New firms step up

Happy Tuesday!

Quick thank you to all the readers who sent in recommendations for our annual Women in PE issue that will run in March. The response was overwhelming yesterday after our call to action. Any other nominees of great up-and-coming women in the industry, especially on the deal side, send me a note here.

Newbies: We have some spinouts and new firms with new funds in market recently (one of my favorite subjects to cover).

May River Capital, formed by executives from Wynnchurch Capital and Valor Equity, closed its second fund on its $300 million hard cap. Fundraising on Fund II took about three months, the firm announced this week. Check out our news brief here.

Chip Grace, Steve Griesemer and Dan Barlow formed May River in 2012. Grace formerly worked at Wynnchurch from 2000 to 2011. Griesemer was a partner at Baker McKenzie focusing on M&A in middle market to multibillion dollar deals, and Barlow worked at Valor from 1998 to 2010.

May River closed its debut fund on $170 million in 2017. The firm focuses on investments in middle market industrials businesses with potential for further growth.

Also: Banneker Partners, formed by ex-Vista Equity senior executive Stephen Davis, is in market targeting $250 million for its debut fund. Banneker invests in enterprise software businesses.

Davis leads the firm along with Partner Matthew McDonald, who prior to Banneker worked as a principal of corporate development at Square. Before, McDonald worked for eight years in private equity, including as a director at CVC Capital Partners, and seven years at Vista. Check out my story here.

Emerging managers like May River and Banneker raised about $47 billion as of Dec. 3, according to Buyouts research. Fundraising for first-timers is sluggish compared to prior years, in part because more established firms are coming back to market faster with new funds, including new product launches with funds that target things like smaller deals or credit investments.

Top Scoops

Waud Capital dedicated $150 million to build a high-growth vertical software company led by ex-Intralinks executives, writes Milana Vinn for PE Hub. Waud partnered with former Intralinks’ CEO Leif O’Leary, along with the company’s former CFO Shay Gonen and former Senior VP of Marketing Peter Frintzilas.

The executives will focus on identifying a platform in the vertical software space with Waud and later take over leadership roles at the platform, Milana writes. Check out my story here.

Kinderhook Industries’ acquisition of Long’s Drugs assigned the specialty pharmacy chain an enterprise value of $390 million. Kinderhook bought the pharmacy services company through existing portfolio company PharMedQuest Pharmacy Services, writes PE Hub editor Sarah Pringle. Check it out here.

That’s it! Have a great rest of your day. Hit me up as always with that good drama, tips n’ gossip, feedback or just to chat at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com, on Twitter or find me on LinkedIn.