ParkerGale Capital has closed its debut fund at $240 million. The new fund had a balanced mix of limited partners that included family offices, pensions, managed accounts, endowments and funds of funds. The original target was $200 million.
The fund’s first close was held in September 2015 with $47 million in total commitments: $20 million from a family office, $10 million from a fund-of-funds, $5 million from a small managed account, and the balance from a number of individual investors.
ParkerGale makes control investments in founder-owned, profitable technology companies with subscription or transaction-based revenue models. The firm was founded in 2014 by five former members of Chicago Growth Partners – Devin Mathews, Dave Chandler, Jim Milbery, Kristina Heinze and Ryan Milligan. “We are excited to be in business and humbled by the support of our limited partners,” said Mr. Mathews. “Now back to our day jobs – finding more management teams to support and great companies to buy.”
ParkerGale has completed two acquisitions so far for the new fund. In November 2015 the fund acquired Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) from founding family member and CEO Caroline Daniels. Upon closing of the acquisition, ParkerGale named Charles Picasso, a co-investor on this transaction, as ATP’s new CEO. ATP sells parts and maintenance data as well as workflow management software to companies that repair and maintain small airplanes. This is the general aviation market, which includes tens of thousands of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and fixed based operator (FBO) service providers. ATP customers buy products on an annual subscription basis and the company currently has about 17,000 subscribers. According to ParkerGale, ATP is the only organization that integrates information directly from more than 54 of the world’s leading manufacturers to create the industry’s most comprehensive repository of technical, operating, and regulatory data. ATP was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in San Francisco (www.atp.com).
The second acquisition was the buy of OnePlus Systems in October 2015. OnePlus is a provider of systems that monitor large trash compactor activity and provides access control and usage reporting, as well as data analytics. The company’s products and cloud-based software platform are used by retailers, manufacturers, property managers, hospitals and hospitality operators to reduce costs and increase operating efficiencies. OnePlus has an installed base of several thousand sensor units with over 200 customers across all 50 states. OnePlus serves small and medium-sized businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies including Republic Services, General Electric, Lowe’s, American Airlines, Home Depot and Kroger. The company is led by CEO Klaus Voss and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook (www.oneplussystems.com).
“We believe we are building something unique here at ParkerGale, and we are grateful to our investors for helping us achieve that goal,” said Mr. Milbery.
Other members of the ParkerGale team include Chief Financial Officer Corey Dossett, Senior Advisor Tim Murray, Principals Alan Williamson and Kevin Fitzgerald, Associate Cass Gunderson and Office Manager Sharon Janowski. ParkerGale is headquartered in Chicago (www.parkergale.com).
BearTooth Advisors (www.beartoothadvisors.com) was the placement agent for ParkerGale and Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com) provided legal services.
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 11-15-16