Monomoy spinout MiddleGround reaches $140 mln first close

MiddleGround Capital, a Monomoy Capital spinout raising its debut fund, held a first close on more than $140 million, sources told Buyouts.

MiddleGround joins another recently formed firm, Gallant Capital Partners, which held a first close for its debut on $115 million in November. Gallant was formed by two ex-Gores Group executives.

MiddleGround is targeting $425 million for Fund I and could finalize fundraising in the first half, sources said.

The firm last year received a $75 million anchor commitment from Archean Capital Partners, a joint venture of Veritable and Moelis Asset Management.

First-close investors include a diverse group of institutions, sources said. It’s not clear who specifically is an LP in the fund.

MiddleGround made its first investment this summer, acquiring Alco Manufacturing from Blue Point Capital, Buyouts reported. MiddleGround targets companies with less than $200 million of enterprise value.

The firm has grown from its three founders to a total of 14 employees. Ex-Monomoy Partner John Stewart and Directors Lauren Mulholland and Scot Duncan left the firm in 2017 and formed MiddleGround last year.

Stewart and Duncan both have extensive operating experience in their backgrounds at Toyota.

Stewart spent years as a manager at Toyota, his LinkedIn profile shows. He joined Monomoy in 2007 and was made partner in 2016. He rose to co-lead PE investments and also headed the operations group, he said in his profile.

He is joined by Duncan, who started at Monomoy in 2008, prior to which he also worked at Toyota, in engineering and production, Buyouts reported.

Mulholland, who joined Monomoy in 2011, rounds out the team. Before Monomoy, she was an associate at Macquarie Group.

Action Item: Check out MiddleGround’s website https://www.middlegroundcapital.com/ and Form ADV here: https://bit.ly/2DKx4HI