By Jason Georgatos, President, Partners for Growth
As 2025 comes to a close, one thing is certain: operating as a growth company has only become more complex. AI’s promise and disruption continue to dominate strategic conversations, while consumer-driven Western economies navigate persistent inflation, uneven wage dynamics, and a macroeconomic environment that remains difficult to forecast.
Today’s founders and CFOs are operating in a market characterized by “funding polarization” where equity is more selective for most every sector, save the limited few benefiting from the surge in AI-investment. Commercial banks are becoming increasingly cautious, and founders are under more pressure than ever to justify the structure, timing, and trade-offs of every financing decision. Yet the broader narrative remains one of momentum and excitement: technology-driven growth continues to provide opportunities for expansion, infrastructure is being renewed, and new category leaders are emerging across every region in which we operate.
Amidst this backdrop, our focus at Partners for Growth (PFG) is the same as it has been for more than two decades: to be a consistent, disciplined provider of capital that helps strong companies and founders keep moving forward, without forcing them to choose between growth and dilution.
2025: A year of discipline over momentum
In 2025, “growth at any price” was not rewarded for most companies. Success went to teams that understood their unit economics, demonstrated clear paths to profitability, and treated every dollar of capital as an opportunity to compound value rather than simply chase revenue.
Across our portfolio, we saw three themes stand out:
1. Capital efficiency is no longer optional.
The best-performing companies were the ones that treated every financing decision—equity, debt, or otherwise—as part of a long-term capital strategy, not a one-off event. They used growth debt to fund expansion initiatives, like international launches, working capital, marketing, or strategic M&A, without giving up additional ownership
2. Structured credit is moving from “nice to have” to “core tool.”
More founders, boards, and equity sponsors are now coming to us early in their planning process. Instead of calling us after a round is done, they’re designing their equity and debt together. That’s a healthy evolution for the ecosystem, and one we expect to continue.
3. Regional ecosystems are maturing at different speeds, but the demand is universal.
Whether it’s a B2B SaaS company in North America, a fintech in Latin America, or a category leader in EMEA or APAC, the pattern is the same: strong businesses want flexible funding that matches their growth profile, not a one-size-fits-all structure.
Our team remains focused on what we control: credit discipline, thoughtful structuring, and being a reliable partner to help our companies seize opportunities in good markets and navigate the tougher ones.
What we focused on in 2025
Internally, 2025 was a year of sharpening our toolkit and deepening our relationships:
- Expanding and institutionalizing our platform.
We’ve spent meaningful time refining our processes, data, and portfolio management so that we can scale our impact without compromising on underwriting standards. Such discipline is non-negotiable for us, and it’s one of the reasons many of our investors and founders have worked with PFG across multiple cycles.
- Backing durable, recurring-revenue and asset-backed business models.
We continued to prioritize companies with differentiated growth evident in customer metrics, high margins, recurring revenues, and defensible economics. These are the businesses that can support growth credit responsibly and use debt as a strategic accelerator, not a lifeline.
- Partnering more closely with equity sponsors and DFIs.
Our conversations with growth and late-stage equity investors, as well as development finance institutions, have become more integrated. Increasingly, we’re not just a lender on the side, we’re part of the capital design from the start, aligning incentives and time horizons across the cap table.
- Going global, with a local mindset.
PFG supports companies across multiple continents, and our approach today hasn’t changed since our outset in Silicon Valley in 2004: we work with key local partners, understand regional nuances, and tailor structures to the realities for our businesses on the ground, from regulatory environments to payment behaviors. We continue to seek out compelling risk-reward opportunities for our investors across tech hubs globally and aim to deliver customized, locally relevant, credit-first solutions that help resilient businesses successfully scale.
What we see in 2026: An uncertain world demanding disciplined capital
Looking ahead to 2026, the broad outline is already visible:
- Equity will remain available, but selective.
Strong companies with clear business models and paths to profitability will get funded. Funding for AI hyper-scalers and AI startups looks likely to remain robust. While the AI market seems like it could be overheating, we never rely on picking cycles or calling bubbles. Though things seem to be getting frothy in the AI world, sometimes distortions can persist for much longer than we think. For businesses outside the AI frenzy, the bar for raising equity will stay higher than in the last cycle. That’s healthy, but it means founders will need to be more thoughtful about the timing and size of their capital raises.
- Traditional bank credit will not come roaring back overnight.
Regulatory pressures and risk management priorities will keep many commercial banks cautious, especially when it comes to fast-growing, technology businesses. That creates a structural gap that specialized lenders like PFG are designed to fill.
- Growth debt will play an even more central role in the capital stack.
We expect more boards to deliberately allocate room for structured credit alongside equity. Used correctly, growth debt can:
- Finance new market expansion, product launches, and M&A
- Support working capital and receivables growth
- Back strategic hiring and operational scale-up in growth markets
- Deliver growth capital that reduces dilution for founders and early investors
Importantly, not all credit is created equal. In a tighter environment, the structure of the facility—covenants, security packages, amortization profiles, and alignment of incentives—matters as much as price. That’s where experience and discipline show up.
A note of thanks to our founders, investors, and partners
None of this is possible without the people we work with every day.
To our investors and strategic partners, including those who have supported us across multiple funds and strategies: thank you for continuing to back a credit-first approach rooted in discipline and long-term partnership, which enables us to continue scaling our impact and supporting the brightest entrepreneurs building the next generation of leading tech companies globally.
To the founders and management teams who chose PFG as a partner this year: thank you for trusting us as your financing partner. We don’t take that lightly. We know you have options, and our goal is always to earn the right to work with you, hopefully not just once, but over multiple chapters of your growth journey.
To the VCs and equity partners, thank you for bringing us in to partner with your portfolio companies and for collaborating with us to design capital structures that work through cycles, not just through the next press release.
And to the PFG team around the world, this year demanded focus and judgment. I’m proud of the way you showed up for our companies, investors, and for each other.
Closing thought
At PFG, we’ve been through multiple market, economic and funding cycles. Each time, the pattern may not repeat but it often rhymes: when capital is cheap and abundant, structure and discipline look boring. When the tides shift, those fundamentals become the main event.
Entering 2026, we’re committed to showing up in the same steadfast manner in which our partnership is grounded. Bringing trust, respect, and thoughtfulness in our approach to deliver tailored, custom capital solutions that help create long-term value; for our entrepreneurs, their companies and stakeholders, and the investors who count on us not only to deliver returns, but to do so with discipline, transparency, and alignment throughout all market environments.
On behalf of all of us at Partners for Growth, thank you for your partnership and trust. We wish you a healthy, restful conclusion to 2025 and a fruitful 2026.
Jason Georgatos
President
Partners for Growth
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The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any such offer will be made only to qualified investors through confidential offering documents. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
