The awards mark PeakSpan's seventh GrowthCap recognition since 2015; evidence that patient institutional building compounds.

In 2015, Matt Melymuka co-founded PeakSpan Capital with a contrarian bet: 80% of senior leadership would start as Analysts or Associates and grow with the firm. A decade later, that principle became reality. This week, two of them, Matt Melymuka and Jack Freeman, who joined early and rose to Partner, were named to GrowthCap's 2025 40 Under 40 Growth Investors.

The recognition validates what PeakSpan has spent ten years proving: when you create a world-class talent engine, develop deep sector expertise, and scale with discipline, everyone wins: founders, LPs, and the broader B2B software scale-up ecosystem.

The Recognition

GrowthCap's 2025 40 Under 40 Growth Investors evaluates the next generation shaping software investing: portfolio outcomes, scaling capability, recent exits, industry influence, and character. Now in its seventh year, it's become one of the industry's most rigorous recognitions.

Matt (Co-Founder & Managing Partner) and Jack (Partner) join this year's cohort. The award marks PeakSpan's seventh GrowthCap recognition since its founding. Earlier this year, co-founder Phil Dur was named a Top Software Investor of 2025, and PeakSpan earned its third consecutive designation as a Top Growth Equity Firm.

Who They Are and What They Built

Matt Melymuka co-founded PeakSpan in 2015 to solve a specific problem: bootstrapped entrepreneurs at $3-10M revenue were being ignored by traditional growth investors or pressured to abandon the discipline that made them successful. Matt architected a different model: 12 specialized B2B software sectors, a 450+ member Expert Community, proprietary technology platforms (ADA, DEWEY, ANNA) with four issued patents, and a culture (and platform) where talent develops and grows internally.

Over 15 years and 35+ partnerships, Matt's Go-to-Market and Hospitality vertical focus has driven category-defining outcomes:

• Cloudbeds: Led $9M Series B (2017) → 35x revenue growth → $150M SoftBank round → 22,000+ properties across 157 countries
• Cognism: Led $10M Series B (2019) → 30x revenue growth → $88M Series C/D
• Cyara: $27M Series A → 5x revenue growth → $350M private equity recap led by K1

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His philosophy: "the best risk-adjusted outcome." That means rejecting portfolio theory's acceptance of high failure rates and building companies that scale sustainably to the best view of success, every time..

Jack Freeman joined PeakSpan early in his career and the origin story of PeakSpan. He could have joined any growth firm. He chose PeakSpan because the model was different: thesis-driven, sector-specialized, built-from-within, redefining what it meant to be “founder-friendly.”. Over the next decade, he built deep fluency in FinTech and Supply Chain, developed PeakSpan's structured frameworks for identifying exceptional founders, and proved the system worked.

Over 10 years and 20+ partnerships, Jack's value creation hallmark is multi-year partnerships through the hardest point in scale-up company-building, the $3M-50M ARR inflection:

• XOi: $15M Series C → 6x revenue growth → $230M KKR financing (2025) + Specifx acquisition
• Petvisor: 6x revenue growth → $100M Series D

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His approach is characterized by strategic empathy paired with relentless rigor. He's also widely recognized for thought leadership in payments innovation and supply chain modernization.

The Results

Combined, their work has contributed to PeakSpan's track record:

• $2.5B+ AUM across four funds (each oversubscribed)
• <2% realized capital loss rate vs. 50%+ for Series A/B investors per PitchBook
• Top-quartile (or decile) performance across all funds and metrics
• High founder referenceability

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Recent portfolio wins: XOi's $230M KKR financing (January 2025), Oaky's acquisition by Plusgrade/General Atlantic (October 2025), and multiple strategic financings across their verticals.

The Culture That Enables It

The skeptic says developing talent in-house is slower and riskier than hiring from competitors. PeakSpan's counter is that speed isn't the goal, quality is.

The results validate this thinking:

• 75% of investment professionals started careers at PeakSpan
• 2025: 7 promotions (Kyle Reitinger to Principal, Yaseen Abdulridha to VP, Celia Smith/Mikayla Brenman/Sam Korman to Associate)
• Dr. André Martin hired as a People & Culture Operating Advisor (former CLO at Google, Nike, Target, Mars, Disney)
• Summer Analyst Program: <2% acceptance rate from 1,000+ applicants
• Growth Equity Immersion Program: 3,235 applications (32x growth since 2022), 269 colleges

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Portfolio companies see it too. "PeakSpan showed us very early that they weren't just another investor," says Colton Seal, CEO of Routefusion. "They helped us pressure-test our GTM strategy, refine our positioning, and strengthen our operational rigor. What stands out most is the consistency."

Tom Michels, CEO of Salonkee, adds: "They introduced us to an operating partner who helped us renegotiate major payment contracts, saving us millions of euros annually."

What's Next

The 40 Under 40 celebrates trajectory, not arrival. Matt's been investing for 15 years, and Jack for 10. Both are proving that when you architect a firm around founder partnership, operational excellence, and institutional discipline, everyone wins.  

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We're thrilled to celebrate Jack and Matt for this well-deserved recognition. If this resonates with you, we'd love your help in spreading the word by sharing this post with your network and join us in celebrating the incredible work being done to support software entrepreneurs building enduring companies.

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Read their complete profiles and explore GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors of 2025

here.