Software IR Hiring Trends

Sharing some more insights into the PE IR landscape.

Wanted to give a brief overview of some of the things we have been seeing across different investment firms regarding different criteria such as sector, size and stage.?

We have continued to see software focused firms or firms that have exposure to software gain transaction in the market.?

We targeted approximately 360 middle market investment firms that are either software focused or have some exposure to the software sector.?

We started with measuring team composition. One key point we found interesting, were how many teams still did not have any talent dedicated solely to IR, close to 70%! Obviously, in situations like these, we realize that senior level professionals, whether deal team focused, or c-suite financial and operational people, are mostly likely handling IR responsibilities.?The IR market has been active, and some firms are putting the resources to adding that first IR hire, so we expect these numbers to change. However some software investment firms are sharing their IR needs across the established team members, giving already busy professionals added responsibilities, which could be supported by some key IR hires.

Next, we focused on when these people were hired. An interested trend in the market, which was backed up by our research, was the upward movement of recent hires, and how that seems to still be moving in that direction. Since 2022, there have been ~145 software IR hires across middle market investment firms. That number makes up ~50% of the total IR hires in that space. Which means 50% of the total IR hires in the software middle market investment space have happened in the last 30 months! And there were more hires in each 2022 and 2023, then there were total pre-2018. The market has really grown and is continuing to move upwards.

Lastly, we focused on the level of these IR hires. Interesting to see where firms were targeting to add to their IR teams. While most of the firms that have only one dedicated IR hire, that person tends to be a bit more senior, which would make sense. However, the numbers show the junior level is still fairly relatively lacking. Only ~25% of IR hires are dedicated to the analyst, associate, and senior associate. Most firms if they have made multiple hires, have still focused more on senior level or more experienced talent.

This is simply a quick overview of the type of research we are conducting. We are dedicated to supporting our clients with the most clear picture of the market.?

If you are a firm that is actively looking or thinking about maybe down the line adding to the team, we would love the opportunity to share our knowledge about the current market.?

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