https://growthcapadvisory.com/the-top-private-equity-firms-of-2025/

Inc. Founder Friendly Awards: Published on October 28, 2025, the listing is based on a submission in which Inc. asks participants to list the number of portfolio companies the firm has invested in since January 1, 2020 and exits involving founder-led companies over the same timeframe, as well as testimonials from founders who shared their experiences. There was a nominal fee to submit for this award. To learn more about Inc.’s methodology, please see here: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors-methodology-how-we-selected-these-firms.html

PitchBook: Published on November 12, 2025, and tracking activity over the calendar year third quarter, the league tables included in PitchBook’s rankings are compiled using the count of completed deals for the specified deal type, region and other criteria. Only publicly disclosed transactions and/or transactions confirmed by PitchBook’s primary research team are included. For private equity, the rankings include all PE investment types (buyouts as tracked by PitchBook, growth and investor buyouts by management), excluding real estate investments. To learn more, please see here: https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/global-league-tables-q3-2025

AUDAX PRIVATE EQUITY:

Headquartered in Boston, with offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Hong Kong, Audax Private Equity is a leading private equity platform focused on investing across the North American middle market. Our objective is to accelerate value creation through our Buy & Build strategy and the Audax Value Agenda™, a holistic framework that seeks to create, enable, and protect value across every stage of the investment lifecycle. As of March 2025, Audax Private Equity had $19 billion of assets under management and, since inception in 1999, has invested in more than 175 platforms and more than 1,400 add-on acquisitions. For more information visit www.audaxprivateequity.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251230712050/en/

We’ve invested in our private equity platform to not only create a dynamic sourcing engine, but also develop differentiated capabilities to work closely with founders, business partners and management teams to try to drive accelerated growth.