Trivest Partners has closed the sale of HighGround Restoration Group to Knox Lane.
HighGround Restoration Group is a provider of water damage mitigation and restoration services. The company specializes in emergency water removal, structural drying, and mold remediation, serving residential and commercial customers affected by water-related disasters.
HighGround was initially formed by Trivest Partners in February 2020 with the platform acquisition of Dry Force, a Texas-based water loss mitigation and restoration provider with locations in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.
In 2021, Dry Force expanded through the acquisitions of Cleanup & Total Restoration in Idaho, Power Dry in Missouri, More Floods in Kansas, DRIRITE in Florida, and Northeast PowerDry in New Jersey. In 2022, the company rebranded as HighGround Restoration Group and acquired PureDry Restoration in Washington and Expert Water Removal in Florida. In 2023, it added Rocky Mountain Restoration in Arizona, AllKlean in Washington, ALLPHASE Roofing and Restoration in Ohio, Superior Restoration in California, and Serclean in Georgia.
Today, HighGround is led by CEO Ben Balsley and serves as the umbrella for the entire group, while each individual company retains its brand equity in the market. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and operates across 13 states with nearly 700 employees.
“Our vision is to build a company where great brands thrive and elevate to next-level performance,” said Ben Balsley, HighGround’s chief executive officer. “We will do this by serving our employees, customers, and partners and creating opportunities to leverage national scale for local execution. I couldn’t be more excited about our brand teams and HighGround platform and the growth opportunities in front of us.”
The sale of HighGround marks the first exit from Trivest Discovery Fund LP (TDF), which closed in February 2020 with $235 million in capital. TDF was launched as a new strategy by Trivest to focus on investments in smaller platform founder- and family-owned companies, specifically those with less than $4 million in EBITDA.
“The growth we’ve experienced over the past five years has been nothing short of amazing and has culminated in this exciting new partnership with Knox Lane,” said Ben Balsley. “From their original investment in Dry Force through the exit process, Trivest showed an incredible commitment to investing in our company and our people to help HighGround maximize its potential.”
“HighGround was an exciting investment for Trivest from day one. Over our five-year investment period, we had the opportunity to bring 14 terrific family-owned businesses into the HighGround/Trivest family,” said Forest Wester, a managing partner at Trivest Partners, who led the HighGround investment. “Each acquired company was a leader in its geographic market, and, by bringing these businesses together, we have built a unique platform in the water damage mitigation and restoration space.”
Harris Williams acted as the exclusive financial advisor for Trivest Partners and HighGround Restoration Group, while Akerman LLP served as legal counsel.
Trivest Partners invests in lower middle-market, North America-based companies that operate in the consumer and retail, healthcare, niche manufacturing, distribution, and business services sectors.
The firm makes both control and minority investments across a family of funds, including Trivest Growth Investment Fund III LP, a $730 million fund targeting non-control investments in founder- and family-owned businesses with a minimum of $20 million in revenue and $4 million in EBITDA; Trivest Discovery Fund II LP, a $600 million fund making control investments in companies with up to $40 million in revenue and $4 million in EBITDA; Trivest Mid-Market Fund VII LP, a $950 million fund targeting companies with more than $20 million in revenue and up to $15 million in EBITDA; and Trivest Recognition Fund LP, a $1.3 billion fund for companies with more than $50 million in revenue and more than $15 million in EBITDA.
Founded in 1981, Trivest Partners is a private equity firm focused on founder- and family-owned businesses in the United States and Canada. The firm manages over $6 billion in capital across four investment funds and specializes in both control and non-control transactions. Headquartered in Miami, Trivest also maintains a presence in Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto.
San Francisco-based Knox Lane, founded by John Bailey and Shamik Patel in December 2019, is an investor in consumer and services businesses. Both founders were former partners at TPG Growth.
© 2025 Private Equity Professional | March 14, 2025
