NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 23, 2026--
Lead Edge Capital, a leading growth equity firm investing in software, internet, and technology-enabled businesses, today announced the closing of Fund VII with $3.5 billion in commitments. The fund was oversubscribed and is the firm’s largest fund to date, bringing Lead Edge's total capital raised since inception to $9 billion.
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Lead Edge will target making private equity investments between $50 million to $400 million per portfolio company, targeting software, internet, and technology-enabled businesses. The firm seeks to make both minority and majority investments across sectors in growth-stage companies with strong revenue growth, high gross margins, and recurring revenue that meets the firm's ‘Lead Edge 8’ investment criteria.
“The interest in Fund VII reflects the LP network and track record we have built over 15 years, and our continued commitment to being a helpful partner to every company that we invest in,” said Mitchell Green, Founder and Managing Partner of Lead Edge Capital. “What has always set us apart is our LP network and what makes it truly differentiated is that these are not passive investors, they are active advisors who have run some of the world's most successful businesses. Everyone says they have a network. Fund VII is what happens when you spend 15 years building one that actually works.”
Investors in companies such as Asana, Toast, Duo Security, ClickHouse, Grafana, LiveView Technologies (LVT), Spotify, EquipmentShare, SafeSend, and Wise, Lead Edge partners with growth-stage software, internet, consumer, and tech-enabled service businesses with exceptional management teams and where they can leverage their LP network to add meaningful value. Lead Edge has spent 15 years methodically building its expansive LP network, growing from 80 LPs in Fund I to more than 700 today.
This network of founders, CEOs, and C-suite executives spans sector, geography, and functional expertise and is constantly leveraged to connect portfolio companies with the customers, talent, and advisors needed to seek accelerated growth. The network is utilized at every stage of the investment lifecycle from sourcing and diligence to customer introductions, board development, and recruiting. Since inception, Lead Edge has facilitated nearly 17,000 introductions between its LP network and portfolio companies. LPs include individuals from organizations, including Charles Schwab, Capital One, Dell, Disney, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Intuit, Autodesk, Unilever, and many others.
“What makes Lead Edge uniquely amazing is their LP network and the way they can activate them for us,” said Raj Dutt, co-founder and CEO, Grafana Labs. “For most founders, LPs are just an abstract concept, but at Lead Edge they're a core part of the value. When we've needed to move fast on a new customer or candidate, Lead Edge has hustled and come back with multiple angles for us to pursue to get to the right person. That's been true from our Series A through today.”
“From day one, Lead Edge came in deeply prepared and knowledgeable about our business and industry,” said Steve Dusablon, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at SafeSend (acquired by Thomson Reuters). “They activated their LP network on our behalf, and we saw firsthand how effective it could be. They've surrounded us with some of the smartest, hardest-working people we've encountered, and it's been an exceptional partnership.”
The firm's portfolio spans both venture-backed companies and bootstrapped, founder-owned businesses where Lead Edge is often the first institutional investor. The firm will continue its focus on investing primarily in private companies, with a flexible mandate. Last year, Lead Edge opened its first international office in London, strengthening the firm's presence in Europe and building on a track record of investments in leading European companies including BlaBlaCar, Clearscore, Spotify, Wise, Stowe Family Law, and Yousign, among others.
About Lead Edge Capital
Lead Edge Capital is a $9 billion growth equity firm investing in software, internet, and tech- enabled businesses globally. The firm has invested in a number of major software and internet companies around the world, including Alibaba Group, Arrive Logistics, Asana, Azul Systems, Bazaarvoice, Clearscore, Duo Security, Grafana, Holistiplan, LiveView Technologies, SafeSend, Toast, Wise, and Yousign. One of the main drivers of Lead Edge’s success is its unique investor base, a network of 700+ executives, entrepreneurs, and dealmakers who have built and run some of the world’s most successful companies. In addition to providing flexible capital, Lead Edge leverages this global advisory group to connect portfolio companies with the customers, partners, talent, and advisors needed to accelerate growth. Lead Edge Capital was founded in 2011 and has offices in New York City, London and Santa Barbara.
Disclaimer:
Certain statements within this press release are from executives of portfolio companies of Lead Edge Capital and are considered an “endorsement” as that term is defined under Rule 206(4)-1 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. No compensation, either directly or indirectly, was provided in exchange for such endorsement. There is a potential conflict of interest in a portfolio company providing an endorsement, as an investment in a fund, may indirectly benefit such portfolio company.
This communication is for informational purposes only and is not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any security or of any fund or account that Lead Edge Capital manages or offers. Any use of adjectives or superlatives included herein are our good faith opinions including but not limited to the use of language such as “exhaustive,” “superior,” or “enhanced,” and should not be construed as material statements of fact. Further, others may not agree with our opinions.
(L-R: Mitchell Green, Brian Neider, Nimay Mehta)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump has extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying the U.S. will hold off on power plant strikes for five days.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social site Monday, just hours ahead of a deadline later in the day.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran warned Monday that it would strike electricity plants across the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb power stations in the Islamic Republic if it did not reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.
The war, now in its fourth week, has already seen several dramatic turning points — the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, the bombing of a key Iranian gas field, and strikes targeting oil and gas facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging, and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.
Trump’s ultimatum and Iran’s promise of retaliation now threaten to raise the stakes yet again, with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.
If carried out, the attacks could cut electricity to wide swaths of people in Iran and around the Gulf and knock out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water. There are also increasing concerns about the consequences any of strikes on nuclear facilities.
Even if the attacks are not carried out, the fever pitch of the rhetoric shows how the war has spiraled to a point unimaginable at the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.
Trump said the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours — a deadline that expires late Monday Washington time.
Iran has shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped along with other important commodities, in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes. A trickle of ships has gotten through, and Iran insists the crucial waterway remains open — just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.
The chokehold has wreaked havoc on energy markets, pushed up the prices on food and other goods well beyond the Middle East and sent shock waves throughout the global economy.
“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard promised retaliation if Trump made good on his threat, saying Iran it would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles targeting Dimona in Israel, near a facility key to its long-suspected atomic weapons program. The Israeli facility wasn’t damaged.
United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper, meanwhile, claimed in an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, and suggested those areas would be targeted.
“You need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in the interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International that aired early Monday.
In his first one-on-one interview since the war started, Cooper said the U.S. and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s capabilities to rebuild its military.
“It’s not just about the threat today,” he said. “We’re eliminating the threat of the future.”
Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit.
With the U.S. deploying more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines to the Middle East, Iran warned against any ground attack.
“Any attempt by the enemy to target Iran’s coasts or islands will, naturally and in accordance with established military practice, lead to the mining of all access routes ... in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts,” Iran’s Defense Council warned said in a statement.
The widespread use of mines could imperil not only military vessels but scores of commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a cleanup would last long after the conflict ends.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has said that he retains all options. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.
Israel has also targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon during the war, while the group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In recent days, Israel has hit many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani river in the Lebanon's south.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of bridges “a prelude to a ground invasion,” while Egypt denounced the strikes as the "collective punishment” of civilians for the actions of Hezbollah.
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.
Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, at around $113 a barrel, up some 55% since the war began.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has already seen a ripple effect, including “exponential price hikes in oil, fuel and gas” that have had a far-reaching impact on millions, primarily in Asian and African developing countries.
“There is no military solution,” he said.
In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said Monday it had to shut down a major industrial plant because the war had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used in plastic manufacturing.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. AP writers Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, Sally Abou AlJoud and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Missiles launched from Iran streak across the sky over central Israel, early Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A man waves an Iranian flag during a campaign in support of the government as a woman and vehicles pass by at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman waves an Iranian flag during a campaign in support of the government at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
A cargo ship carrying vehicles sails through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz in the United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
People follow a truck carrying the flag draped coffins of Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of his comrades Amir Hossein Bidi , during their funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
