Excellere Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm focused on partnering with middle-market entrepreneurs and management teams, has launched its second fund, Excellere Fund II.
In addition to the principals of Excellere investing their own capital, Excellere’s new USD465 million Fund II is comprised of blue chip institutional investors, including large state and local pension funds, insurance companies and other prestigious financial institutions. Many of these limited partners also invested in Excellere’s USD265 million initial fund (Fund I), which closed in February 2007.
Since its founding, Excellere has distinguished itself by deploying its proprietary buy-and-build investment strategy and value creation processes, which were developed to support entrepreneurial companies within attractive, high growth industries. Currently, Excellere is pursuing investments within five targeted industries: healthcare; specialty foods; industrial technology and services; business services; and education and training.
According to Martin Voelker, managing director of UBS Investment Bank, Excellere’s fundraising advisor: "In a short time, Excellere has emerged as an innovative and highly regarded private equity firm. Excellere has created a unique firm that is admired by investors and entrepreneurs alike. Excellere Fund II was significantly oversubscribed because of their excellent track record, authentic values and differentiated strategy. Raising Excellere Fund II was one of the fastest fundraising efforts that UBS has ever managed."
Excellere will continue to focus on investments in middle-market companies with revenues ranging from USD20-USD150 million. The firm believes that entrepreneurs in the middle-market arena are attracted to its proprietary tools and processes, which help companies accelerate growth, while strengthening corporate infrastructure to achieve scalability. Excellere’s investment approach has resulted in extraordinary investment returns.
"Excellere provides much more than capital to its portfolio companies and, ultimately, this is what has driven the firm’s investment and fundraising successes. Our most important assets are the references we receive from our entrepreneurial partners that have experienced the true partnership offered by our firm. Our ability to raise Fund II so quickly is a testament to the success experienced by our entrepreneur partners," says Rob Martin, a managing partner of Excellere.
Ryan Heckman, also a managing partner at Excellere, says: "Our proprietary Value Creation Process, which is comprised of a proven system of tools, processes, resources and methodologies for successfully building and growing businesses, has enabled our firm to quickly establish a shared vision with our management partners as we pursue an aggressive growth strategy together. We strive to treat our portfolio companies as our customers and help them grow 3-5 times their size during our partnership."
Excellere’s successes to date include MedExpress, a large national network of urgent care centers, which was sold to General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital in 2010. David Kessenich (pictured, with Martin and Heckman), a managing partner of Excellere, says: "MedExpress is a true validation of our strategy. The company grew revenues nearly nine-fold during our investment period of approximately three years, growing the business into a healthcare industry leader that provides an extraordinary value proposition to patients, employers, managed care payors and physician partners. Our success is ultimately measured by the success of our portfolio companies."
