Firms & Funds

Yellow Wood eyes final close on $360 mln for Fund II

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Yellow Wood Partners, private equity, Dana Schmaltz
Photo of Dana Schmaltz sourced from Yellow Wood website
  • Firm: Yellow Wood Partners
  • Fund: Yellow Wood Capital Partners II
  • Target: $360 mln
  • Amount Raised: Near target
  • Placement Agent: Park Hill Group

Yellow Wood Partners, the Boston middle-market investor, is near a final close on its second fund, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraising.

Fund II is expected to close on $360 million around the end of July, the person said. Park Hill Group is placement agent. The fund had raised $180 million as of April 11, according to a Form D filing with the SEC.

Yellow Wood Co-Founder and Partner Dana Schmaltz did not respond to a request for comment on July 19.

The firm closed Fund I on $225 million in 2012 from a small group of investors, beating its $200 million target. Performance information on Fund I was unavailable.

The roots of Yellow Wood date to 2009, when Schmaltz and Peter Mann created Blacksmith Brands in partnership with Charlesbank Capital Partners, a news release from the time shows. The company was built around five consumer brands Blacksmith bought from Johnson & Johnson in October 2009. They sold Blacksmith Brands to Prestige Brands Holdings in November 2010 for a 149 percent internal rate of return, the news release said.

Today, Yellow Wood is wholly owned by Schmaltz, who previously was president of J.W. Childs Associates, according to the firm’s Form ADV. Mann left the firm in 2014, his LinkedIn profile shows.

Other Yellow Wood partners are Ted Yanagi, who previously worked on healthcare, consumer and retail investments at TA Associates; and Joe Atencio, former CEO of personal-care product maker ChemAid Laboratories.

While the news release said the firm was formed in 2009, Yellow Wood’s Form ADV said the firm was launched in 2011.

Yellow Wood typically invests $10 million to $80 million of equity per deal. Yellow Wood invests in branded consumer products around drug, food, specialty, club and e-commerce.

The firm made more than 12x its money with the sale of PDC Brands to CVC Capital Partners in a deal valued at $1.425 billion, Buyouts previously reported.

Action Item: Reach Dana Schmaltz here: dschmaltz@yellowwoodpartners.com

Photo of Dana Schmaltz sourced from Yellow Wood website