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.”