Peterson Partners Raises Fund VI

They could have raised a bigger fund, but decided to go with a smaller one.

That was the decision Dan Peterson, of Salt Lake City-based growth stage and buyout investor Peterson Partners, says he and his partners made before raising a $50 million sixth fund. The fund, which the firm announced closing this week, comes on the heels of a $104.5 million Fund V, according to Thomson Reuters.

Unlike the last fund, Fund VI does not include institutional limited partners. Instead, Peterson says, the firm targeted individuals in its fundraising efforts, looking for investors who could also be active in sourcing deals, advising portfolio companies or taking board seats.

“For this stage in our growth we wanted to focus on a model that is almost like an investment club,” says Peterson who serves as managing partner at the firm alongside his brother, Joel Peterson, its founder and chairman.

LPs in the new fund include Row Moriarty, a former Harvard Business School professor, Staples board member and Charles River Associates board chair; David Checketts, a former Madison Square Garden CEO; Bob Nakasone, former CEO of Toys R Us; and Bob Whitman, CEO of Franklin Covey. Whitman and Moriarty will also serve on the firm’s investment committee.

Peterson says the firm will not target a particular sector, focusing instead on “opportunistic investments.” It plans to use the proceeds of its Fund VI to target private equity investments of between $2 million and $10 million. The firm’s current portfolio includes ApxAlarm, a residential alarm service company, Brazilian airline Azul Linhas Areas Brasileiras, and eyewear coating provider I-Coat.

While the firm has not announced an exit in recent months, Peterson said there are several transactions involving portfolio companies that are well underway and that announcements regarding those likely “will be happening from the next couple of months on through the middle of next year.”