Solen Software Group is a permanent-capital partner that acquires and operates resilient, mission-critical software businesses serving enterprise B2B markets, with teams across the United States, Canada, Portugal and Brazil. The model pairs global support with local command. Each company in the portfolio keeps its own leadership, brand and daily decision making, while Solen carries the shared functions behind it.
For a founder weighing what comes next, the practical question is rarely about the size of a firm's map. It is about who will be in the room, how quickly decisions get made, and whether the people who understand the business stay close to it. This piece answers that, covering how the decentralized model works day to day, what support portfolio companies receive, what founders say about the experience, and why the global footprint matters.
What Is Solen Software Group?
Solen builds, operates and invests in enduring software businesses, and elevates the leaders and teams behind them. The firm partners with founders to grow and sustain niche software companies, preserving the values that made each one work while supporting product innovation, customer success, AI adoption and team development over the long term. Solen operates without predefined exit timelines and invests for decades. For a portfolio company that means faster decisions, continued independence, and access to shared expertise while keeping its own systems and ways of working.
The leadership team brings more than 50 years of combined software operating experience across engineering, product, go to market and finance. Solen was named to the Inc. 5000 in 2026 at number 214 overall and number 18 in software, and is Great Place to Work Certified. Axial named Solen to its Top 50 Lower Middle Market Technology Investors list in 2026.
The firm's brand promise is short. We amplify what has made your company great.
Where Does Solen Operate?
Solen has six offices across three regions.
In North America, Salt Lake City is the origin office and remains a center of gravity for the firm. New York City supports corporate development and capital work. Toronto covers Canadian coverage and corporate development.
In Europe, Lisbon anchors Solen’s presence and supports coverage across European markets.
In South America, São Paulo houses the corporate development team for Latin America. São Carlos is home to the Solen AI Innovation Center, chosen for the city’s research ecosystem, its designation as Brazil’s National Technology Capital, and its access to technical talent from the University of São Paulo and the Federal University of São Carlos.
The spread across these regions is deliberate. São Paulo sits one to two hours ahead of New York depending on the season and three to four hours behind Lisbon, which means the Brazil teams share a full working day with both North America and Europe. Lisbon runs roughly seven hours ahead of Salt Lake City, so a question raised in Portugal in the morning reaches the Mountain time zone the same working day. A founder in any of these markets talks to people in a compatible time zone rather than waiting overnight for an answer.
How Does Global Support Work With Local Command?
Solen is decentralized by design. Decisions that touch customers, product and people stay with the leadership team that already knows the business, especially when regional compliance requirements, trust-sensitive security expectations, and the wider global software market shape what local teams need to deliver. Solen’s central teams take on the work that drains a founder’s week without improving the product: finance, human resources, legal and administration.
The principle behind it is simplification, not control. Even so, the operating system still depends on strong cybersecurity practices and compliance with international regulatory frameworks to avoid legal penalties across regions.
In practice this means a company that joins the portfolio keeps its name, its team and its customer relationships. Its leaders keep setting priorities. What changes is the weight they carry alone. Reporting gets cleaner, hiring gets easier, and the founder gets time back for the parts of the business only they can do.
What Technical Expertise Does Solen Provide To The Companies In Its Portfolio?
Solen’s support falls into four areas.
1. Back office and administration. Finance, HR, legal and administrative functions move to shared teams, which lifts the non-core burden while leaving operating decisions in place, and recurring software businesses often use subscription-based or usage-based pricing models.
2. Operating support. Solen’s operators have run software companies themselves. Companies in the portfolio draw on shared experience in growth strategy, go to market, operational excellence, digital transformation and software development support when they want it, including custom software development services that cover design, testing, and support.
3. Peer learning. The peer guilds connect portfolio leaders to each other, so a problem one company has already solved does not have to be solved twice.
4. AI capability. The Solen AI Innovation Center gives every company joining the portfolio access to dedicated AI expertise from day one. Because the center is built and operated in-house, the team develops real knowledge of each business over time rather than rotating through engagements. The goal is to keep the software businesses in the portfolio relevant and competitive for the long term
What Happens When A Founder Reaches Out?
Solen’s process runs in four phases and is built to give a clear answer quickly.
It opens with an introductory call and a data request, so both sides can establish fit before anyone spends real time. From there the conversation moves founder to founder, with CEO Alexander Spencer, covering what the founder wants for the business, the team and themselves. Valuation and structure follow. Diligence closes it out. Project management during transition planning is handled with disciplined management and Agile-style methodology to improve efficiency and keep execution predictable.
Solen invests committed capital with no financing contingency, so the timeline holds once it is set. From first meeting to funding typically runs 45 to 60 days.
Solen helps build the P&L, so a founder can open the conversation before the financials are tidy. There is no relocation requirement, and founder involvement after the transition is flexible, from staying on to stepping into an advisory role.
What Does Reinvestment Look Like After A Company Joins?
Reinvestment is where the long-term horizon earns its keep, because a firm holding for decades can fund work that takes longer than a quarter to pay off. That reinvestment can also include flexible delivery models like staff augmentation or outside software developers when speed, specialization, or added capacity for projects matters.
Track Star is the clearest published example. After joining the portfolio, the founder moved into an advisory role, the non-core back office was removed, the product went through a full modernization, a mobile app launched, and the business grew revenue by roughly 40 percent through acquisition. External development capacity can provide instant access to experienced talent, help reduce costs by avoiding salaries and office space, speed delivery through established workflows, support cost effective solutions, and let internal teams focus on core operations.
viaPeople is a second. The company reinvested in AI, built a new go to market motion, and saw a strong rise in qualified leads, and increased revenue with minimal marketing spend .
Those are two of the clearest published outcomes. Others, including Champ Software, Primate Technologies, Spokane Software Systems, Cairn Applications, FMSI, NexTalk and smrtr, show the breadth of the portfolio across niche enterprise markets.
How Does Solen Use AI Integration Across The Portfolio?
The Solen AI Innovation Center launched in São Carlos, Brazil, in September 2026 and works alongside founders and company leaders from day one of every partnership. The center focuses on where AI creates durable, long-term value for each business, whether that means accelerating software development, enhancing an existing product, or building new capabilities that strengthen a company's position with its customers.
The center follows the same decentralized principle as the rest of the firm. Each company sets its own AI priorities based on its customers, its market, and its objectives. The result is a range of initiatives across the portfolio rather than a single approach applied everywhere.
Solen also uses AI in its own work. AI-assisted due diligence helps the team reach faster, well-informed decisions during a transaction, which can shorten timelines and give founders a clearer path to closing.
What Do Founders Say About Working With Solen?
Mike Hughes, Founder and CEO of Track Star, described his concern going in. “Many of the people who approached me really were looking to flip the business. I wanted the product to continue, I wanted the team to be taken care of.”
Dallin Droubay, Director of Marketing at viaPeople, put the distinction plainly. “Solen seeks to buy and hold, becoming a long-term partner. The leadership and expertise you gain access to by joining the portfolio are unparalleled.”
Scott Dunnewind, CEO of Champ Software, spoke to the process itself. “They respected my time and perspective, and every interaction was marked with integrity and thoughtfulness.”
Rita Patterson, Co-founder of Primate Technologies, spoke to what followed. “Solen’s investments and business knowledge are providing a great future for Primate’s customers and employees!”
Why A Global Footprint Matters To A Founder
Four things follow from how Solen is built.
1. Permanence. Solen holds for the long term and operates without predefined exit timelines, so the plan for a company extends past any single ownership cycle.
2. Certainty. Committed capital with no financing contingency, and a 45 to 60 day path from first meeting to funding, means a founder gets a clear answer in weeks.
3. Proximity. Six offices across three regions put operators in compatible time zones with the companies they support, and corporate development teams in the markets where founders are. A founder in Lisbon, Toronto or São Paulo works with people who know that market, on that market's clock, backed by the same shared functions available to every company in the portfolio.
4. Breadth. The portfolio spans public health, transit, agriculture, human resources, financial services and supply chain, so a company joining Solen draws on operating experience from businesses that have solved similar problems in other markets.
Talk To The Solen Team
If you are thinking about what comes next for the company you built, and you want it to stay itself, reach out to the Solen team.
Want to see what long-term ownership looks like in practice? Follow Solen on LinkedIn.
FAQ
Where Does Solen Software Group Have Offices?
Solen has six offices: Salt Lake City, New York City, Toronto, Lisbon, São Paulo and São Carlos. Salt Lake City is the origin office. São Carlos is home to the Solen AI Innovation Center.
What Kind Of Companies Does Solen Acquire?
Solen acquires resilient, mission-critical software businesses serving enterprise B2B markets, typically niche companies with durable recurring revenue and high customer retention. Solen is industry and location agnostic within its coverage markets.
How Long Does The Solen Process Take?
From first meeting to funding typically runs 45 to 60 days. Solen invests committed capital with no financing contingency, which gives founders certainty on timing from the first meeting onward.
Does A Founder Have To Leave After The Company Joins Solen?
No. What happens next is up to you. Some founders stay on to run the business day to day. Others move into advisory roles. And some step away to pursue a dream they've been putting off, whether that's a new venture, a passion project or more time with family. Wherever you land, there is no relocation requirement for you or your team.
What Does The Solen AI Innovation Center Do?
The center gives every company joining the Solen portfolio access to dedicated AI expertise from day one, covering software modernization, time to market, product enhancement and new capabilities. Each company sets its own AI priorities based on its customers, its market, and where AI creates the most long-term value for the business.
