Axial’s 2025 Independent Sponsor Report
Independent Sponsors continue to strengthen their position in the lower middle market M&A landscape. Over the last 12 months, Independent…
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We are thrilled to release the 2025 Top 20 Private Equity Funds on Axial!
This ranking highlights the most active and successful Private Equity Funds driving lower middle market transactions on the Axial platform.
Private Equity Funds have accounted for 21% of closed deals on Axial in 2025, with an average EBITDA multiple of 6.07x. This is below the 2024 average of 6.98x but above the five-year average of 5.70x.
To offer a snapshot of how Private Equity deals are being structured in today’s market, the table below — pulled from Axial’s Winning LOI Hub — features a selection of PE-executed LOIs across a variety of industries, showcasing key deal terms.
2025 PE Deal Multiples
| Industry | Deal Headline | Revenue | EBITDA | Multiple* | Cash | Earnout | Rollover Equity | Seller Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Services | IT Services | $3,051,527 | $1,342,409 | 5.99 | 65.00% | -- | 20.00% | 15.00% |
| Industrials | Landscaping Business | $7,500,000 | $1,500,000 | 9.33 | 92.86% | 7.14% | -- | -- |
| Technology | Education IT Services | $10,000,000 | $1,500,000 | 5.61 | 74.47% | -- | 25.53% | -- |
| Food & Hospitality | Perishable Food Distributor | $9,440,000 | $4,500,000 | 4.78 | 96.51% | -- | 3.49% | -- |
| Industrials | Concrete Contractor | $49,600,000 | $8,100,000 | 4.99 | 50.00% | 38.50% | 11.50% | -- |
| Financial Services | Financial Services Platform | $10,620,000 | $2,570,000 | 9.73 | 86.00% | 4.00% | 10.00% | -- |
| Consumer Goods | Garment Manufacturing | $54,100,000 | $9,400,000 | 5.74 | 81.48% | -- | -- | 18.52% |
| Industrials | Commercial HVAC Business | $7,845,645 | $851,014 | 4.11 | 100.00% | -- | -- | -- |
| Healthcare | Eyeglasses Wholesaler | $19,000,000 | $4,100,000 | 7.32 | 68.33% | -- | 25.00% | 6.67% |
| Business Services | Survey Consulting | $12,459,000 | $2,601,000 | 6.92 | 59.72% | 13.89% | 20.83% | 5.56% |
*Multiple is contingent on the full earnout being realized
| Are you looking for a high-level valuation of your company? Use our free business valuation calculator that uses an industry-specified DCF methodology to give you an idea of your company’s value. |
Axial’s Private Equity ranking is assembled based on the deal-making activities of 324 PE Funds actively sourcing transactions via the Axial platform, and is primarily driven by three factors:
- Total Closures: Total deals closed by the firm since inception
- Axial Closures: Total closed deals sourced via Axial
- Process Effectiveness: Ability to progress to the IOI or LOI stage on deals sourced via Axial
Congratulations to the featured members for their achievements!
The Top 20 Private Equity Funds
| Rank | Firm Name | HQ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baymark Partners | Plano, TX |
| 2 | Transom Capital Group | El Segundo, CA |
| 3 | Source Capital | Atlanta, GA |
| 4 | Portrait Capital | New York, NY |
| 5 | Plexus Capital | Raleigh, NC |
| 6 | Kepler Capital Corporation | Calgary, AB |
| 7 | The Sterling Group | Houston, TX |
| 8 | Heritage Holding | Boston, MA |
| 9 | Gauge Capital | Southlake, TX |
| 10 | Sleeping Giant Capital | Kalamazoo, MI |
| 11 | Clearwell Group | Tampa, FL |
| 12 | CPS Capital | Toronto, ON |
| 13 | NextGen Growth Partners | Chicago, IL |
| 14 | Argonaut Private Equity | Tulsa, OK |
| 15 | Morgan Stanley Capital Partners | New York, NY |
| 16 | LFM Capital | Nashville, TN |
| 17 | ShoreView Industries | Minneapolis, MN |
| 18 | Hidden Harbor Capital Partners | Boca Raton, FL |
| 19 | JLL Partners | New York, NY |
| 20 | PennSpring Capital | Lancaster, PA |
About The Top 20
“Baymark Partners is a Dallas-based private equity firm investing in growing middle market IT, healthcare, business, and distribution services, providing owners with liquidity and companies with resources to accelerate their growth.
The professionals at Baymark Partners have over 100 years of successful experience in acquiring, investing in, and operating growth companies. Their experience ranges from early-stage, high-growth to fully developed market leaders. This experience, combined with its active Advisory Board, gives Baymark the ability to implement strategic and operational discipline required to transition middle market companies to a more mature and valuable market position.”
Visit Baymark Partners’ Profile
“Transom Capital Group is a Los Angeles-based private equity firm with an operational focus on private equity investing in the middle-market. The Transom Capital team has a track record of investing and guiding the growth of lower-middle-market businesses. Key to this success is our unique, hands-on approach to partnership, which provides operational involvement and support to each portfolio company without overwhelming the management team. As investors, we view our role as critical, but not sufficient, to generating forward thrust, momentum, and, if needed, a change in direction.”
Visit Transom Capital’s Profile
“Source Capital, LLC is a private equity firm founded in 2002 that makes both equity and debt investments in mature, lower middle-market U.S. companies across a range of industries. Source Capital’s investment strategy targets healthy, growing companies with greater than $2.0 million in EBITDA seeking a growth-oriented partner. Source Capital empowers its partners to achieve their vision and drive sustainable growth through shared efforts and mutual trust.”
Visit Source Capital’s Profile
“Portrait Capital is a private investment firm crafting perfectly-tailored transitions for exceptional small and mid-sized companies. The firm manages committed capital on behalf of 75+ founders and family business owners who share their focus on growing companies and leaders over the very long term. Portrait has acquired five companies over the past two years and remains active.”
Visit Portrait Capital’s Profile
“Plexus Capital invests across the United States in a variety of transaction types, including equity acquisitions, buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital. Since 2005, Plexus has raised and funded $2.3B across seven funds in 180 companies. Plexus closed Equity Fund I at $204M in 2021. Plexus has built an institutional platform with a team of 45 professionals based in Raleigh and Charlotte, NC.”
Visit Plexus Capital’s Profile
“We are long-term, patient investors searching for exceptional small- and mid-sized businesses throughout North America. We work with existing management teams to confidently transition the business while pursuing significant further growth. We also work with business owners to build and execute a plan to transition towards retirement, while maintaining the long-term success and legacy of the business. We focus on businesses with EBITDA of $500K – $5MM, with a preference towards the B2B services, light manufacturing, healthcare, and software industries.”
Visit Kepler Capital Corporation’s Profile
“Founded in 1982, The Sterling Group is a private equity investment firm defined by its focused expertise, depth of experience, operational strategy, and approach to partnering with management. We specialize in what we know best: acquiring and increasing the value of middle-market operating businesses in the fields of basic manufacturing, industrial services, and distribution. Our Partners have a combined 90 years at Sterling. Their business experience encompasses management, operations, public accounting, commercial and investment banking, and securities law. We believe that the primary driver of returns in a portfolio company is implementing strategic and operational initiatives that enhance value. We support management to identify and implement such initiatives.”
Visit The Sterling Group’s Profile
“Heritage Holding is a Boston-based lower middle market Private Equity Fund with $220m of committed capital (Institutional Fund). HH has completed 25 acquisitions since 2016, with a core focus on essential B2B services companies. We aim to partner with businesses that have stable track records and generate $1-10m of EBITDA.”
Visit Heritage Holding’s Profile
“Gauge Capital is a private equity firm that makes shared control and majority investments in growth-oriented service business. We tend to focus on the business service, healthcare service, consumer service, and food service sectors. Our platform investments typically have north of $5 million of EBITDA and are based in the US or Canada.”
“When a business owner wants to exit, but lacks a succession plan, their legacy is in jeopardy. Who can be trusted to preserve and grow their business?
Sleeping Giant Capital is a Kalamazoo-based firm that exists to solve this dilemma.
We invest in West Michigan by acquiring small businesses and growing them over the long term. To do so, we develop the next generation of business owners, back them with capital, and surround them with operating resources and expertise.”
Visit Sleeping Giant Capital’s Profile
“At Clearwell Group, we facilitate strong family culture through investment management, estate planning, philanthropic advisory, and family business consulting. As a family office, we take pride in not only playing a role with our client families, but also the many generations of their families in order to maximize the impact that we can have collectively and within our communities.”
Visit Clearwell Group’s Profile
CPS is an entrepreneurial investment firm that supports the growth of high-quality small and medium-sized businesses. We are focused on companies with annual revenues of $5-$40 million and annual cash flows of $2-$8 million, and we are investing committed capital from 3 active funds. We will work with business owners to ensure the right deal for them, their employees, and their customers.
We bring significant managerial capability and capital to provide business owners with an attractive option compared to traditional financial or strategic buyers. CPS takes an active role in businesses we acquire, and we approach our investments with a focus on business continuity and long-term value creation.”
“NextGen Growth Partners (“NGP”) is a Chicago-based private investment firm. We recently closed our $165M+ Fund III and are actively seeking great family/founder-owned businesses to partner with for their next phase of growth. We are unique in that we provide flexible succession planning for founders/owners looking to exit the business post-close (whether that be immediately or several years after). We do this by bringing in one of our talented Entrepreneurs in Residence to transition into the business after a transaction.”
Visit NextGen Growth’s Profile
“Founded in 2002, Argonaut Private Equity is a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital deployed by the firm’s principals. The firm is currently investing out of Argonaut Private Equity Fund IV, a $400 million fund that deploys Argonaut’s strategy of making control-oriented buyout investments in companies in the industrial, manufacturing, and energy services and products sectors.
Argonaut looks to partner with management teams to improve operations, implement best practices, and generate shareholder value. Argonaut has an over 15-year history of creating value through strategic acquisitions and operational improvements at industrial, manufacturing, and energy services and products companies. Argonaut achieves this through a collaborative approach with management and a low-levered capital structure that provides portfolio companies with the necessary financial flexibility to grow in a disciplined manner.”
Visit Argonaut Private Equity’s Profile
“Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (“MSCP”), established in 1985 and based in New York, makes control equity investments in North American middle-market companies. Currently investing capital from Fund VI with $1.4 billion of total commitments. Targeted, sub-sector focused strategy with intensive operational focus driven by on-the-ground portfolio company “Accelerators” in addition to Operating Partners. We differentiate ourselves by applying the global resources, brand, and capabilities of Morgan Stanley to the middle-market. ”
Visit Morgan Stanley’s Profile
“We are a Nashville-based private equity firm, founded by operators and engineers, investing in manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Canada. We work with existing management teams to develop world-class operations and targeted growth, driving long-term value for management, employees, and our investors.”
“Founded in 2002, ShoreView is a Minneapolis-based private equity firm that has raised over $1.3 billion of committed capital across four funds. ShoreView partners with family or entrepreneur-owned companies across many sectors, including engineered products, distribution, industrial services, business services, healthcare, and niche consumer products. Shoreview structures a variety of acquisition, recapitalization, and build-up transactions, typically in businesses with revenues ranging between $20 million and $300 million.”
Visit ShoreView Industries’ Profile
“Hidden Harbor Capital Partners is a private equity firm that helps create business success stories by building teams focused on execution.
We believe that great companies are built on a strong team as their foundation, and that businesses succeed when they are intensely focused on executing a small set of well-defined objectives. Hidden Harbor has assets under management of more than $1.9 billion.”
Visit Hidden Harbor Capital Partners’ Profile
“JLL Partners is a leading private equity firm with a 34-year track record of transforming businesses through its operational and financial expertise. JLL Partners is dedicated to partnering with companies that it can fundamentally help build into market leaders through a combination of strategic mergers and acquisitions, market repositioning, and product and service line expansion.
The JLL team comprises investment professionals and operating partners with extensive experience in portfolio company management, transaction structuring, capital markets, and business development. The firm has deep expertise in the healthcare, industrials, and business services sectors and targets transformational opportunities driven by secular growth trends that enable long-term value creation for limited partners, management teams, and all other stakeholders. Since its founding in 1988, JLL Partners has committed over $5 billion across eight funds in more than 50 platform investments and 180 add-ons.”
“PennSpring is specifically engineered to assist companies that are not quite ready for institutional capital. Specifically, we specialize in elevating companies with EBITDA of $750,000 – $5 million to the next tier of $5 – $10 million and beyond – and thus positioned for an institutional audience. With a robust rolodex of ways to finance transactions, including direct investment, we can close quickly.
Through this process, we give company owners their desired measure of liquidity and, perhaps more importantly, “a second bite at a larger apple”. With the potential exception of retirement scenarios, we strongly prefer that the entrepreneur “rollover” a meaningful stake (20 – 45% of the company). PennSpring principals invest and provide critical advisory services and strategic connections, but we do not meddle in the day-to-day operations of the company…we align with expert management for a reason.”
Visit PennSpring Capital’s Profile
Select 2025 Featured PE Closed Deals
Additional Resources
- How Many Deals do PE Firms Source on Axial Every Year? (Hint: 1,000s)
- Private Equity Deal Sourcing: Why PE Firms Only See 18% of Relevant Deals
- The Private Equity Deal Sourcing Playbook
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