Bowside Sees Opportunities In Small Companies

Firm: Bowside Capital

Fund: Bowside Capital Fund I

Target: $10 million

Amount Raised: $10 million

Bowside Capital, a New York-based fund of funds that also makes co-investments in small companies, said on Friday it recently closed on its first fund, Bowside Capital Fund I. The firm’s managing partner and chief strategist, Christian Albert, also said he expected to close on a second fund by mid-summer.

Albert said he was passionate about his fund’s unique focus, which seeks to tap an underappreciated universe of smaller companies ripe for private equity investment. There are only a small number of quality private equity firms that focus on the smaller company space, he said, yet the variety of possible small company investments is enormous and relatively untapped.

Bowside’s Fund I, which closed in November having raised around $10 million, has already made commitments to four small PE shops: Azalea Capital, Guardian Capital, Hadley Capital and Hastings Equity. Albert said Fund I may make one or two more fund commitments in next two months.

The fund also co-invested alongside Guardian Capital in the acquisition of Sure Fit, an Allentown, Pa. maker of sofa, chair and futon slipcovers.

Albert expects Bowside’s second fund to close with around $30 million and have a similar strategy to Fund I. That strategy involves a split between commitments to small private equity firms and direct investments with some of those same firms.

At present, Bowside has about 25 investors, most of whom, Albert says, are high net worth individuals. Among them is Norman Alpert, a founder and managing director of private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners.