Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP), a Chicago and Connecticut based private equity firm focused on high growth middle market companies in the marketing, information, and tech-enabled services sectors, has closed it debut fund GCP Fund I at USD130 million.
GCP did not use a placement agent and secured commitments from a diversified set of institutional investors, family offices and over 25 senior executives from the target investment sectors.
GCP focuses on a buy and build strategy in high growth vertical market sectors to create middle market leading companies or “trophy assets.” GCP Fund I, which was launched in February of 2019, has an existing portfolio of five platform companies comprised of 16 privately held businesses acquired in proprietary transactions. GCP has two pre-fund platform companies dating back to the firm’s first investment in 2015.
GCP was founded by Jim TenBroek and Scott Peters, each with successful track records spanning over 20 years in the target industry sectors. TenBroek was formerly a Managing Director at the private equity firm Wind Point Partners and Mr. Peters was formerly Co-President at JEGI, a leading investment bank in the firm’s target sectors. The senior team includes Principals James O’Callaghan, Connor Dawson and James Nally, each of whom had long working relationships at the founders’ respective former firms.
“GCP’s strategy is unique and leverages the exceptional experience and networks of our team. We focus on the most inefficient part of the business economy – small businesses – and design our companies to grow and reach scale in all economic conditions. We are building middle market leaders in their sectors and bring capital, strategy, M&A sourcing and execution, and a vast industry network to our companies,” says Peters.
“We are grateful for the strong investor support we have received along with the high-quality institutions, advisory board members and industry executives supporting the Fund. Our strategy has been pressure tested in this challenging 2020 environment and we are delighted with the progress of our firm, portfolio and investor support,” says TenBroek.
Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to GCP in raising the Fund.
