Archives for June 19, 2018

North Sky Hires Andrew Harris

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North Sky Capital has added Andrew Harris to its team as a Principal in its New York office.

North Sky was founded in 2000 as the Piper Jaffray Private Capital Group and spun out as an independent firm in 2010. Today the firm is a direct and fund of funds investor in the renewable energy infrastructure, clean technology, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) sectors. North Sky’s investments can take the form of private equity, buyouts, secondaries, turnaround/distressed debt, and venture capital.

“We are excited to welcome Andrew to our business development team,” said Scott Barrington, Chief Executive Officer. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in private markets fundraising and will further accelerate the growth of our series of impact funds.”

Prior to joining North Sky, from June 2014 to April 2018, Mr. Harris was a Senior Vice President in the New York office of Threadmark, an advisory firm that specializes in raising capital for real asset funds in North America and Europe. Earlier in his career, from November 2005 to May 2014, he was a Vice President at Forum Capital Partners, where he raised capital for various private equity funds.

During his career, he has worked on approximately 50 fundraising campaigns. “Andrew has extensive experience raising capital for both infrastructure and secondaries, which makes him an outstanding fit for our firm,” said Mike Pohlen, Managing Director.

“Andrew understands that the attractive returns profiles of our funds offer a terrific opportunity to expand the appeal of impact investing to all investors, big and small. He is going to be a tremendous asset to the firm,” said Danny Zouber, Managing Director.

North Sky currently manages $1.2 billion in committed capital across its funds and is headquartered in Minneapolis with an additional office in New York City (www.northskycapital.com).

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | June 19, 2018

Tengram Buys Lime Crime

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Lime Crime, one of the first digitally-native beauty brands, has been acquired by Tengram Capital Partners.

Lime Crime is known for its vibrant, cruelty-free and vegan products which include eyeshadows, lipsticks, blushes and powders, and hair colors. The company sells its products online and through leading retailers including Bloomingdales, Riley Rose and Ulta.com. Lime Crime was founded by Doe Deere (real name Xenia Vorotova) and Mark Dumbelton in 2008 and is headquartered in Los Angeles (www.limecrime.com).

With the acquisition of Lime Crime closed, Stacy Panagakis, formerly the General Manager of beauty brand Fresh, has been named as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Sasha Valentine, Lime Crime’s Chief Creative Officer, will continue in her current position. Doe Deere, Lime Crime’s co-founder, has transitioned out of day-to-day operations and has joined the company’s board of directors.

“I’m delighted to be joining the company at this pivotal moment,” said Ms. Panagakis. “Lime Crime is a millennial brand with a message that resonates with women everywhere – ‘it’s OK to be bold, experiment and have fun!’ The partnership with Tengram is an important next step in the brand’s evolution, bringing deep industry expertise and greater opportunities to offer unicorns and women everywhere the Lime Crime magical universe. As we expand the brand’s footprint and offerings, Lime Crime will continue to be a brand that stands apart, fulfilling its mission to revolutionize makeup, empower women and smash traditional boundaries.”

Tengram’s goal is to triple the size of the brand over the next five years through new product development and expansion into new categories. In 2017 Lime Crime had revenues of approximately $30 million.

“Lime Crime is truly unique among beauty brands, with a powerful following and a deep understanding of its consumers and their expressive approach to cosmetics,” said Richard Gersten, Partner at Tengram. “We have tremendous appreciation for what Doe, Sasha Valentine and the team have built over the past ten years: a revolutionary brand that empowers consumers to express themselves and inspires them to push past the traditional limits of beauty. In an era of beauty brand proliferation, Lime Crime’s authenticity and innovation stands above the rest. Lime Crime is a tremendous fit in our strong portfolio of beauty brands, and we look forward to leveraging our experience to help the Lime Crime team achieve its growth prospects.”

Tengram invests in companies in the branded consumer products and retail sectors. Specific areas of interest include apparel, sporting goods, consumer electronics, home furnishings, health & beauty, spirits, and food & beverages. Tengram’s current beauty portfolio includes ReVive, Algenist, specialty beauty retailer Cos Bar, and natural beauty brand This Works. The firm was founded in 2010 and has offices in Westport, CT and New York City (www.tengramcapital.com).

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | June 19, 2018

Irving Place Adds to Ohio Transmission

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Ohio Transmission Corporation, a portfolio company of Irving Place Capital, has acquired Crimson Electric.

Crimson Electric specializes in the repair and testing of AC/DC motors, servo motors, pumps and gear reducers. The company has a complete in-house machine shop and can perform precision dynamic balancing, vibration analysis, and factory authorized modifications. Crimson Electric has 20 employees and a 15,000 sq. ft. facility and headquarters in Duncan, SC. The company was founded in 1954 and acquired by Charles and Debbie Wilson in 1994 (www.crimsonelec.com).

Irving Place Capital acquired Ohio Transmission Corporation (OTC), a distributor of motion control, pump and air compressor products, from Frontenac in September 2015.

OTC’s divisions include OTP Industrial Solutions, a provider of industrial motion control, factory automation, fluid power, pumping systems, spray finishing, and power transmission; and Air Technologies, a compressed air system equipment and service provider and the largest distributor of Atlas Copco compressed air equipment in North America. With the buy of Crimson Electric, OTC now has 35 locations throughout the South, Southeast, Midwest and Northeast regions, along with 14 service shops. OTC has approximately 920 employees and is headquartered in Columbus, OH (www.otpnet.com) (www.aircompressors.com).

“The southeastern United States is a rapidly growing industrial market, and Crimson Electric’s service focus provides a great opportunity to expand OTC’s geographic and product areas to better serve all of our customers,” said Phil Derrow, President and CEO of OTC. “We have wanted to include electric motor repair in our product portfolio for many years and are excited to be able to do so with such a great company that has a long history of providing top-notch service to help their customers achieve success.”

 Irving Place is a mid-market private equity firm that invests in North American or Western European-based companies that are active in the industrial, packaging, consumer and retail industries. Transaction types include buyouts, recapitalizations, build-ups, corporate divestitures, take-privates and distressed-to-control situations. The firm was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in New York (www.irvingplacecapital.com).

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | June 19, 2018

Spire Invests in Dynamic Quest

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Spire Capital has made an investment in Dynamic Quest, a provider of IT managed services.

Dynamic Quest (DQ) provides hosted cloud services, disaster recovery, managed IT, service plans, software maintenance, application support, virtual CIO and security services. Nearly three-fourths of DQ’s 2017 revenue was recurring under customer contracts that have from one to three-year terms. In 2017, the company serviced over 225 customers across a variety of market verticals.

DQ has 119 full-time employees and a data center and headquarters in Greensboro, NC with additional offices in Winston-Salem, NC; Cary, NC; and Clark, Philippines. DQ was founded in 2000 and is led by its founder and CEO Javier Gomez (www.dynamicquest.com).

Spire is partnering with Mr. Gomez on this transaction and he will continue to lead the organization along with his existing senior management team.  “We are very excited about this new partnership with Spire Capital, as it marks a transformational phase in our organization’s evolution,” said Mr. Gomez. “With Spires’ support, we plan to continue forward with both organic growth as well as strategic acquisition growth over the next few years.  This movement forward will allow Dynamic Quest to grow our product offerings while providing exceptional customer support to a larger client base.”

Spire invests from $15 million to $40 million in companies with revenues of at least $10 million and EBITDAs of $5 million. Sectors of interest include technology-enabled business services, media, communications and education. Spire is based in New York (www.spirecapital.com).

“Javier and his founding partners have built an incredible company providing managed IT and cloud services to their valued partners,” said David Schaible, a Partner at Spire. “Spire Capital has been an investor in numerous cloud service/IT-related companies and are proud to partner with Javier and his team during their next stage of growth.  We continue to see increased demand in the marketplace for companies seeking to outsource IT and cloud-related services to industry specialists, and we believe that Dynamic Quest is uniquely positioned to continue to provide exceptional technology services while expanding their solution offerings and geographic reach for current and future customers.”

The investment in DQ is the seventh platform investment for Spire Capital Partners III, a $333 million fund which closed in April 2015.

IT ExchangeNet (www.itexchangenet.com), an online IT marketplace, was the financial advisor to Dynamic Quest.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | June 19, 2018