Mansbridge seeks $100M for FoF

Mansbridge Capital Management has raised $30 million for its debut fund-of-funds, which is targeted at $100 million. The firm aims to invest in smaller buyout partnerships of no more than $1 billion in size.

Mansbridge Capital is pitching LPs who appreciate the virtues of small buyout funds but have either had trouble identifying them or have been unable to gain access to them.

Many of these small buyout shops are tough to find, says Lance Mansbridge, one of two partners at the firm. They often shun placement agents, lack investor relations executives on staff, and may even forgo a website, he adds.

“Access [to the small buyout funds] is a huge problem,” Mansbridge says. “But the smaller buyouts have consistently outperformed the larger buyouts.”

Mansbridge co-founded the San Francisco-based firm last year. He left Strategic Investment Solutions in July after 6-and-a-half years of recommending private equity funds on behalf of institutional clients.

Mansbridge brought aboard Thomas Cusick as a second partner toward the end of last year. Cusick was a managing director and head of the San Francisco-based office of CIBC Capital Partners, the private equity arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. There he oversaw a portfolio of some two dozen mature companies in business services, software, semiconductors, tech-enabled services and other fields.

Mansbridge Capital has invested undisclosed amounts in two funds so far. The firm backed H.I.G. Capital Partners IV, which closed at $750 million last year. Miami-based HIG Capital invests in profitable, small and medium-sized companies in manufacturing and services.

Mansbridge also backed Arbor Investment Partners II, which is believed to be in the market with a $125 million target. Chicago-based Arbor Private Investment Co. acquires food and beverage companies. —David Toll