Emerging manager Seaside recruits Leeds Equity’s Hiral Pithadia

Seaside Equity Partners, which in February closed an inaugural fund at $160 million, added to its bench with the hire of a former Leeds Equity Partners investment professional, a source told Buyouts.

The San Diego private equity firm this month brought on Hiral Pithadia as a vice president, the source said. Pithadia joins after working with Leeds for more than four years as a senior associate, investing in mid-market companies in education services, professional training and technology sectors.

Prior to joining Leeds in 2016, Pithadia was an investment banker. He was with William Blair’s business services group in Chicago for nearly three years.

The new hire comes on the heels of Seaside’s December recruitment of Gabe Becerra as a vice president. Becerra was previously with Atlantic Street Capital, where he was an operating associate, corporate development, as well as Gores Group. He also started out as an investment banker with Houlihan Lokey and KPMG Corporate Finance.

In the new role at Seaside, Pithadia will focus on evaluating new opportunities and supporting portfolio companies, the source said. Becerra is leading business development and deal origination initiatives.

Seaside’s investment team now totals five, according to its website. Other members are principal Navid Shirazi, who came onboard in 2018 from Golden Gate Capital, and associate Jesse Kay, who joined in 2019 from Shea & Company.

Overseeing the team is managing director Andrew Thompson, Seaside’s founder. A more than 11-year veteran of Wafra’s direct equity group, he set up the firm in 2017 to be an operationally focused investor in lower mid-market businesses in the western and southwestern US.

Seaside targets companies with revenue of $10 million-plus and values of up to $100 million in mission-critical business and consumer services sectors. It has so far completed six platform investments. Among the most recent is Absolute Performance, a Broomfield, Colorado, provider of managed IT infrastructure solutions.

Seaside Equity Partners I wrapped up above an original target of $125 million. The goal was revised in response to demand from both new and existing limited partners, Thompson told Buyouts.

Seaside declined to provide a comment on this story.