GenNx360 Maiden Fund Secures At Least $150M

Firm: GenNx360 Capital Partners
Fund: Undisclosed
Target: Undisclosed
Amount Raised: At least $150 million

GenNx360 Capital Partners, a start-up buyout shop whose co-founders include two veterans of General Electric Corp., is quietly at work raising a debut buyout fund with a hard cap of $600 million, a source familiar with the firm told Buyouts.

By mid-February, the buyout shop had already racked up at least $150 million in commitments, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and it may have secured as much as $500 million, according to a different source.

GenNx360 Capital acquires companies that provide business-to-business services, that generate between $250 million and $1 billion in annual sales, and that can benefit from GE-style operational advice and efficiency strategies. Earlier this year, the firm teamed up with fellow LBO shops Knox Lawrence International LLC and Oak Hill Capital Partners LP to buy Vertex Data Science Ltd., a Liverpool, England-based IT services provider. The deal was valued at £217.5 million ($448.6 million).

Ronald Blaylock, who founded and managed Blaylock and Co., a minority–owned investment bank, founded New York-based GenNx 360 Capital together with two former GE executives, Arthur Harper and James Shepard. Harper had served as president and CEO of GE’s Equipment Services division, while Shepard had been president and CEO of GE Infrastructure Sensing business.

GenNx360 Capital encourages volunteerism among its ranks, and many of the firm’s principals serve on advisory boards for community centers, charitable foundations and health centers. According to its Web site, this year the firm has supported a raft of organizations aimed at developing black leaders in business, arts and sciences, including Executive Leadership Council, One Hundred Black Men Inc., The Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and The National Society of Black Engineers.

The buyout firm has offices in Cambridge, Mass., New York, Seattle and India.—J.P.