SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Montage Partners, a people-first private equity firm with offices in Scottsdale and Salt Lake City, has been named to Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors list for the sixth consecutive year. This year’s list recognizes 294 private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with demonstrated track records of supporting founder-led companies.
“With the current funding environment and rapid changes facing growing companies, founders are looking for more than just capital from their investors. They want true partners who believe in their business, but who are also able to provide the critical advisement and strategic support they need to reach their potential,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2026 Founder-Friendly Investor awards celebrate those firms — the ones committed to partnership, excellence, and helping founder-led companies grow.”
“Six years on this list means a lot to us because of where it comes from,” said Jordan Tate, co-Managing Partner of Montage Partners. “Inc. asks the founders, and founders are the ones who see how we show up when a decision gets hard, long after the day we close. We try to be the same partner in year five that we were in the first meeting, and it’s gratifying that we’re living up to it.”
The recognition follows a strong stretch for the firm. In 2025, Montage Partners exited its investments in Equity Methods and Puroflux and received PE Hub’s Deal of the Year award (North America Small-Cap) for its 2024 exit of Southwest Data Products. In January 2026, the firm announced the sale of Advantco, a Charlotte-based integration software company, to Argano, a portfolio company of Trinity Hunt Partners. In May, the firm invested in Lighten Up, a Los Angeles-based provider of premium lighting design and technical production for high-profile live events. Montage made the investment in partnership with founder Nathan Megaw, who retained a meaningful ownership stake and continues to lead the company.
Since its founding in 2004, Montage Partners has invested in more than 20 founder-led businesses, guided by six core values: people, transparency, integrity, accountability, mutual respect, and excellence. Through its Montage Accelerate™ program, the firm provides hands-on support in strategy, marketing, operations, recruiting, and M&A, resources more common at much larger firms, tailored to founder-owned companies in the lower middle market. Management teams also have access to a network of proven operators, advisors, and service providers.
“This year was a good reminder that founder-friendly looks different for every company,” said Rob Wolfman, co-Managing Partner of Montage Partners. “With Advantco, it meant supporting a leadership transition and seeing it through to a strong next chapter. With Lighten Up, it meant earning Nathan’s trust that we understood the culture he and his team spent more than twenty years building. Recognition is nice, but the real measure is whether the founders we’ve worked with would choose us again.”
To compile the Founder-Friendly Investors list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders completed questionnaires about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, or debt firms and shared data on how their companies have performed during these partnerships. The resulting list highlights investors that founders identified as strong partners throughout the investment process.
For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.
About Montage Partners
Founded in 2004, with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and Salt Lake City, Utah, Montage Partners is a people-first private equity firm dedicated to helping established businesses reach transformative growth. Managing $80M in capital, Montage Partners invests in companies headquartered in the U.S. or Canada with $1.5 million to $7 million in EBITDA in the technology and professional services, healthcare, industrial products and services, and consumer sectors. Above all other investment criteria, Montage Partners invests in exceptional people.
Media Contact: Brooke Ouvarov-Bancalero
VP, Communications
bouvarov@montagepartners.com
480-676-6657
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SOURCE Montage Partners
