AI 2018 Business Excellence Awards

60 Acquisition International - 2018 Business Excellence Awards BE180068 Best Specialised Asset Manager 2018 - USA StarMountain Capital Star Mountain Capital is a specialized asset management firm focused on investing in the largest segment of established businesses in the U.S. economy – private businesses that generally have between $10 million and $150 million in annual revenues or $3 million to $15 million of EBITDA, which is often called the lower middle-market. These are not the online, consumer type of loans, but rather providing individuals and institutions the ability to invest in the “Growth Engine of America ® ” which are established smaller companies, representing over 200,000 companies and 90% of the non-start-up businesses in America. This allows investors the ability to access U.S. based private credit and private equity investment opportunities in a highly diversified manner. With this focus in mind, Star Mountain provides strategic growth capital and resources to over 200 companies. With the help of large companies and hundreds of individuals, they strive to invest and help grow private U.S. small and medium sized businesses, and ultimately create jobs for individuals at these portfolio companies. To distinguish themselves from the rest of the market, their business model is centered around data, information, and resources. The CEO and Founder, Brett Hickey, developed a comprehensive business model with a robust investment in technology. After spending three years executing the business model, including through attending Harvard Business School’s OPM program and joining YPO in 2008 to take a “problems and solutions” style approach to building an investment platform, the firm then spent three years investing in technology and R&D. Recognizing the importance and need for technology early-on, Star Mountain hired a full- time Chief Technology Officer (CTO), which was extremely crucial to the firm. Their CTO stays on top of both the industry technological trends and makes real-time updates that are needed for the progression of the business. Using the latest technology, Star Mountain is able to implement a deal origination platform to look at a high volume of deals and then underwrite ones that fit into their parameters. In the twelve months ending December 2017, the firm looked at over 700 direct opportunities, which was over $8 billion in potential loan volume. Due to their custom-built technology, they were able to process this high loan volume. It is also their custom-built technology that allows the firm to monitor their portfolio diligently to be made aware of any missed payments or a slowdown in payments to be proactive, and not reactive. Additionally, Star Mountain also work as a flexible and solutions oriented partner towards those they invest in, placing great importance on being open, listening and creating structures and solutions to help accomplish everyone’s goals in an aligned manner. While this may consume more senior resources, it generally produces superior results for everyone. In order to maximize knowledge and build superior investment portfolios, the firm has created a synergistic three-channel approach to investing in U.S. lower middle-market companies: 1. Providing capital directly to established, small and medium-sized companies; 2. Investing as a strategic limited partner into other lower middle-market funds; and, 3. Making secondary investments, providing liquidity to limited partners in other lower middle- market funds. Star Mountain believes its synergistic three- channel approach provides the firmwith substantial information, deal flow and portfolio management competitive advantages, all of which the firm believes leads to superior investment products. Looking ahead, the firm’s goal is to only focus on areas where it has strong core competencies. As part of this, it ensures that each part of their business adds strategic value to other parts. Star Mountain will continue to focus on its team, disciplined underwriting and long-term relationship mindset, and it believes their investment performance will follow suit. Through its Collaborative Ecosystem ® and custom-built media & data- driven technology platform, Star Mountain is a recognized industry leader as a value-added lender and investment partner to leading businesses across the U.S. We profile the firm to find out more. Company: Star Mountain Capital Contact: Brett Hickey Address: Tower 57 at 135 East 57th Street, 25th Floor, New York, 10022, USA Phone: 001646 787 0271 Website: www.starmountaincapital.com Disclaimer: This editorial is not an offer to, or solicitation of, any potential clients or investors for the provision by Star Mountain Capital of investment management, advisory, or any other related services. No material discussed in this article is or should be construed as investment advice, nor is anything in this article an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security or other instrument. Awards and recognition by unaffiliated rating services, companies, and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she/it will experience a certain level of results of Star Mountain Capital is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of Star Mountain Capital or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third part. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized advisor. Moreover, with regard to all performance information contained herein, directly or indirectly, if any, readers should rote that past results are not indicative of future results. The description and the selection methodologies of each award and recognition are subjective and will vary.