Spire Capital raises $133 mln for Fund III

The firm, which focuses on business services, information services, media, education and communications sectors, drew in an additional $33 million since disclosing $100 million in commitments in a prepared statement on May 15 of last year.

Among its LPs, Teacher Retirement System of Texas committed capital to Spire as part of its emerging managers program, which allocated $15 million to $30 million to each individual fund, officials with the LP said in November. A more specific figure wasn’t immediately available from TRS.

Brad Gevurtz, head of investment banking at D. A. Davidson & Co, told Buyouts last month his work on an investment in cloud services company Telekenex by Spire Capital marks a move by the firm into a high-growth category. No financial terms of the deal announced on Jan. 27 were disclosed, but it included a controlling stake in Telekenex and a low amount of leverage, he said.

“This company could feasibly take on more leverage since it has a monthly billing model and strong recurring revenue,” Gervurtz said. “But Spire is more focused on operational growth than financial engineering, so this was not a highly leveraged deal.”

In one recent exit, Spire Capital said in November it sold its portfolio company JMI, a motorsports-focused marketing firm, to Chime Communications for $76 million.

The firm disclosed a Fund III investment in Iron Data Solutions’ transportation spend management division on March 28.

Partners Andy Armstrong, Bruce Hernandez, David Schaible and Sean White lead Spire Capital, which was founded in 2000, according to the firm’s website. Prior to co-founding Spire Capital, Armstrong co-founded Waller-Sutton Media Partners, a private equity fund focused on the media and communications industries.

Spire Capital disclosed $310 million in commitments for Spire Capital Partners II LP in a Form D filing on Jan. 29, 2008. The firm did not answer an email seeking comment.