FalconPoint Partners has announced its launch as a private equity firm focused on investing in North America-based middle market companies that are active in the business services and industrials sectors.
FalconPoint is led by its founder and managing partner Russ Gehrett. Prior to founding FalconPoint, Mr. Gehrett was a partner at Wynnchurch Capital Management where he established and led the firm’s New York City office.
Before joining Wynnchurch in 2021, Mr. Gehrett was a partner at Pamplona Capital. He joined the firm in 2012 to help grow its North American investment strategies in the business services, industrials, and consumer sectors. Earlier in his career, he worked at Wellspring Capital Management where he focused on investments in the industrial and consumer sectors. Mr. Gehrett began his career in the leveraged finance group at Jefferies & Company.
New York City-based FalconPoint currently has a team of nine investment, operating, and support professionals, and more than $500 million in assets under management. The firm invests in preferred equity, warrants, and debt-like instruments to support leveraged buyouts, growth equity, minority and non-control investments, and corporate carve-outs and divestitures. FalconPoint has already closed on one investment with a growth equity investment in a yet unannounced transaction.
“Building enduring relationships has always been at the core of my investment approach, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to make this a foundational principle of our firm as we identify and partner with great businesses and management teams,” said Mr. Gehrett. “We’ve assembled a team of exceptional individuals—many of whom I have worked alongside for over a decade—who share our firm’s values of integrity, honesty, and transparency. I am confident our approach of responsible partnership will continue to position FalconPoint to grow and achieve our goal of providing essential businesses the resources they need to achieve greater scale, resilience, and significance in their sectors.”
Andrew Singer, who worked with Mr. Gehrett at both Wynnchurch and Pamplona, has also joined FalconPoint as a partner and its chief investment officer.
“This is an incredible opportunity to work alongside Russ as we institutionalize the values and priorities behind which we have invested so successfully for more than a decade,” said Mr. Singer. “I look forward to supporting talented management teams as they build the businesses of tomorrow, positioned to thrive in an increasingly dynamic and competitive global economy.”
Supporting the operations of FalconPoint is a network of operating partners and executive advisors comprised of public and private company executives including leaders of Fortune 100 companies, serial entrepreneurs, and financial experts. According to FalconPoint, the firm has deep and trusted relationships with each member of its Executive Advisory Board, often nurtured over decades of side-by-side collaboration.
“The FalconPoint team’s commitment to leveraging digital and AI solutions to solve traditional business problems has driven step-change growth in a number of companies where we have partnered,” said Alex Hawkinson, an operating partner at FalconPoint and the founder of SmartThings and BrightAI. “The results we have achieved over the last decade have been integral to the creation and success of BrightAI, and I am excited to continue to identify and support new investments together.”
In January, FalconPoint began fundraising for FalconPoint Partners II LP with Eaton Partners as its placement agent.
© 2024 Private Equity Professional | April 19, 2024
