Luminate hires new principal from Thoma Bravo

Luminate Capital Partners has named Sanjay Palakshappa as principal at its head office in San Francisco, the firm said.

Palakshappa joins the middle-market firm from Thoma Bravo, where he was associate helping source, evaluate and execute investments in the software sector for two years.

Prior to that, he was an investment banking analyst for two years at Harris Williams, where he specialised in M&A. He had also been a research associate at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, according to his LinkedIn profile, and a sales representative at ServiceSource.

Palakshappa earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington and Lee University.

“I am delighted that Sanjay is joining our team and that we have the opportunity to work together once again,” said Luminate managing director and chief operating officer Katherine Dowling, who worked with Palakshappa at Thoma Bravo.

Luminate, founded in 2014 by Hollie Haynes, emerged from the mid-market firm Silver Lake Sumeru, which halted fundraising activities that year, according to PEI’s Research & Analytics division.

Luminate started fundraising in November 2014 seeking to raise $200 million for its Fund I, according to Research & Analytics. The firm focuses on control investments in middle market software companies.

Earlier this year Luminate finished its acquisition of PDI, a retail automation software company.