Kelly Ford has been charged with growing and scaling Edison Partners, a rapidly expanding $1.6 billion growth equity firm.
Based in New Jersey, Ford is the first chief operating officer in Edison’s 36-year history, and she’s leading the firm’s enterprise SaaS and fintech operations and investments. She now also oversees the Edison Edge operating platform, which is tailored to each business’ strategy, stage and operating needs.
Edison is known for its focus on financial technology, healthcare IT and vertical SaaS expertise with an eye on companies located outside of Silicon Valley with $10 million to $30 million in revenue. Investments include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.
“With our vision for the firm, and its 36 years of success, I am thrilled to step into this role and take our operations to the next level,” said Ford in a statement. “This is a high-performing, high-commitment team that does whatever it takes to build value with our portfolio companies and deliver great outcomes for our limited partners. It’s in this spirit that we’ll also continue to innovate and scale how we support our portfolio companies.”
Ford has worked with more than 55 portfolio companies, been involved in 15 financings, served as director at 11 companies, and pioneered the Edison Edge operating platform. Promoting Ford, a technology industry veteran turned growth equity investor, aligns with Edison’s belief that investing and operating experience is critical to growth-stage investing, officials said.
“This well-deserved promotion recognizes Kelly’s tremendous contributions to Edison thus far. Expanding our executive team by promoting Kelly will help us scale, and acknowledges the excellence and value we expect from the Edison Edge platform and best-in-class portfolio operations,” said Chris Sugden, managing partner at Edison Partners. “Kelly’s 20-plus years of leading management teams to successful outcomes make her the ideal person for the new COO role. She understands how to unlock the potential of great people by creating amazing teams through execution and process excellence.”
Her appointment adds breadth and tothe Edison senior team’s capabilities as the firm’s AUM grow. This year the firm held the final close of the Edison X fund; continued investment in underserved geographies such as Texas, Alabama and North Carolina; and the added of five operating partners to support portfolio company growth and execution.
