TPG’s Top Investors Foster Continued Growth And Innovation In Global SaaS Market

In an eventful year for software investing, select firms have set themselves apart through their ability to identify strategic investment opportunities in the ever-evolving software space. TPG Capital is an American investment company that manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The company currently has approximately $83 billion in assets under management and has 14 offices around the world. TPG has produced the leading investors in the modern era. Notably, partners Nehal Raj, Tim Millikin, and Mike Zappert were named to GrowthCap’s Top 25 Software Investors of 2020 list. These individuals have demonstrated keen investment judgement and have provided their portfolio companies with valuable expertise and capital for continued success.

Nehal Raj is a Partner at TPG based in San Francisco. He co-leads the firm’s investment activities in software and enterprise technology across its private equity platforms (TPG Capital, TPG Tech Adjacencies, TPG Growth, and The Rise Fund). Prior to joining TPG in 2006, Nehal was an investor at Francisco Partners. Previously, he worked in the Mergers, Acquisitions, and Restructurings Department of Morgan Stanley. He received an AB in Economics and MS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar). Nehal currently serves on the board of the following TPG investments: C3.ai, Digital.ai, Kaseya, Noodle.ai, WellSky, and Wind River Systems. He is also closely involved with the firm’s investments in Checkmarx and Sonatype. Nehal was previously a director of a number of TPG investments prior to their successful exits, including: CCC Information Services (acquired by Advent International), IQVIA (NYSE: IQV), Intergraph (acquired by Hexagon AB), and Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS). Nehal serves on the Board of Trustees of San Francisco Day School and the Advisory Board of Breakthrough San Francisco.

“We are a team of thematic investors who focus on identifying long-term industry trends, backing market leaders that are set to benefit from those tailwinds, and partnering with them to help build their businesses for better. As COVID-19 continues to reshape the ways we work and live, the shift towards many of our core themes is rapidly accelerating – from increased reliance on the cloud, to faster digital transformation, more robust workflow automation, and the ever-growing importance of cybersecurity. Our broad mandate and deep experience in the sector have positioned us well for this moment, and we look forward to continuing to provide solutions capital to innovators and business leaders across the industry,” said Nehal.

Tim Millikin is a Partner at TPG based in San Francisco, where he co-leads TPG’s investment activities in software and enterprise technology. He currently serves as a director or observer of Ellucian, Expanse, Infinidat, McAfee, and Renaissance Learning, and has led or been involved with many of the firm’s current and prior technology investments including Box, Domo, Guardicore, SunGard, Tanium, and Zscaler. Prior to joining TPG in 2007, Tim worked in the Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley in Menlo Park, CA, where he guided and executed M&A transactions across enterprise software, Internet, semiconductors, technology hardware, and technology services sectors. Tim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a BA Economics from Dartmouth College. Tim has previously served as Chairman of the Board at Minds Matter San Francisco.

“Our strategy is to back companies in sectors where our team has differentiated expertise and insights. We partner with visionary leaders in those spaces to build businesses that are creating new solutions and driving unique value in their markets. These unprecedented times underscore the importance of partnership, conviction, leadership, and innovation in our investments -- attributes that are particularly acute in a sector like technology, where trends, behaviors, and demands are all contributing to massive shifts in business and everyday life. That creates natural challenges as well as immense opportunity for our team to build on existing partnerships and make new investments into dynamic companies across the technology landscape,” Tim said.

Mike Zappert is a Partner at TPG Growth, where he leads all aspects of TPG's software and enterprise technology growth investing and strategy across the TPG Growth and The Rise Fund platforms. Some of the platforms’ investments in the sector have included: Box (BOX), C3.ai, DreamBox Learning, EverFi, Expanse, GreenSky, Kaseya, Noodle.ai, Onfido, Renaissance Learning, Tanium, and Zscaler (ZS). Previously, Mike served as a Partner at Adams Street, a $2 billion growth equity fund, where he was actively involved with companies including: Couchbase, Lever, Sauce Labs, Skybox Security, Snow Software, TurnKey, Visier, Chrome River (acquired by Certify), ThreatMetrix (acquired by RELX), TeleSign (acquired by BICS), ServiceMax (acquired by GE), Five9 (FIVN), Criteo (CRTO), and RetailMeNot (SALE). Prior to that he was at 3i and Credit Suisse, serving in a variety of roles. Mike received a BA in Economics with Honors and MS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was a Stanford in Government Fellow.

“It’s been an unprecedented year for us in the B2B tech market across the backdrop of COVID-19 and accelerating trends in digital transformation across a wide range of areas in which we invest. Interestingly, the pandemic has also shed light on the role of enabling technologies to allow companies to operate on a 100 percent virtual basis and still meet the needs of their end-customers. At TPG Growth, we continue to focus on partnering with high-growth businesses, with strong fundamentals, that are serving as critical infrastructure to their industries,” said Mike.

In leading TPG’s investment activities in software and enterprise technology, Nehal, Tim, and Mike have helped to further establish TPG as a global leader in private equity. They select visionary companies such as industry leaders ServiceMax, SunGard, and Zscaler and improve their position and potential through capital and strategic guidance. Notably, the trio have some wind at their backs - the global SaaS market is projected to nearly double to $307 billion by 2026.