Guardian Capital Partners completed the final close of Guardian Capital Partners Fund III, with $282 million in capital commitments.
The fundraise was oversubscribed with strong support from existing limited partners (LPs) and several new institutional investors. Fund III has already acquired two platform businesses: Western Shelter Systems (October 2019) and Flat River Group (November 2019).
“To reach our hard cap during a global pandemic is a testament to our high-quality team at Guardian,” Peter Haabestad, co-founder and managing partner of Guardian Capital Partners, said. “We sincerely appreciate the incredible support of our LPs and welcome our new LPs, many of whom worked hard to complete their diligence processes after lockdowns started.”
“This is an exciting time to be investing as companies begin to rebound and deal with new challenges, including changing consumer behavior, ESG opportunities, sourcing issues, new channel strategies and workforce management,” Scott Evans, co-founder and managing partner of Guardian Capital Partners, said. “We built Guardian with the goal of delivering superior returns to our investors, and we believe that demand for Fund III reflects limited partner confidence in our ability to execute on Guardian’s successful strategy.”
Since Guardian’s inception in 2008, the team has closed 45 transactions including acquisitions of platforms and add-ons, as well as divestitures.
In conjunction with the fundraise of Guardian Fund III, Guardian added two partners, Adrian Ironside and Ryan Northington, who will both lead investments in Fund III. Guardian’s four partners are supported by 11 investment professionals, a finance and compliance team, and an advisory board.
Latham & Watkins was counsel to Guardian Fund III. Guardian topped off the Fund III capital raise with the support of Shannon Advisors as its exclusive placement agent.
Guardian Capital Partners is a private equity firm based in suburban Philadelphia that makes control investments in lower middle market private companies located primarily in the United States with annual revenues between $20 million and $100 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $9 million.
