Fort Point Capital has held an oversubscribed, hard cap, and final closing of its third private equity investment fund, FPC Small Cap Fund III LP and FPC Small Cap Fund III-A LP (together FPC III), with $340 million in capital.
Fort Point began fundraising in March 2022 with an initial target of $250 million. The firm’s earlier fund, FPC Small Cap Fund II LP (FPC II), closed in January 2021 with $194 million of capital.
Boston-based Fort Point invests from $10 million to $30 million of equity in lower middle-market companies that have enterprise valuations of $20 million to $100 million. Sectors of interest include business services, healthcare services, information & software, and transportation & logistics.
“We appreciate the continued support of our existing investors and are grateful for the strong interest from the new limited partners joining us in FPC III,” said Brooke Ablon, a co-founder and partner at Fort Point. “Fort Point continues to attract high-quality investors whose partnership is essential to the success of our firm.”
Fort Point has not yet acquired any new platforms for FPC III, but two recent acquisitions for FPC II that demonstrate its investment criteria include the July 2022 buy of Nova (previously known as Polar), a Toronto-based provider of automation software for digital advertising. Nova’s software is used by agencies, ad-tech platforms, publishers, and brands to repurpose creative assets originally developed for social platforms for use across the open internet, including mobile applications and connected television. The buy of Nova was Fort Point’s fourteenth platform investment and the sixth FPC II investment.
Earlier, in March 2022, Fort Point acquired Jones Fish Hatcheries & Distributors, a Cincinnati-headquartered provider of recurring pond and lake management services including fish stocking, aeration systems, algae and aquatic weed management.
“Fort Point’s disciplined, institutional approach focused on the lower middle market and strong alignment in all of our relationships resonated with investors,” said Paul Lipson, a co-founder and partner at Fort Point. “There is no change to our focus in FPC III. Our willingness to aggressively invest in people, processes, and systems has resulted in a unique portfolio in our first two funds with demonstrated results.”
Since the firm’s founding in 2010, Fort Point has acquired 14 platforms and closed 21 add-on acquisitions, and raised more than $630 million in capital. Fort Point has 11 investment professionals at its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Entering our eleventh year since raising FPC I, we are proud of the team we’ve built at Fort Point and the strong relationships formed with our portfolio companies,” said Christina Pai, a partner at Fort Point. “We look forward to the new management partnerships we will create in FPC III. Our goal is to continue to utilize our experience and network of resources to enable more companies to achieve their growth objectives.”
“We appreciate the support from our existing and new limited partners, and we are pleased that our investor base has expanded to include a broad group of financial institutions, family offices, and pension funds,” concluded Mr. Lipson.
Forum Capital Securities was the placement agent for FPC III, and Kirkland & Ellis provided legal services.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | September 30, 2022
