Key Takeaways
- A software-focused private equity firm partnered with OPEXEngine to assess operational efficiency across its SaaS portfolio.
- The partnership focused on clear diagnosis and practical guidance to support value creation.
- Results included clearer portfolio-level insights, more confident resource allocation discussions, and targeted growth opportunities at the company level.
Introduction
Working with OPEXEngine helped a software-focused private equity firm evaluate portfolio performance and drive growth with greater confidence through a partnership built on trust, rigor, and collaboration.
Rather than relying on anecdotal insights or inconsistent company-level reporting, the firm wanted a consistent, defensible way to understand performance and identify opportunities for value creation.
What they needed wasn’t just a benchmarking tool—they needed a partner who understood SaaS operating models and could translate data into action.
Meet the Customer
Invest Co is a software-focused private equity firm investing in growth-stage SaaS companies.
- Company: Invest Co (anonymized)
- Industry: Private equity (software-focused)
- Portfolio: Multiple SaaS businesses across different stages
- Vision: Drive sustainable growth and operational excellence across portfolio companies
Their operating team plays an active role in improving margins, growth rates, and capital allocation.
The Need for a Trusted Partner
Invest Co needed a faster, more reliable way to assess operational efficiency across its portfolio.
Each portfolio company tracked metrics differently, making it difficult to compare performance or identify where intervention would have the greatest impact. Without credible peer context, conversations about growth, R&D investment, or sales efficiency often relied on instinct rather than evidence.
As one operating partner put it internally:
“We didn’t just need numbers – we needed confidence that we were asking the right questions.”
The Partnership
The collaboration worked because OPEXEngine combined benchmarks with hands-on guidance.
- OPEXEngine worked closely with Invest Co to analyze multiple portfolio companies, comparing performance against relevant SaaS benchmarks
- The analysis focused on EBITDA margins, growth rates, R&D ROI, and Sales & Marketing expense
- Rather than delivering static data, OPEXEngine helped interpret results and highlight where differences signaled opportunity versus risk
Regular collaboration and clear explanations helped Invest Co move quickly from data to discussion.
Figure 1 (custom analysis):
What They Achieved
Together, Invest Co and OPEXEngine gained clarity across the portfolio and actionable insights at the company level.
- Identified portfolio-wide value creation opportunities
- Flagged where growth constraints were tied to underinvestment in R&D (e.g., Cello’s lower growth despite strong R&D returns)
- Highlighted companies with strong performance that could support additional Sales & Marketing investment (e.g., Bass had room to grow)
- Created a consistent fact base to support conversations with portfolio company leadership teams
This clarity allowed Invest Co to engage management teams with greater specificity.
Figure 2 (Investor Dashboard view in BenchmarkEngine, OPEXEngine’s on-demand benchmarking platform):
What They Valued Most
Invest Co valued OPEXEngine’s rigor, responsiveness, and ability to translate benchmarks into insight, along with the on-demand capabilities of the BenchmarkEngine platform and Investor Dashboard.
What stood out wasn’t just the data, but the ability to quickly diagnose why a company performed the way it did relative to peers—and what that implied for next steps.
The OPEXEngine team acted as an extension of Invest Co’s operating function, turning benchmarking into a practical decision-support tool.
The Long-Term Impact
The partnership continues as Invest Co uses OPEXEngine to support ongoing portfolio monitoring and growth initiatives.
With a consistent benchmarking framework in place, the firm is better equipped to:
- Prioritize operating initiatives
- Support management teams with clearer guidance
- Track progress as portfolio companies evolve
OPEXEngine remains part of how Invest Co evaluates performance throughout the ownership lifecycle.
Thinking About OPEXEngine as a Strategic Partner?
If you’re a private equity firm looking to assess software portfolio performance and drive growth with greater confidence, OPEXEngine can help.
Let’s talk about how we support software investors and operators.
