Pfingsten Partners, LLC (“Pfingsten”) is honored to announce its recognition as a 2026 TOP 50 PE Firms for Founders in the Middle Market™, recognizing the firm’s long-standing commitment to partnering with founder-led businesses and supporting transformative growth across the manufacturing, distribution and business services sectors.
“We are honored to be recognized as a TOP 50 PE Firms for Founders in the Middle Market™,” said Phillip Bronsteatter, Managing Director at Pfingsten. “For more than three decades, our mission has been to support entrepreneurs’ growth plans through strategic guidance, deep operational expertise and a partnership-driven approach that invests in people, systems, facilities and equipment to build better businesses.”
Pfingsten has a rich, over 35-year history of partnering with founder-led companies, providing access to capital, operational resources and a global network to drive long-term value creation. The firm’s operationally focused model emphasizes professional management practices, global capabilities and continuous improvement to unlock sustainable growth, stable and recurring cash flow and differentiated market positions.
The TOP 50 PE Firms for Founders in the Middle Market™ award acknowledges highly reputable private equity firms in the middle market that focus on partnering with family and founder-owned businesses while also providing resources, strategic and operational support M&A strategy and human capital development. To see the list of honorees visit https://awards.gradycampbell.com/top-50-pe-winners/#founder.
Disclaimer
The “TOP 50 PE Firms in the Middle Market™” program is designed by GCI Publishing to acknowledge and promote small and mid-sized leading private equity firms in the middle market. Winning firms for 2026 were selected based upon their strong management team, established market position, solid track record, continuous and/or rapid growth, stable and recurring cash flow, differentiating culture, product and/or service and fund size. The firms all have fund sizes of $375 million to $1.5 billion and have headquarters in the United States.
The TOP 50 PE Firms for Founders in the Middle Market™ award is an extension of the “TOP 50 PE Firms in the Middle Market™” program. The winning firms have exited U.S.-based, founder-led portfolio companies whose founders have remained actively involved in their business for at least one-year post-investment and were selected based upon their track record, reputation, leadership and founder references.
Pfingsten is not aware of the number of advisers surveyed for this award. Pfingsten paid GCI Publishing a nomination fee and a licensing fee for the use of the logo and reference to the awards. These awards are not to be construed as indicative of Pfingsten’s future performance. Reference to a ranking is only one piece of information relevant to an evaluation of an investment adviser such as Pfingsten and should not be construed as a testimonial regarding Pfingsten’s advisory capabilities and does not necessarily relate to the profitability or performance of its funds. Finally, these awards represent information as of a specific date and time and may not reflect important information related to an evaluation of the investment adviser which has occurred prior to, or subsequent to, the awards. Pfingsten is not affiliated with GCI. More information is available here.
