Stone-Goff Partners has closed Stone-Goff Partners IV LP with $175 million of capital.
According to Stone-Goff, Fund IV saw significant increases in commitments from the firm’s existing investor base and added several new institutional investors including insurance companies, fund of funds, wealth managers and family offices.
As with earlier funds, Fund IV will make majority investments, as the first institutional investor, in founder-led companies focused on tech-driven B2B service companies.
“Our emphasis on partnering with founder-led businesses in the lower middle market has been and will remain at the core of what has made us successful,” said Laurens Goff, a co-founder and managing partner at Stone-Goff. “We’re extremely grateful for the support of both existing and new investors and are excited to continue to deploy capital in companies at the intersection of services and technology.”
Stone-Goff invests in US-headquartered lower middle market companies that have between $3 million and $12 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include business services, consulting services, marketing services, IT services, outsourcing services, and consumer services, as well as human capital and training verticals.
Over the past year, in anticipation of the new fund, Stone-Goff added three new members to its investment team – Vice President Reza Mian, and Senior Associates Priyanka Chodhari and Brendan Lugossy. All three have experience investing in Stone-Goff’s core services verticals.
“We remain committed to investing in the lower middle market because it’s where one finds the greatest concentration of founder-led companies, where we have the experience to source and execute, and where we see tremendous opportunities for growth, particularly with business-to-business knowledge-economy companies,” said Hannah Stone Craven, a co-founder and managing partner at Stone-Goff. “In the midst of what continues to be an uncertain environment, we see a robust deal pipeline in the lower middle market. Founders are looking for partners, lenders are still active, and we’re confident the support of our investors and the strength of our team positions us well for continued growth.”
Fund IV has already closed on its first two transactions with investments in FS Vector, a Washington DC-based financial services consulting firm (April 2023), and JSI (John Staurulakis, Inc.), a Maryland-based provider of consulting and engineering services to rural broadband telecommunications operators (Stone Goff first invested in JSI in October 2018).
Latham & Watkins provided legal services to Stone-Goff on this fundraise. David Sherman and Erin Bergey led the Latham and Watkin’s legal team.
Stone-Goff was founded in 2010 and has offices in New York and Boston.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | June 28, 2023
