Chicago based private equity firm Ascent Equity Capital has declared that with increased commitment from investors; it has raised its first fund to $5 million. This private equity firm was launched in November 2003 with only $500,000 as its capital. Over time, Ascent Equity Capital I, L.P has generated over a 50% gross internal rate of return till date on the companies and a 2.9x multiple of invested capital.

Through Ascent’s CEO in Residence program, Ascent Equity Capital I, L.P always focuses on investment. Its modus operandi has always been to first associate itself with a worthy CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and then initiates investment in an effort towards a buyout of the company. Then the CEO assumes the top-position in the company. Typically, Ascent also ropes in larger private equity groups to finance the majority of equity in any transaction. In recent years, Ascent has also co-invested with private equity firms such as Frontenac Company in Chicago and Great Hill Partners in Boston in buyouts worth $100 million.

Ascent’s current investments include Central Security Group, a provider of alarm monitoring services, TrialGraphix, a provider of trial litigation services, Encore Legal Solutions, information management services provider to legal firms and legal departments of Fortune 1000 companies and Main Street National Bank, that is a small business equipment leasing and banking company.

Chad Mollman (Ascent General Partner) stated that in the future even if there is an increase in the size of a later second fund, that might amount to $10 million or more, still Ascent will focus on the same size of deals as it has now. This would prevent the increase in problems that other private equity firms have faced, when these firms have intended to increase their size and funds but could not achieve much success in cases of larger transactions.

Last year, Ascent announced that it planned on changing its name from Pinnacle Equity Capital to Ascent Equity Capital. This move had been aimed towards the creation of a separate identity from the CEO search firm Pinnacle CEO Recruiters.

About Ascent Equity Capital:

Ascent is a Chicago-based private equity fund focused on partnering with outstanding CEOs and acquiring and building leading companies. Ascent makes all of its investments through its CEO in Residence program, which involves Ascent partnering with a proven CEO first, and then working with a CEO to acquire an attractive company. Ascent looks to invest in companies with recurring revenue, high margin business models that can be built into leaders in their industries.

Ascent Equity Capital’s investment strategy is to invest in transactions where:

1. A private company is under-managed or “under the radar”.

2. A new management is able to improve the operational performance and implement a successful growth plan.

3. After a company has achieved critical mass and demonstrated strong growth and margins it is attractive to a number of large corporate buyers and larger private equity groups.

Ascent Equity Capital makes equity investments of up to $2 million, and brings in larger private equity firms to partner with acquisitions of companies up to $1 billion in enterprise value. In the past Ascent has partnered with private equity groups such as Great Hill Partners in Boston, and Frontenac Company in Chicago on management buyouts of companies with enterprise values as high as $100 million.

Ascent is actively seeking investments in companies in the business-to-business services, consumer services and products, financial services, and media and publishing sectors.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 am and is filed under Venture Capital Funding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.