RidgeLake Partners has made a minority investment in Gridiron Capital.
RidgeLake was formed by OA Private Capital (Ottawa Avenue Private Capital) and Apogem Capital, a subsidiary of New York Life, as a platform to acquire non-control equity interests in middle market private equity firms.
“RidgeLake’s investment and partnership with Gridiron will allow us to accelerate our growth and further drive strong returns for our partners,” said Tom Burger, a managing partner at Gridiron Capital. “We are excited to have them as partners as we continue to build on our success.”
Last month, Gridiron closed its fifth fund, Gridiron Capital Fund V LP, with $2.1 billion of capital. The new fund exceeded its target of $1.8 billion and is markedly higher than the firm’s earlier fund which closed in December 2020 with $1.35 billion of capital. Gridiron V is the largest fund in the firm’s history and was supported by both returning and new investors including pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, endowments, and foundations located across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Like its earlier funds, Gridiron V will make control equity investments in North America-based branded consumer, business-to-business and business-to-consumer services, and niche industrial businesses that have enterprise values between $150 million and $600 million and EBITDA from $10 million to $60+ million.
Gridiron’s new fund is already 40% deployed across 4 platforms – including 16 add-on investments – as follows: Legacy Service Partners, a Tampa-headquartered provider of residential heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services (January 2023); Esquire Deposition Solutions, an Atlanta-headquartered provider of remote and in-person court reporting, video, and interpreting services for law firms, insurance companies, and corporate legal departments (January 2023); Magneto & Diesel, a Houston-area headquartered distributor and remanufacturer of aftermarket parts for diesel engines (September 2022); and Vistage Worldwide, a San Diego-headquartered provider of CEO coaching and peer advisory services to small and midsize businesses (July 2022).
“We believe that the expertise of Gridiron’s team in its core industry thematic areas is exceptional and have the utmost respect for their culture of continuous improvement and Winning Together,” said Todd Milligan, co-head of RidgeLake.
“We’ve been working with RidgeLake’s advisers for years, and they uniquely understand our team culture and differentiation in the middle market,” said Kevin Jackson, a managing partner at Gridiron. “We are well-aligned and share the same long-term vision for Gridiron. We look forward to leveraging their strategic resources and expanding our relationship even further through this partnership.”
“We are excited to join forces with Gridiron and help them grow their investment platform in the coming years,” added Michael Lunt, the co-head of RidgeLake.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based OA Private Capital is an investment advisory firm that was formed in 2015 to manage investments in private equity funds, co-investments in private equity investments, and investments in other traditional and alternative asset classes.
Apogem Capital is a subsidiary of New York Life and makes investments in middle market alternatives with a focus on primary fund investments, secondary investments, direct co-investments, and general partner investments; senior and junior debt investments; and private real assets. In April 2022, New York Life rebranded the operations of its majority owned private markets subsidiaries – GoldPoint Partners, Madison Capital Funding and PA Capital – as Apogem Capital.
New Canaan, Connecticut-headquartered Gridiron was founded in 2005 and has invested in over 185 companies, including 36 platform companies.
Evercore was the financial advisor to Gridiron on this transaction and Ropes & Gray provided legal services.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | November 10, 2023
