Francisco Partners

Investment decisions are made by a partnership committee led by CEO Dipanjan Deb, with co-founders David Golob, Ezra Perlman, and Mario Razzini actively involved. The firm operates without a single centralized investment committee — each sector vertical has authority within its mandate, while large cross-strategy deals require senior partner consensus.

Francisco Partners primarily invests directly through control buyouts, growth equity, and credit, rather than allocating capital to external funds. It does not operate a fund-of-funds program. The firm's credit arm provides direct lending to technology companies, and its growth equity team makes minority and majority investments in mid-to-late-stage private companies.

The firm targets the full spectrum from growth-stage minority investments (typically $50 million to $300 million checks) to multibillion-dollar control buyouts and public-to-private transactions. Its flagship buyout funds seek controlling stakes in established technology companies, while the growth equity strategy focuses on high-growth private companies that may not yet be profitable. The credit arm targets senior and subordinated debt for technology firms.

Francisco Partners generally avoids consumer internet, hardware, and pure life sciences — areas that fall outside its enterprise-facing technology mandate. The firm does not invest in oil and gas, industrial manufacturing, or retail. Within healthcare, it focuses exclusively on healthcare IT and services rather than biotech or pharmaceutical development.

A significant portion of the firm's origination comes from corporate carve-outs — acquiring non-core technology divisions from public companies that want to simplify their structures. Long-standing relationships with Fortune 500 technology leaders and investment banks generate these opportunities. The firm's operating group also identifies take-private targets where operational intervention can improve margins.

The firm has selectively co-invested with other large institutional investors, as seen in the Qlik take-private alongside Elliott Management. Francisco Partners will syndicate large transactions to limited partners through co-investment vehicles, though it typically seeks to control its core positions. The firm does not operate a formal co-investment club.

Francisco Partners was founded by four former TPG professionals — Dipanjan Deb, David Golob, Ezra Perlman, and Mario Razzini — who left TPG's technology investment group in 1999 to build an independent platform. There is no ongoing financial or operational relationship between the two firms, though the founding team's deal experience at TPG informed Francisco Partners' early strategy of complex technology carve-outs.