Atlantic Street Capital

Atlantic Street Capital is a private equity firm that invests in middle-market companies with between $3 million and $20 million of EBITDA. Companies with earnings of this size are usually established businesses rather than start-ups, and many are founder-led or family-owned with no prior institutional investment. Atlantic Street Capital targets fundamentally sound businesses that can benefit from capital investment alongside strategic and operational initiatives, and describes itself as an operational engine for entrepreneurs and management teams.

The company's partners work closely with management, and its stated approach involves setting a vision with measurable goals; optimizing structure, systems and processes; using analytics to find efficiencies; and pursuing growth through acquisitions. That last element reflects a buy-and-build model, in which a platform company acquires smaller add-on businesses in its field, and Atlantic Street Capital sets out add-on criteria for many of its portfolio companies.

The company's investments span healthcare, IT and professional services, business services, specialty distribution, consumer and residential services, and multi-unit retail, with companies based across the United States and in Canada. Examples include Dynamic Campus, an outsourced IT provider to higher education; CGVantage, which provides IT compliance and cybersecurity services; the fertility software provider eIVF; and All Star Auto Lights, a distributor of lighting and wheel parts to collision repair shops. Many of these sectors are made up of numerous small, often regional operators, and such fragmented markets are common settings for buy-and-build strategies.

Atlantic Street Capital has invested through a series of funds, including Fund II, Fund III, Fund IV (Atlantic Street Capital IV, LP) and Fund V. In private equity, each numbered fund is typically a separate pool of capital from outside investors, with a new fund usually raised once its predecessor is largely invested.