Catchment Capital has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Fidus Systems, a provider of electronic and embedded system design services.
Fidus Systems specializes in complex design engineering for applications across a variety of sectors, including aerospace and defense, automotive, computing and storage, consumer electronics, communications, general industrial, medical devices, and semiconductor equipment.
Fidus’s service capabilities include FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) and ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) design, embedded software development, hardware design, PCB layout, signal and power integrity, thermal and mechanical design, radio frequency systems, and comprehensive validation and testing. FPGA and ASIC design involve creating custom chips—FPGAs are flexible and reprogrammable, useful for prototyping and changing needs, while ASICs are fixed, high-performance chips built for specific applications and large-scale production.
Fidus was founded in 2001 by Alan Coady and is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, with additional offices near Toronto in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and San Jose, California. Mr. Coady has maintained an equity interest in Fidus and will continue to lead the company’s operations.
“We are thrilled to partner with Catchment as we enter the next stage of Fidus’s growth,” said Mr. Coady. “The Catchment team brings deep experience in supporting and scaling leading industrial services companies, and their strategic and operational expertise will be invaluable as we look to accelerate growth. This milestone is a testament to the dedication and talent of the entire Fidus team, and we are excited to build on our strong foundation to deliver even greater value to our customers.”
Fidus has more than 500 global customers that are active in the aerospace & defense, automotive, communications, computing, consumer electronics, medical devices, and semiconductor equipment sectors, including multiple tier-one firms.
“Fidus is an ideal first investment for Catchment,” said Alex Rose, the founder and managing partner at Catchment. “Our investment strategy is to back industrial businesses that are well positioned to capitalize on industry growth trends, where we can invest in the capabilities, people and systems to enhance its strategic market position. We are excited to be able to support Alan Coady and the Fidus team to help transform the company into a global leader, providing solutions to a diversified and growing customer base pursuing bleeding edge applications and exceptional service delivery.”
The embedded systems and electronic design services sector is increasingly driven by the complexity of modern applications such as edge AI, 5G, autonomous systems, and IoT. Outsourcing of high-end design work allows original equipment manufacturers to focus on core competencies while leveraging specialist firms for R&D innovation. The demand for higher processing power, better power efficiency, and compact form factors is pushing growth in FPGA/ASIC work, system integration, and co-design of hardware and software.
“We believe Fidus is well positioned to benefit from exceptionally attractive secular and macro growth drivers, including increases in market wide outsourcing of high complexity design services, utilization of artificial intelligence at the edge, increases in processing power and speed required for advanced electronics, and demand for aerospace, defense and space electronics,” said Robby Berner, an investment partner at Catchment.
Catchment Capital invests in North American and European-based industrial technology, services, or products companies with EBITDA of up to $75 million. The firm was founded in 2024 by Mr. Rose and is headquartered in New York City. Before founding Catchment, Mr. Rose was co-president of Crestview Partners, where he led the firm’s industrials investment strategy. Earlier, he worked at General Electric in acquisitions for the specialty materials and infrastructure divisions and began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
TD Cowen is the financial adviser to Catchment on this transaction, and Sampford Advisors is advising Fidus.
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