L Squared Capital Partners in Newport Beach says one of its portfolio companies has made a key purchase in Southern California, in another sign that private equity capital for tech companies is alive and well in the area.
L Squared’s Raptor Scientific, which is based in Berlin, Conn., and aims to consolidate businesses in the aerospace-focused testing and measurement systems market via an inital $60 million investment from L Squared, bought Woodland Hills-based King Nutronics Corp., a developer of test and measurement company. No price was disclosed.
The acquisition is expected to be a sign of things to come.
Randall Hunt, an L Squared partner, says “2023 will be an active year, certainly for us.”
“We continue to see excellent opportunities for us to deploy capital in the sectors of our interest,” he told the Business Journal on March 9. L Squared focuses on the educational technology sector, industrial tech and services sector, and tech-enabled business services and software.
In a separate transaction last month, L Squared said it had made a “significant growth investment” in Foundant Technologies, a philanthropy-oriented software company in Bozeman, Mont.
Opportunity Pipeline
“We do have a pipeline of opportunities that we’re actively evaluating,” Hunt said.
“We’ve hired four new investment professionals in the past year. So, we are very much poised for a very active 2023,” according to Hunt.
The company has 15 employees.
“We do own a majority of the equity and have board control at all of our portfolio companies,” he said while L Squared empowers its leadership teams at the various firms.
He said all the portfolio companies are profitable and doing very well.
Its website-listed “investment criteria” include an equity investment size of $30 million to $100 million.
Carrick Capital
Private equity firm Carrick Capital Partners, also based in Newport Beach, has recently made a key investment.
The firm said March 9 it had invested in Pittsburgh-based LegalSifter, a legal services company utilizing artificial intelligence and human expertise. The amount of the investment was undisclosed.
The funding will be used to expand LegalSifter’s offerings and to scale operations.Â
As part of the transaction, Carrick Co-CEO Jim Madden and Director Ivan Whittey will join the LegalSifter board of directors.
In a separate transaction in July, Bishop Fox, an offensive cybersecurity firm, announced it had received $75 million in Series B funding from Carrick.
