Stride Consumer Partners, an investor in the consumer products and services sectors, has closed its inaugural fund, Stride Consumer Fund I LP, with $420 million of capital commitments.
Stride’s first fund beat its $300 million target, was oversubscribed, and closed above its hard cap. Limited partners in the fund include several global institutional investors and more than a dozen founders and senior executives that the Stride team has partnered with previously.
“We are grateful that such an exceptional and enthusiastic group of consultants, endowments, fund of funds, insurance companies, and pensions have entrusted us with their capital, and we continue to focus on building an outstanding portfolio on their behalf,” said Tim Burke, a partner at Stride.
Waltham, Massachusetts-headquartered Stride was founded in 2019 by former professionals of consumer-focused Castanea Partners.
Stride makes both minority and majority growth equity investments of $10 million to $150 million in consumer businesses with a specialization in the beauty, food and beverage, active lifestyle, and multi-unit consumer services sectors. Typical investment targets will have annual revenues of $10 million to $150 million.
Stride’s new fund has already closed on three investments including Skinfix, a Canada-based and female-founded provider of skincare products (November 2021); Chomps, a Florida-based and minority-owned provider of grass-fed beef, grass-fed venison, and free-range turkey snacks, with no hormones, antibiotics or added sugar (January 2022); and Truewerk, a Colorado-based direct-to-consumer seller of performance workwear (April 2022).
“We admire these amazing founders and management teams for their vision, judgment, resourcefulness, and leadership,” said Juan Marcos Hill, a partner at Stride. “We appreciate the trust they have placed in Stride and are infinitely grateful that, amongst so many compelling alternatives, they chose to partner with us.”
“Many of us have spent twenty years helping founders and entrepreneurs pursue their visions and build their companies. So, it’s incredibly gratifying to have reached this milestone in Stride’s launch and development,” said Steve Berg, a partner at Stride. “We successfully completed fundraising the same way we do everything – as a team. And we’re energized to continue helping build remarkable companies, including Stride.”
Campbell Lutyens was used by Stride as its placement agent and Latham & Watkins provided legal services.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | April 28, 2022
