peHUB has covered every nano-development in the fundraising processes of some firms,and Insight Equity and Prophet Equity are two such firms. That’s because an interesting narrative emerged from the parallel fundraising efforts. For all the background, you can read here, and here, and here, and here, but the short story is this:

Ross Gatlin left Dallas-based turnaround shop Insight Equity as the firm prepared to raise its second fund. He left partly because the firm’s terms and fund size were pretty ambitious. Insight had planned to increase its fund size from $300 million to $500 million, while introducing a graduated carry plan that reached 30% for anything above a 4x return, and included a new $250 million mezzanine sidecar fund. Meanwhile, Gatlin launched Prophet Equity and entered the market with a $250 million hard cap, standard carry and a higher than usual GP contribution.

Over the holidays, Dallas-based turnaround shop Prophet Equity held a final close on its debut fund with $250 million in commitments, after 17 months on the road. The effort was oversubscribed, in part, because Prophet stuck militantly to its hard cap figure.

Since Prophet will continue to target the same size investments, the firm already has pledged not to increase the size of future funds, either. In addition to the $250 million in capital commitments, the firm’s GPs have committed $25 million to the effort, with the option to raise their commitments to $50 million.

I spoke with the firm’s founder, Ross Gatlin, about raising a first-time fund in this market. Gatlin is an alum of Insight Equity, a Texas turnaround shop has also been raising a new fund.

Prophet Equity, a new-ish turnaround shop based in Dallas, has acquired Chief Supply and Law Enforcement Supply from Brooks Equipment Company, a firefighting supplier that Behrman Capital had owned since 1998, according to a source familiar with the situation. Prophet Equity bought the two companies and combined them under the name Public Safety Supply Resources. [...]

Prophet Equity I First Report: December 17, 2007 Prophet Equity Launches “Ross Gatlin and George Stelling launched Prophet Equity LLC, a Dallas-based turnaround private equity firm that plans to start raising its debut fund in early 2008.” Latest Update: May 18, 2009: LP-Friendly Terms Helping Prophet Get Fund Raised – Is It Any Wonder? Remain [...]

Plantronics Inc. (NYSE: PLT) has agreed to sell its audio entertainment group (Altec Lansing) to Prophet Equity for approximately $18 million in cash.

This morning’s LBO Wire led with fundraising news of Prophet Equity, a Dallas-based turnaround firm in the market with its debut fund. According to the story, Prophet has $200 million in commitments toward its $250 million goal, which is a pretty impressive feat in this market. (I believe a random LP recently said, “It’s so [...]

One is a Dallas-based lower middle market turnaround LBO firm led by a Bain & Co alum. The other is a Dallas-based lower middle market turnaround LBO firm led by a Bain & Co alum. Insight Equity and Prophet Equity. They’re both in fund-raising mode, so which one do you pick? I’m not going to [...]