Sundance Growth Raises $125 Million for Debut Fund

– Sundance Growth closed its debut fund at $125 million, hitting its hard cap.

– “We lucked out in having a strategy and a background that appeals to a lot of investors” said founder Christian Stewart.

– The fund reached final close in under six months, during one of the most challenging fundraising markets for private equity in recent memory.

– Christian Stewart launched the firm after eight years on the growth-investment team at Accel-KKR

Accolade Partners, an early investor in Accel-KKR, backed the fund early.

– “They’re hustling harder and they’ve got a chip on their shoulder to make sure every deal is perfect,” said Atul Rustgi, managing partner at Accolade.

– Eight additional institutional investors committed capital, including endowments, foundations, and an outsourced CIO firm.

Pacenote Capital acted as placement agent.

– “Christian’s discipline around fund size and desire for a concentrated portfolio is a breath of fresh air,” said Sam Cannon, managing partner at Pacenote.

– New hires include Sean Cooley (formerly at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors) as vice president, and Trey Jackson, a recent BYU graduate, as analyst.

– Sundance focuses on B2B software companies with $3 million to $10 million in annual recurring revenue.

– Typically starts with minority investments, but may grow them to majority positions.

– The firm aims to help portfolio companies grow into attractive acquisition targets for strategics or PE buyers.

– About six investments are planned; two are already far along.

You may also like these