Annual roundup of founder-friendly investors features Shore for the sixth year in a row

Shore Capital Partners (“Shore” or “Shore Capital”), a Chicago-based private equity firm with offices in Nashville, has been named to Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors List for the sixth consecutive year.

The prestigious list is a resource for founders to find reliable partners and celebrates investors who believe in backing founder-led businesses. Honorees have successful track records of collaboration and supporting founders with more than just capital. Each firm is evaluated based on founder interviews and how founder-backed portfolio companies grew while partnered with the firm.

“This recognition is particularly meaningful as it comes from the founders themselves,” said Justin Ishbia, Founder and Managing Partner at Shore. “Our goal has always been to empower entrepreneurs to scale with confidence, by supporting them to grow faster and with less risk. Hundreds of founders have trusted our partnership model with the biggest professional decision they may ever make, and the past six years we’ve continued honoring that decision through a commitment to providing resources that help great businesses reach their full potential.”

Since its founding, Shore has invested in 82 platform companies and completed over 1,300 microcap acquisitions. Each of the past two years, at least 20 of the firm’s portfolio companies were named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, illustrating Shore’s commitment to developing strong management teams and fostering a culture of collaboration, equipping executives with the capital, expertise, and connections they need to achieve sustainable growth.

This year, Shore announced the close of three new funds, bringing the firm's total capital raised in 2025 to nearly $1.3 billion and assets under management to over $14 billion. To match the scale of its platform, Shore has expanded its leadership team and bolstered its talent base, promoting more than 40 team members – including 15 on the senior investment team – and welcoming more than 50 new colleagues. This capital and growing team reinforces Shore’s commitment to serving founders and management teams in the lower-middle market and providing unparalleled support.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit here.

About Shore Capital Partners

Shore Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm with offices in Nashville, is an investor in lower middle market companies in the Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Business Services, Industrial, and Real Estate industries. Shore’s strategy is to support management partners to grow faster with less risk through access to capital, world-class board and operational resources, and unmatched networking, development, and shared learnings across the portfolio. From 2020-2025, Shore received recognition from Inc. Magazine as a 6x Top Founder Friendly Investor and by PitchBook Research for leading U.S. Private Equity deal volume for the past 10 years, from 2015-2024. Shore targets investments in established, successful private companies with superior management teams, stable cash flow, and significant potential to grow through industry consolidation and organic growth to generate value for shareholders. Shore has approximately $14 billion of assets under management and in additional investment platforms to which it provides business and operational consulting services. For more information on these awards and investment platforms, please visit: www.shorecp.com.

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

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