The beautiful SaaS companies Venture Capital won’t touch (anymore)

There's a growing conversation about B2B SaaS companies stuck in the middle - too slow for VC, too small or unprofitable for PE. Harry Stebbings has touched on it, people like Silicon Valerie Bertele 🚀 and Zain Jaffer are writing about it.

We’re seeing high-potential, slower-growing companies get left behind by today’s changing investment landscape.

At Hexa , we think these businesses represent one of the clearest investment opportunities of the moment. We’re acting on it through Hexa Scale, our investment arm led by Augustin Celier - joining these companies as late cofounders to unlock a new wave of profitable growth.

(TL;DR: 18 months in, we’re looking for a second Partner to accelerate this track at Hexa)

Why now is the right time

Several shifts have happened at once that have 1. left these companies with their backs against the wall, and 2. made them an unmissable opportunity from an investment point of view:

• VC is chasing outliers or sitting out entirely - Solid businesses growing 20-30% can't compete with AI companies promising 10x scale. VCs finance outliers and fund returners. AI is their Eldorado.
• The Series A-C market has been hit hardest on pricing - Even strong companies can’t raise at historical valuations, as pressure from growth-stage investors has trickled down.
• B2B SaaS companies have become mainstream - Lots of great companies have already been built over the last 15 years with great business models: good margins and recurring revenues. But many of today’s post-Seed companies are not in hyper-growth and thus attract no more VC investments.
• Strategics have gotten cautious - There are fewer acquisition opportunities for companies that aren't massive or strategic necessities. Therefore, companies’ default exit route is a ‘PE exit’.
• But PE financial investors need "real & robust" profitability - They want reliable revenue and strong EBITDA. Smaller companies (under $10M ARR) are seen as too small or fragile.

As a result, high-potential but slower-growing companies often get overlooked. Existing investors aren’t set up to support a long-term vision and lack the expertise to unlock the next wave of growth. The founders of these companies are left with few support options to keep them going.

What these companies look like

They're not failing - not at all. They're just stuck at their current scale.

They're small-cap B2B SaaS companies with typically $2-5M ARR, post product-market fit with paying customers. They’re usually breakeven or profitable, growing 10–40% a year, and capital efficient. They’re in good markets with potential. But they've hit a ceiling and can't figure out how to break through to their next phase of growth.

They’re not “turnaround” situations, but companies with solid foundations that need specific expertise and talent to get them to the next stage.

Where the opportunity lies

The opportunity lies in knowing how to operationally unlock their next stage of growth.

Most face the same core issues. They built their pricing model when they were trying to land their first customers. Their sales process wasn’t designed by salespeople. Their cost structure assumes growth rates that never materialized. Their product roadmap chases features instead of value.

But if you can:

• Join forces with the founders to develop a jointly agreed growth plan
• Access these companies at fair valuations
• Bring in complementary management talent and expertise
• Amp up their go-to-market
• Improve pricing & billing, prioritize product roadmap, and develop cost discipline
• Grow EBITDA or build stable cash generation
• Prepare for exit - to PE as a strategic or a long-term hold

— then the opportunity is incredibly interesting. These are very good businesses stuck for solvable reasons. And because so few investors are willing or able to do this kind of work - and because Hexa’s roots are in being very hands-on - there’s almost no competition.

You just need the operational know-how and people to get it done - the market momentum is already there. The company has proven Product Market Fit. In other words, success is mostly dependent on internal factors, which is a true gift in the world of startups. You just need the patience and skill to do the work.

What we're building with Hexa Scale

We've formalized this hands-on investment thesis into a dedicated activity with our first partner Augustin Celier. We’ve built a pipeline and closed our first deal Veevart . We started in France and Benelux, but we’re exploring other markets to apply the same playbook.

The track record gives us confidence this works. At Yousign , we came in as operational partners when they had a great product but they weren’t growing fast enough. Working together, we rebuilt their pricing and billing, brought in go-to-market talent, revamped the roadmap and the business went from small to rising star in under two years. Similar story with Veevart and founder Antonio Velasco Echeverry , who we joined forces with last year - currently on their growth journey with us.

Our approach solves two critical needs for founders. First, we buy part of their shares, allowing them to secure the value they've already created and giving them the financial peace of mind to take the risks necessary for their next growth phase. Second, we don't just write checks - we join as operational partners and late cofounders, bringing the hands-on expertise and talent that founders tell us they need most but struggle to access on their own.

The reason this works for us is straightforward: we've spent 14 years at Hexa building B2B SaaS companies from scratch. When we see a company with a good product-market fit but we identify solvable internal areas for improvement, we're not really betting on whether it can be fixed - we know it can because we've done it. It’s just about having the right resources, expertise, and leadership, which we have in abundance.

Now we're looking for one more partner to help grow Hexa Scale. Someone who understands where value gets stuck inside a business and wants to turn forgotten companies into rising stars in their niche. Someone at the crossroads of entrepreneurship and investment.

Send me a message if this resonates or find out more about the role here.