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Emergent Software
Active · July 2026
Equity capital for high-growth, founder-owned B2B technology & services companies
Who We Are
Built to Back Founders
Winterbird is a private equity firm focused on founder-owned, high-growth, profitable B2B technology & services businesses. Founded in Boston, our name reflects the resilience and endurance that define both the businesses we back and our approach to partnership. We seek to partner with founders and management teams whose businesses are at an inflection point, providing capital and strategic guidance to scale from a strong foundation into category leaders.
What We Look For
Investment Criteria
We invest in differentiated companies benefitting from long-term secular growth trends. Ideal partnerships are with high-growth businesses providing specialized B2B solutions.
Target Parameters
Ownership
Founder or Management Team
Initial Equity
$20 – $60M+
Revenue
$8 – $80M+
EBITDA
$0 – $10M+, Cash Flow Positive
Growth Rate
25%+
Ownership Position
40 – 75%, Control or Large Minority
Ideal Characteristics
Mission-critical, specialized offering
Differentiated technology or process for efficient delivery
Recurring or re-occurring revenue patterns
Asset-light with margin expansion opportunity
Committed management team with desire to keep building
Long-term competitive advantage
Target Sectors
Click to learn about our thesis in each sector.
Specialized B2B services firms with deep domain expertise are becoming mission-critical partners. We look for high client retention, recurring engagement models, and the ability to expand across service lines.
Engineering services firms that help enterprises modernize legacy systems, build cloud-native applications, and integrate AI are riding a multi-decade secular wave.
Companies at the intersection of technology and services combine software margins with services stickiness, creating durable competitive advantages.
Businesses that aggregate and deliver proprietary data create enormous switching costs. As AI amplifies data's value, these companies become foundational to customer decision-making.
Mid-market enterprises can't build internal IT teams fast enough. Managed services providers with recurring revenue and deep integrations are positioned for sustained growth.
Trillions in infrastructure spending create massive demand for specialized, asset-light services firms with technical expertise and regulatory knowledge.
Industry-specific software that deeply understands a vertical's workflows and compliance creates powerful lock-in, high margins, and enormous expansion potential.
Every C-suite function is being transformed by purpose-built software and services that become the operating system for a specific executive function.
For Founders and Management Teams
You Built Something Special
We first start with what you've already accomplished. We're here to help you go further without losing what made it work. We and our executive network bring extensive board level and operational experience to drive growth and execution efficiency via executive recruitment, sales and marketing strategy, service and product line expansion, vertical and geographic expansion, process automation, operational excellence, and strategic M&A.
What We Do
Preserve what made you successful
Back teams who want to keep building
Help founders de-risk while investing in growth
Work hand-in-hand on strategy & prioritization
Invest in long-term value creation
What We Don't Do
Change the culture that built the business
Replace management with outside executives
Rely on debt and financial engineering
Impose rigid playbooks that ignore context
Optimize for short-term exits
The Partnership Journey
From Inflection Point to Category Leader
1
Inflection Point
Your business has proven product-market fit, loyal customers, and tangible growth opportunities. You may even have strategic acquirers knocking at your door. You're ready for the next chapter.
2
Decision Point
We bring clarity at the decision point. Rather than fully exit today, teams partner with us to create significant liquidity while building toward a meaningfully larger outcome.
3
Partnership
We provide aligned equity capital, bring operational resources, and work alongside you to navigate the road ahead.
4
Acceleration
Together we sharpen go-to-market, recruit leadership, expand products, and pursue strategic M&A.
5
Category Leader
Your business scales into a larger, more durable, and diversified enterprise without losing its founding DNA.
// investment_thesis
Technology Is the Throughline
Every business we invest in is either building technology or being transformed by it. We don't view technology as a sector but as the foundation for durable value creation across all industries.
01
Secular Tailwinds
We invest behind multi-decade trends that drive sustained demand for specialized B2B services: digital transformation, data infrastructure, AI adoption, cloud migration, security and governance, regulatory complexity, etc.
02
Mission-Critical Solutions
We invest in tools and platforms supporting high-stakes environments that businesses can't run without. These are the systems of record, workflow engines, and infrastructure layers that become deeply embedded in a customer's operations.
03
Technology-Driven Delivery
We seek companies leveraging proprietary technology, automation, or AI to deliver services more efficiently than competitors. Technology creates the moat; services create the stickiness.
04
Data & Experience as Competitive Advantages
The businesses we back generate (or aggregate) proprietary data and experience that compound in value over time, creating switching costs and powering better outcomes for their customers.
const focus = ["B2B Services", "Tech-Enabled Solutions", "Vertical SaaS", "Data & Infrastructure"];
Portfolio
Our Investments
We partner with founders and management teams building durable, high-growth B2B technology and services businesses.
News
Latest Announcements
Firm news, new partnerships, and updates from across the portfolio.
Self-Assessment
Does Your Business Fit?
Answer six quick questions to see if your business aligns with what we typically look for in a partnership.
1/6Annual Revenue
2/6Annual Growth Rate
3/6Revenue Model
4/6EBITDA / Profitability
5/6Business Type
6/6Current Ownership
0/6
Our Team
Experienced Investors & Operators
Our team brings decades of combined experience across private equity, venture capital, investment banking, and corporate development.
View Profile
Eric Ahlgren
Founder & Managing Partner
Career: BV Investment Partners, Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Great Hill Partners, Bear Stearns
MIT Sloan MBA · Colgate University BA
Eric is the Founder & Managing Partner of Winterbird Partners, and has been investing in high-growth, founder-led businesses since 2007. Prior to founding Winterbird, Eric was a Managing Director and Investment Committee Member at BV Investment Partners, and held previous investing roles at Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Great Hill Partners, after starting his career at Bear Stearns in 2005.
Eric holds a BA from Colgate University and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
View Profile
Christian Cosmer
Vice President
Career: H.I.G. Capital, Audax Private Equity, Houlihan Lokey
Boston College BS
Christian is a Vice President at Winterbird Partners and has been investing in high-growth, founder-led businesses since 2018. Prior to joining Winterbird, Christian held investing roles at H.I.G. Capital and Audax Private Equity after starting his career at Houlihan Lokey in 2016.
Christian holds a BS from Boston College.
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Dan Prawdzik
Vice President
Career: Blue Mantis (M&A Lead), Abry Partners, J.P. Morgan
Northeastern University BSBA
Dan is a Vice President at Winterbird Partners, and has been investing in high-growth, founder-led businesses since 2020. He has experience across private equity, corporate development, and investment banking. Prior to joining Winterbird, he led M&A and corporate development at Blue Mantis, a security-first IT services provider. Previously, Dan was an investor at Abry Partners, focusing on founder-led technology and tech-enabled services investments. He began his career in the Financial Institutions Group at J.P. Morgan.
Dan holds a BSBA from Northeastern University.
View Profile
Trevor Hopkins
Senior Associate
Career: Caspian, Francisco Partners, Barclays
Dartmouth College BE · Middlebury College BA
Trevor is a Senior Associate at Winterbird Partners. He has experience across private equity, investment banking, business operations and finance. Prior to joining Winterbird, Trevor held positions at Francisco Partners as well as Caspian, an AI-native customs brokerage and trade advisory startup. He began his career in the Technology Group at Barclays.
Trevor holds a BA in Economics from Middlebury College and a BE in Computer Engineering from Dartmouth College.
Common Questions
What Founders Ask Us
Thinking about a partnership? Here are the questions we hear most often.
Absolutely. We specifically seek partnerships where founders and existing teams want to continue building. Our model is designed around backing committed people, not replacing them. Founders typically retain meaningful equity and continue leading the business.
Our initial conversations are relationship-first; we're here to learn more about your goals and assess if Winterbird is a good fit. We are a nimble team who can move quickly. After investment, we're long-term partners focused on ~5+ year value creation, not a quick exit.
If you think the business has reached its peak, a strategic sale today may be the right move. If there's another level to unlock, we partner to build toward it. You can take meaningful liquidity off the table today while still participating in the upside of a larger outcome down the road with a partner who will help you get there more quickly.
A lot of private equity firms rely on a fallback of financial engineering or M&A for the sake of scale and multiple arbitrage. We lead with growth. Our playbook centers on go-to-market acceleration, services and product expansion, talent recruitment, and M&A when it is truly strategic. We preserve culture, invest in people, and align incentives for long-term outcomes.
We roll up our sleeves. Our team and network of advisors and executives work alongside you on the areas that matter most. We bring years of experience scaling and managing companies, not theoretical advice or broad recommendations.
Yes. As a group, we've partnered with dozens of founders and management teams. We're happy to connect prospective partners with founders and management teams we've backed. We encourage diligence on us just as we conduct diligence on your business.
Contact
Send a Message
Whether you're a founder, intermediary, or an executive, we would love to hear from you.