Minority-led ICV Partners sets $750m target for Fund V

ICV Partners, a specialist in lower mid-market investing, is seeking $750 million for a fifth buyout offering, sources told Buyouts.

The Miami and Atlanta manager unveiled ICV Capital Partners V in 2023. If the target is reached, the vehicle would be 28 percent larger than Fund IV, which raised $585 million in 2018. ICV declined to provide a comment.

New York State Common Retirement Fund, a returning LP, last year committed $75 million to Fund V.

ICV was founded in 1998 as Inner City Ventures by American Securities and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a non-profit established by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter.

Willie Woods, an ex-investment banker and Levmark Capital executive, and Tarrus Richardson, a former JLL Partners associate, were recruited to lead the shop, Buyouts reported in 2000. Richardson, profiled in Buyouts’ Off-duty series, left the rebranded ICV in 2010 to launch IMB Partners.

Today, ICV is principally owned by president and CEO Woods, according to the firm’s ADV filings.

ICV makes control investments in North American lower mid-market companies with revenue of $25 million to $300 million and EBITDA of $10 million to $40 million. These typically reside in business services, consumer goods and services, food and beverage and healthcare industries.

Companies of interest are well-run with strong margins and leading/defensible positions in spaces with stable demand, ICV’s website said. Along with growth opportunities, preferred transaction types are family business successions, sponsor-to-sponsor deals, corporate divestitures and MBOs.

The strategy emphasizes alignment of economic interests, including through a performance-based stock option program made available to management teams. ICV invests substantial cash equity per company, usually 45 percent to 55 percent of deal value.

ICV reports investing more than $1 billion in 32 companies. Its debut investment, Sterling Foods, a gourmet bakery products maker, was sold in 2009 to TGF Management, generating a 3x return, PE Hub reported.

The firm’s latest investment is Desi Fresh Foods, a producer of dahi and lassi (south Asian yogurt products). ICV formed Desi Fresh last year after acquiring related brands and assets from Raymundo’s Food Group, a portfolio company of AUA Private Equity Partners.

ICV Capital Partners IV was earning a 2.16x net multiple and a 23.88 percent net IRR as of March 2023, according to Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund.

ICV’s team has a significant share of minority investment professionals. Along with Woods, senior team members include managing directors Qian Elmore, Lloyd Metz, Ira Moreland, Kalpana Rao, Jermaine Warren and Errol Williams.