A look back and an exciting path forward
Frontenac Year in Review

2024
Frontenac reflects on a productive year capped off with the closing of its 13th private equity fund

While the market remained challenging in 2024, Frontenac’s proactive approach helped create compelling opportunities for investment in the middle market. The firm focused its origination pursuits in pre-vetted sectors backed by thoroughly researched theses and established CEO1ST Partners, including areas like pet services, IT services, and water infrastructure solutions.

Over the last year, Frontenac closed three new platforms, acquired 26 add-ons, and completed the exit of two portfolio companies. The firm capped off the year with the closing of Frontenac XIII, marking a major milestone and exciting new chapter.

3
New Platforms
26
Add-Ons
2
Strategic Exits
Frontenac closes oversubscribed Fund XIII at $900 million

On January 23, 2025, Frontenac announced the closing of its 13th fund, Frontenac XIII Private Capital L.P. (“Frontenac XIII”). The fund was significantly oversubscribed and closed at $900 million of committed capital, well above its initial $700 million target. The more recent predecessor funds, Frontenac XII (2022 vintage), XI (2018), and X (2014) totaled commitments of $520 million, $325 million, and $250 million, respectively.

$0mm
Fund 13 Committed Capital
Better Than Home is a pet services consolidator that offers pet daycare, boarding, grooming, and training services
Ideal Integrations is an IT services and cybersecurity managed service provider (MSP) to clients in regulated industries
CROM is a designer, manufacturer and servicer of water and wastewater storage tanks for municipal and industrial customers
Frontenac completed the sale of Motion Solutions, a provider of highly engineered integrated solutions to Novanta Inc (Nasdaq: NOVT), on January 2, 2024.  Under Frontenac’s leadership, the company expanded its customer base, scaled operations, completed two strategic acquisitions, and opened a new facility with advanced capabilities.
Frontenac completed the sale of Integris, an IT managed service provider, to OMERS Private Equity on December 30, 2024. In just over four years, Frontenac and the Integris team completed eight add-on acquisitions, generated substantial organic growth, built a talented leadership team, and increased EBITDA by more than 12-fold.

As we start 2025, we want to congratulate and acknowledge our longtime partner, Paul Carbery who is retiring. Paul joined Frontenac in 1989 and, over the last 35 years, played a major role in establishing Frontenac as a growth buyout investor in the lower middle market with a differentiated people-centric, thesis-driven approach to investing. His inspirational leadership has been integral to Frontenac’s clear market focus, strong and deep team, and healthy culture. Paul will remain connected with Frontenac as a Senior Advisor and investor going forward. Congratulations, Paul!

During 2024, Frontenac welcomed the return of Teri Tadros who took on a new role as Director of Strategic Growth. Teri first joined Frontenac in 2017 and served as Director of Business Development for six years. Her new role is focused on driving relationships with key stakeholders including investors, executives and advisors. She also spearheads strategic growth initiatives and leads external communications across the firm.

Frontenac is also pleased to announce the promotions of two valued Frontenac team members. Jacob Anderson, who joined Frontenac as an Associate in 2020, has been promoted to Vice President. Jake focuses on the services sector and supported the recent platform acquisition of Ideal Integrations and the full deal lifecycle of the Integris transaction. Separately, Ryan Panczak, who joined Frontenac in 2022 as an Associate, has been promoted to Senior Associate. Ryan focuses on the industrials sector and supported the recent platform acquisition of CROM.

The firm is proud to have received recognition across various industry awards throughout 2024. These acknowledgements are a testament to the hard work conducted daily across the Frontenac team and portfolio.

Frontenac is part of a coalition of 80 prominent foundations, corporations, labor advocates, investors and pension fund leaders that have partnered with Ownership Works™, a non-profit organization that aims to increase prosperity through shared ownership. We have observed that broad-based employee ownership has revitalized corporate cultures and provided significant wealth-building opportunities for employees. By promoting a culture of shared ownership, accountability and purpose, companies can achieve new levels of success, which in turn can generate significant wealth-building opportunities for workers.

Frontenac is proud to partner with Ownership Works at two portfolio companies:

About Frontenac

Frontenac is a Chicago-based private equity firm. The firm focuses on investing in lower middle market buyout transactions in the consumer, industrial, and services industries. Frontenac works in partnership with established operating leaders, through an executive-centric approach called CEO1ST®, which seeks to identify, acquire, and build market-leading companies through transformational acquisitions and operational excellence. Over the last 50+ years, Frontenac has built a franchise working with over 325 owners of mid-sized businesses as they address complex transition issues of liquidity, management enhancement, and growth planning. For more information, please visit www.frontenac.com.