Branford Castle has acquired Lafayette Instrument, a maker of polygraph equipment and other scientific instruments.
Lafayette’s polygraph products were first introduced in 1972 and include software and algorithms, computers, heart rate monitors, headsets, arm cuffs, electrodes, and activity sensors.
These products are used by federal law enforcement and security agencies, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies. According to Lafayette, it has sold more polygraph and credibility assessment instruments to private examiners, government, and military organizations than any other manufacturer in the world. Lafayette was founded in 1947 by Max Wastl and is headquartered 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis in Lafayette, Indiana.
Lafayette also provides neuroscience products – mouse and rat activity systems and mazes, test and sleep deprivation chambers, and touch measurement systems – to both public and private research laboratories.
Branford partnered on this transaction with Lafayette’s CEO and owner Jennifer Rider, Vice President of Operations Steve Rider, and other members of the company’s senior management team.
“Steve and I are proud of our family’s leadership of Lafayette over the last 25 years,” said Ms. Rider. “We are excited about this new chapter of the company’s development as we work with Branford Castle to provide the best service to our customers and achieve new levels of growth.”
“We are excited to partner with Jennifer and Steve Rider at Lafayette,” said Laurence Lederer, a senior managing director at Branford Castle. “The company’s long-standing position as the leader in the polygraph market, along with their growing suite of proprietary neuroscience products, make it a terrific platform for continued growth.” In addition to Mr. Lederer, the Branford transaction team included Vice President Ceon Francis.
The buy of Lafayette is the second platform for Branford’s second fund, which closed in 2019, and follows the firm’s August 2020 buy of Fibrix Filtration, a Charlotte-based maker of air filtration media products that are used in commercial and industrial HVAC systems.
Brookside Capital Partners provided mezzanine debt financing to support the buy of Lafayette and Byline Sponsor Finance, a division of Byline Bank, provided the senior debt financing. Dinan Capital was the financial advisor to Lafayette on this transaction.
New York City-based Branford Castle invests in companies that have enterprise values of up to $100 million and EBITDAs of less than $15 million. Sectors of interest include consumer products and services, commercial distribution, industrials and specialty manufacturing, business services, and logistics.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | April 9, 2021
Main Street Capital has made a minority investment in Grand Flower Growers (GSG), a grower and distributor of plants and flowers.
Houston-based 
Ascensus Specialties, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners, has acquired Strem Chemicals.
“We thoughtfully chose Ascensus as the partner for the next phase of Strem’s growth,” said Mr. Strem. “Our employees’ interests and well-being have been my top priority, and the strong cultural fit will provide opportunities for our team. The additional resources and global reach of Ascensus will deliver Strem’s strong capabilities to an even broader audience of customers.”
Bellevue, Washington-headquartered Ascensus was founded in 1939 as Metal Hydride, Inc. and was acquired by Thiokol Chemical in 1976. Thiokol merged with Morton International in 1982 to become Morton-Thiokol. In 1999, Rohm & Haas acquired Morton-Thiokol and in 2009 Rohm & Haas in turn was acquired by Dow Chemical.
“We are extremely excited to have Strem join the Ascensus family,” said Mr. Huff. “Strem has a world-class team and a renowned reputation that has been methodically fostered for over half a century under the leadership of Michael Strem and Ephraim Honig. We will look to further support the team’s highly technical R&D culture, differentiated product offering and value-added customer relationships. Together, Ascensus and Strem will be a global specialty chemicals leader serving the demanding, high-growth life sciences and specialties markets.”
“Strem represents an excellent addition to the Ascensus platform,” said Alex Washington, a managing director at Wind Point. “The combined business will have capabilities to offer solutions ranging from lab to large scale commercial production. Strem’s industry-leading technical competency is a meaningful addition to Ascensus’ existing capabilities, and Ascensus looks forward to working with Ephraim and the Strem team to amplify new product and application development efforts.”
Chicago-based 
Southfield Capital has held a final close of Southfield Capital III LP with $303 million of capital commitments.
“We’re so pleased to see such a high level of participation from our existing limited partner relationships investing again in Southfield’s Fund III, many of whom meaningfully upsized from their Fund II commitments,” said Andy Levison, Southfield’s managing partner. “We also added several new relationships with industry-leading institutional investors, further validating our mission to invest in exceptional lower middle-market businesses and generate outstanding returns for our limited partners.”
Last month, Southfield acquired its first Fund III platform with the buy of 
