PSP Partners

About

PSP Partners is a diversified global private investment firm founded in 2011 by Penny Pritzker, an entrepreneur, civic leader, philanthropist, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce ¹. The firm is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, at 444 West Lake Street ¹. PSP Partners operates as a family office managing capital from Pritzker’s share of the Pritzker family fortune, built through Hyatt Hotels and the Marmon industrial group ².

The firm has four business units: PSP Capital (buyouts of established companies), PSP Growth (venture capital for emerging technology businesses), Pritzker Realty Group (real estate investments), and an Asset Management division ¹. PSP Growth, the venture and growth equity arm, was founded in 2017 with a focus on earlier-stage, high-growth B2B software technology companies ³.

PSP Partners operates with permanent capital, meaning it does not raise traditional venture funds with fixed timelines ³. Jon Skinner serves as CEO of PSP Partners; he joined the firm in 2021 after serving as Vice Chair of Investment Banking and Head of Technology Investment Banking at William Blair & Company ⁴. Momei Qu serves as Managing Director of PSP Growth, leading the firm’s venture capital and growth equity initiatives since 2018 ⁵.

Penny Pritzker serves on the boards of Microsoft Corporation, DEPT, and Icertis ⁶. She served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 2013 to 2017 in the Obama Administration and has also served as Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery in the Biden Administration ⁶. She co-founded several businesses including Vi Senior Living, The Parking Spot, and Artemis Real Estate Partners, and co-founded Inspired Capital, an early-stage VC firm with approximately $500M in AUM ⁷.

Stated Thesis

PSP Partners publicly describes its mission as investing in and building “durable businesses and real estate assets that drive innovation, job growth, and opportunity” ¹. The firm states it is founded on a “fundamental belief that values-driven partnerships lead to strong performance and lasting societal impact” ¹.

PSP Growth specifically describes its focus as investing in “earlier-stage, high-growth B2B software technology companies that enable efficiency and disrupt the status quo” ³. The firm articulates two thematic investment areas: (1) “unlocking the power of data” through machine learning, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision optimization, and (2) “transforming and optimizing business processes” by digitizing traditionally offline, manual, and inefficient operations ³.

Penny Pritzker has stated: “We invest in long-term macro trends; focus on sectors and business models in which we bring experience, expertise and value-added resources” ⁸. She has also said: “I’ve always had an interest in innovation. I decided [technology] would become an area of focus for me after my time at Commerce” and “I’m a nerd at heart. Tech is affecting every aspect of our economy” ⁹.

PSP Growth invests $1-5 million initially alongside leading venture capital firms, with follow-on investments up to $25 million in subsequent rounds, typically after companies reach over $15 million ARR ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 21 verified venture/growth investments by PSP Growth and PSP Partners in technology companies (excluding buyouts, real estate, and legacy Pritzker family holdings):

Sector breakdown: The portfolio is heavily weighted toward B2B software and proptech/construction technology. Of 21 verified tech investments: 5 proptech/construction-tech (24%) including OpenSpace, HouseCanary, Higharc, VTS, and Pronto Housing; 3 cybersecurity/identity (14%) including Zafran, ID.me, and Aeronix Technologies Group; 3 enterprise AI/data (14%) including Synthesia, OfferFit, and Ocient; 2 fintech/payments (10%) including Finix and Ellevest; 2 industrial/IoT (10%) including Guidewheel and PassiveLogic; 2 aerospace/defense software (10%) including Air Space Intelligence and Nominal; 4 other B2B (19%) including Enable, Icertis, QA Wolf, and Piazza.

Stage distribution: PSP Growth invests across a wide range of stages. The firm has led at least one major growth round (OpenSpace Series D, $102M) ¹⁰ and participated in rounds from Series A through Series E. Based on verified rounds: 2 Series B (HouseCanary, Higharc), 2 Series C (Zafran, Enable, HouseCanary follow-on), 3 Series D (OpenSpace, ID.me, Synthesia), 1 Series E (Synthesia follow-on). The firm appears to favor growth-stage investments (Series B-D) rather than seed or pre-seed.

Check size: Initial investments of $1-5M, with follow-on capacity up to $25M ³. The firm led the $102M OpenSpace Series D ¹⁰, indicating it can write significantly larger checks for high-conviction deals.

Geographic focus: Portfolio companies are primarily U.S.-based, with concentrations in San Francisco/Bay Area (OpenSpace, HouseCanary, Ellevest), New York, and Chicago. Notable exceptions include Synthesia (London, UK) ¹⁴ and Zafran (Israel) ¹¹.

Notable pattern — real estate and built environment: The firm has an unusually strong tilt toward proptech and construction technology (24% of portfolio), likely reflecting Pritzker Realty Group’s real estate expertise and Penny Pritzker’s personal background in real estate (co-founding Artemis Real Estate Partners and The Parking Spot) ⁶⁷.

Notable pattern — permanent capital advantage: As a family office with permanent capital (no fund lifecycle constraints), PSP Growth can hold investments indefinitely and follow on across multiple rounds, as demonstrated by investments in both Synthesia’s Series D and Series E ¹⁴¹⁵, and HouseCanary’s Series B and Series C ¹²¹³.

Co-investor patterns: Frequent co-investors include Menlo Ventures (Zafran, Enable), Lightspeed Venture Partners (Enable, Finix), Fifth Wall (Pronto Housing, Higharc), and Inspired Capital (Finix, QA Wolf) — notably, Inspired Capital was co-founded by Penny Pritzker ⁷.

Notable exits: Coinbase (IPO, April 2021), Piazza (acquired August 2025), Beachfront (acquired) ⁷.

Portfolio

This table represents PSP Growth’s verified technology investments. PSP Partners also holds significant positions in buyout-stage companies through PSP Capital (including DEPT, Ntiva, E.B. Bradley, StormTrap) and real estate through Pritzker Realty Group, as well as legacy Pritzker family investments (Hyatt Hotels, Albertsons) ⁷.

In Their Own Words

“Building durable businesses and investing in growth and innovation is an inherently noble endeavor. Building businesses successfully — and the right way — requires more than capital and certainly more than one person.” — Penny Pritzker, Middle Market Growth interview ⁸

“It starts — and frankly ends — with integrity, humility and a values-based culture.” — Penny Pritzker, Middle Market Growth interview ⁸

“I’ve always had an interest in innovation. I decided [technology] would become an area of focus for me after my time at Commerce.” — Penny Pritzker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 2018 ⁹

“I’m a nerd at heart. Tech is affecting every aspect of our economy.” — Penny Pritzker, Crain’s Chicago Business, 2018 ⁹

“I am particularly interested in quantum computing and its potential commercial applications in manufacturing and technology.” — Penny Pritzker, Middle Market Growth interview ⁸

“My exposure to the Icertis Advisory Board for the past several years has reinforced to me Icertis’ market leadership in a massive and growing global market.” — Penny Pritzker, Icertis Series F announcement, March 2021 ¹⁶

“From our vantage point of investing in and building enduring businesses in both real estate and high-growth technology companies, we see OpenSpace as a leader at the intersection of both these segments. We are incredibly bullish on the company’s future.” — Penny Pritzker, OpenSpace Series D announcement, March 2022 ¹⁰

“After reviewing hundreds of construction technology businesses, we know how rare it is to find a company with OpenSpace’s caliber of team, technology, and exceptional commercial success.” — Momei Qu, Managing Director of PSP Growth, OpenSpace Series D announcement, March 2022 ¹⁰

“If you can show strong growth in this environment, that means you’re getting corporate budgets at a time when corporate budgets are tightening.” — Momei Qu, PSP Growth ²⁷

What Founders Say

“We could not be more happy with the decision to partner with PSP. They have brought the deep skills of the best of breed private equity groups to Ntiva while staying true to their commitment of helping us grow with people at center stage. This is a group that understands building long lasting businesses the right way is the true currency and, because of this, we know the financial returns will come alongside it.” — Steve Freidkin, CEO of Ntiva, PSP Partners website ²⁸

“We chose PSP as our partner based on their commitment to growth, their value on relationships, customer focus, and long-term investment into not just our business but our people. We have been impressed not only with how they have shown their commitment to those areas, but also in the way they went about learning our business and our culture.” — Unnamed portfolio company leader, PSP Partners website ¹

“Since our partnership began in 2014, the team at PSP Capital has struck a perfect balance of being highly responsive and engaged partners, while also entrusting our high-functioning leadership team and organization to execute against our strategic priorities.” — Unnamed portfolio company leader, PSP Partners website ¹

Note: The founder quotes above are primarily from PSP Capital (buyout) portfolio companies. No independently sourced founder testimonials were found from PSP Growth (venture) portfolio company founders outside of official press releases.

Sources