PSP Growth

PSP Growth Research

Overview

PSP Growth is the venture capital and growth equity arm of PSP Partners, the Chicago private investment firm founded by Penny Pritzker. PSP Partners runs three strategies: PSP Capital (buyouts of advanced industrials and business and technology services), Pritzker Realty Group (multifamily and industrial real estate), and PSP Growth. PSP Growth was founded in 2017 and invests from the Pritzker family's permanent capital base. The firm is headquartered at 444 West Lake Street, Chicago, IL.

Investment Thesis

PSP Growth invests in earlier-stage, high-growth B2B software companies that drive efficiency and disrupt the status quo. It describes two thematic areas. The first is unlocking the power of data: machine learning, predictive analytics and process automation, with growing demands for data protection and transparency. The second is transforming and optimizing business processes: long-established, offline or manual processes disrupted by software, networks, IoT devices and tech-enabled services. Investing in software lets it reach across segments of the economy where the wider PSP network of operators and relationships can help a company grow.

Stage Focus

The firm's own site says it writes initial checks into earlier-stage companies, and follows on in later rounds. Third-party data (Tracxn) shows its recorded entries at Series B (Cinder, May 2026; Freehand, July 2026) and Series D (ID.me, April 2023). In practice it joins rounds that a leading venture firm has already set up rather than leading them.

Check Size

• Initial investment: $1M to $5M, alongside leading venture capital firms and partners where PSP's network and capabilities can strengthen an already strong syndicate.
• Follow-on investments: up to $25M in later rounds, typically after a company has passed $15M ARR.

Lead Tendency

The stated model is to invest alongside lead venture firms, so PSP Growth follows or co-invests rather than leads. In Freehand's $75M Series B, Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital led and PSP Growth participated. In Cinder's $41M Series B, Radical Ventures led and PSP Growth participated.

Recent Activity

• July 2026: participated in Freehand's $75M Series B (AI agents for supply chain spend), co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners.
• May 2026: participated in Cinder's $41M Series B (trust and safety operations for AI-era abuse), led by Radical Ventures.
• April 2023: invested in ID.me's Series D (digital identity), a company later valued above $1B.
• Fund status: PSP Growth invests from permanent capital, not a time-limited fund. It shows steady but low volume, about one to two disclosed deals a year.

Portfolio Highlights

PSP Partners' holdings page lists the firm-wide portfolio, including buyout and real estate holdings that are not PSP Growth deals. Growth-style holdings on that page and in press are Icertis (contract lifecycle management), Cinder (trust and safety), Enable (rebate management software), Finix (payments infrastructure for software platforms), Air Space Intelligence (aerospace and defense software), Freehand and ID.me. The buyout side (DEPT, Ntiva, StormTrap, E.B. Bradley, Gardian, EIS, Fresh Edge and others) and real estate (Pritzker Realty Group) are not PSP Growth investments and are left out of the portfolio list. The holdings page does not say which of its strategic investments PSP Growth made, so Enable, Finix, Icertis and Air Space Intelligence are included on the basis that they are venture and growth stage software companies listed as PSP strategic or flagship holdings. Treat that attribution as lower confidence.

Team

• Momei Qu, Managing Director, PSP Growth: leads venture and growth equity. Joined 2018. Previously Vice President at Baird Capital, Independence Equity and Merrill Lynch. BS in computer engineering and finance from the University of Illinois, MBA from Harvard Business School.
• Caroline Greenberg, Vice President, PSP Growth: joined 2022, handles sourcing, deal execution and portfolio management. Previously Bully Pulpit Interactive, Svoboda Capital Partners, BMO Capital Markets.
• Grace Kinsey, Senior Associate, PSP Capital and PSP Growth: joined 2024. Previously Piper Sandler.
• Lauren McNamara, Senior Associate, PSP Capital and PSP Growth: joined 2024. Previously Goldman Sachs.
• Penny Pritzker is Founder and Chairman of PSP Partners.

Decision Process

The team runs deals as a small group led by a Managing Director with senior associate support, within a family-backed firm with a PSP investment committee. The site describes speed, certainty and conviction as its pitch to founders.

Founder Preferences

Bold entrepreneurs and teams who are disrupting the status quo in B2B software, and who value patient capital and the Pritzker network of operators and customers.

Geographic Focus

Mostly US-based companies. Tracxn also records one investment connected to India.