Alpine Investors closes $1 billion for its Fund VII to expand software and services buyouts

Alpine Investors, a San Francisco, California-based private equity firm that invests in software and services, has closed $1 billion for its Alpine Investors VII (“Fund VII”) fund. The Fund VII was oversubscribed, well exceeding its $750 million target and hitting its hard cap, bringing the firm’s total AUM to $2.7 billion.

Founded by Graham weaver, Alpine specializes in middle-market companies in the software and services industries. Since Alpine’s inception in 2001, the firm has made over 130 investments and installed more than 40 CEOs in its portfolio companies. Alpine was also named one of the 70 best companies to work for in the Bay Area by Forbes.

In 2019 alone, the firm completed 37 investments in platforms and add-on acquisitions, including several investments through Alpine’s vertical SaaS aggregation platform ASG and its affiliates. Its recent investments include ophthalmology platform Midwest Vision Partners, as well as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services platform Apex Service Partners. ASG and its affiliates have completed 23 acquisitions to date in vertical markets including LegalTech, MarTech, behavioral health, government, education, logistics, and asset management.

“We are very grateful to the diverse group of new and returning limited partners who have demonstrated their confidence in our approach to private equity,” said Graham Weaver, Founder and CEO of Alpine. “Our PeopleFirst™ strategy drives highly engaged company cultures, business growth, and financial performance.”

In addition to receiving commitments from new investors in Europe, Asia and North America, Alpine secured returning investors to Fund VII including fund-of-funds, pension funds, endowments, and family offices. Alpine closed its previous fund, Alpine Investors VI, in 2017 with $532 million of total committed capital.

With Fund VII, Alpine will continue to specialize in control buyouts, majority recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of recurring revenue software and services businesses, targeting deals with a total enterprise value of up to $400 million for platforms and as low as $5 million for add-ons. The upsizing of Fund VII allows Alpine to continue putting capital into its high-performing investments to pursue strategic add-on opportunities.

Alpine will also continue to leverage its CEO-in-Training™ and CEO-in-Residence programs to fill portfolio company leadership positions with talented professionals trained in Alpine’s playbook. These programs allow Alpine to access a pipeline of strong talent for the leadership of future investments. Alpine expects many of the 56 current executives in these programs will be redeployed into future portfolio companies, including Fund VII investments, as their current assignments end.