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Search Acquisitions Record

The Deals

O&W Heat Treat

2025 · Ali Platon and Chris Goyen · Physical operations

A Connecticut aerospace heat-treating job shop.

RouteGenie

2025 · Cameron Craig · Software

Dispatch software for medical transport fleets.

Strategic Kids

2025 · Graham Brockington and Andy Morrow · Services

Staffing and enrichment programs for schools.

Thillens

2025 · Resit Melik · Physical operations

Armored car and cash logistics, out of Chicago.

Maher Services

2025 · Daniel Chase and Laurent Firlotte · Physical operations

New England well drilling and pump service.

Wu Consulting

2025 · Steven Tan · Services

Outsourced biostatisticians for drug trials.

CyberData Pros

2025 · Keith Burns · Services

Fractional security chiefs for small firms.

Desert Services

2024 · Tim Haitaian · Physical operations

Phoenix site services, water trucks to roll-offs.

Ryzer

2024 · Tim Heath and Michael Kahn · Software

An events platform for sports camps.

ELK Analytics

2023 · Daniel Baiz and Camilo Garces · Services

Security monitoring for smaller companies.

LabShares

2023 · Philip Borden · Physical operations

Shared laboratory space for Boston biotech.

Spivey Services

2023 · Wade Chipps · Physical operations

Traffic safety and portable sanitation rentals.

FileOnQ

2023 · Christophe Michotte · Software

Evidence and property tracking for police.

Page Vault

2022 · Alex Sappington and Luke Suydam · Software

Web evidence capture for litigators.

Concierge Plus

2022 · Mauricio Gonzalez · Software

Resident management software for condo boards.

Triyam

2022 · Luka Salamunic · Software

Legacy health record archiving for providers.

Meternet

2022 · Bryson Smith · Services

Sub-metering for California housing communities.

Cardata

2021 · Sheret Ross and Michael Levine · Software

Reimbursement software for employee-owned fleets.

Central Storage Warehouse

2021 · Hill Hamrick and Sam Krieg · Physical operations

Temperature-controlled warehousing since 1947.

Ennoble Care

2021 · Kush Das · Healthcare

House-call primary and hospice care.

Risk Mitigation Consulting

2021 · Vince Kuchar · Services

Mission-assurance and cybersecurity audits.

Montis Financial

2021 · Tucker Donahoe and John Yanchek · Services

Financial planning for New England clients.

Prelude Dynamics

2021 · Tommy Jackson · Software

Clinical trial software for animal health.

maxRTE

2021 · Carla Larin · Services

Insurance discovery for hospital billing teams.

Abound Health Group

2020 · Jenna Whigham and Dennis Lally · Healthcare

Behavioral health services in Charlotte.

Clariti

2020 · Cyrus Symoom and Jake Dancyger · Software

Permitting software for governments.

NovoPath

2020 · Promise Okeke · Software

A records system for pathology labs.

Radiation Detection Company

2020 · Ryan Turk · Physical operations

Dosimeter badges and dose history.

Crown Health

2020 · Nikita Sunilkumar · Healthcare

Mobile primary care for senior living.

Pacific Fertility Center Los Angeles

2019 · Brittany Collins and Miles Collins · Healthcare

Fertility and reproductive care in Los Angeles.

Kantola Training Solutions

2018 · Scott Mackenzie and Sarah Rowell · Software

Compliance and harassment-prevention courses.

Morningside

2017 · Roland Lessard and Thomas Klein · Services

Patent translation and language services.

Richmond Alarm Company

2017 · Brian Vanderheyden · Physical operations

Alarm installation and monitoring in Virginia.

Circle Surrogacy

2017 · Steuart Botchford and Sam Hyde · Services

Surrogacy journeys, coordinated end to end.

MST Services

2016 · Josh Glade and Logan Greenspan · Healthcare

A tested therapy program for at-risk youth.

FieldEdge

2015 · Steve Lau and Rameez Ansari · Software

Field-service software for contractors.

Remarkable Health

2015 · Peter Flick · Software

Behavioral-health records, rebuilt with AI.

Aegis Treatment Centers

2014 · Alex Dodd · Healthcare

California opioid treatment clinics.

Krueger-Gilbert Health Physics

2014 · Keith Burns and Michael Curry · Healthcare

Outsourced medical physics for imaging.

ParaRev

2014 · Jerry Connelly · Services

Hospital revenue recovery in Illinois.

FastSpring

2013 · Chris Lueck · Software

Payments for software sellers.

Raptor Technologies

2012 · Jim Vesterman · Software

School-safety software, out of Houston.

RIA in a Box

2011 · Will Bressman and G.J. King · Software

Compliance software for investment advisers.

HemaSource

2010 · Todd Tracey · Physical operations

Consumables for blood collection centers.

OnRamp

2009 · Lucas Braun and Ryan Robinson · Physical operations

Austin colocation and compliant-cloud hosting.

Griswold Home Care

2009 · Graham Weihmiller · Services

Non-medical home care, franchised nationally.

Fastener Distribution Holdings

2007 · Scott Tucker and Jim Tucker · Physical operations

Aerospace fastener distribution in California.

ProService Hawaii

2007 · Ben Godsey · Services

Honolulu's largest outsourced HR firm.

Smith Alarm Systems

1989 · David Dodson · Physical operations

A Dallas alarm company, and the model's first proof.

Vector Disease Control International

Year not published · Jay Davis and Jason Pananos · Physical operations

Mosquito control, grown by acquisition.

Echosec Systems

Year not published · Jeff Oldenburg · Software

Open-source intelligence on public data.

ITpipes

Year not published · Nader Bebawy · Software

Pipeline-inspection software for utilities.

BSU Electronics

Year not published · Leyla Sudbury · Physical operations

Circuit-board assembly, out of Austin.

PEC Safety

Year not published · Colby Lane · Services

Contractor safety training, taken national.

Scribbles Software

Year not published · Chris Lueck and Ben Knoll · Software

Student records for school districts.

Sunscape Landscaping

Year not published · Nick Seger · Physical operations

Commercial landscaping and grounds care in Austin.

United Pet Care

Year not published · Aaron Oaks · Services

Pet-health savings, sold as a workplace benefit.

The American Institute of Balance

Year not published · Carlo Arroyo · Healthcare

Balance and dizziness specialists, out of Tampa Bay.

Léargas Security

Year not published · LJ Campbell · Software

A security operations platform for infrastructure.

Paragon Legal Group

Year not published · Trista Engel and Jessica Markowitz · Services

In-house counsel placed on a project basis.

CITTA Brokerage

Year not published · Scott Sorenson · Services

Customs duty drawback recovery, out of Ogden.

Advanced Aircrew Academy

Year not published · Jordan Huibers and Alvin Wong · Software

Web-delivered training for flight operations.

Emission and Cooling Solutions

Year not published · Troy Beebe · Physical operations

Diesel aftertreatment parts and service.

No-IP

Year not published · Suchit Rout · Software

Dynamic DNS and remote access, out of Reno.

gFour Marketing

Year not published · Felipe Ros · Services

Repeat-customer marketing for home services.

APA Medical Equipment

Year not published · Tommy Shelton · Physical operations

Home medical equipment, out of Minneapolis.

Pelvic Health Solutions

Year not published · Beixi Li · Healthcare

Pelvic floor treatment, under a searcher.

AdComp Systems Group

Year not published · Murdoch Miller · Software

Payments and software for local governments.

Travelmax

Year not published · Malcolm Collins and Simone Collins · Services

Travel booking and management, out of Miami.

Energy Ogre

Year not published · Taylor Mattingly and John Watson · Services

Finds Texans a cheaper electricity plan.

Spanish Schoolhouse

Year not published · Evan Meehan · Physical operations

Spanish immersion preschools in Texas.

Fraxion

Year not published · Stanton Jandrell · Software

Purchasing and spend control, end to end.

What Searchers Actually Bought

Of the 72 deals here, 24 are software, 9 are healthcare, 20 are services and 19 are physical operations. Physical operations means the revenue depends on crews, vehicles, plant or inventory: contract manufacturing, cold storage, a heat-treating job shop, parts distribution, site services.

5 of them sit in a trade this site writes a buy guide for, and that gap is not the one it looks like. Searchers do buy physical businesses. They mostly do not buy the home services and Main Street trades a self-funded buyer competes for, and the ones who do are the hardest deals in the world to verify.

Which is the same market seen through a different publicity regime. Somebody who buys a plumbing company issues no announcement and neither does the seller, so the purchase is verifiable to almost nobody. Somebody who buys a software company is announced by the investors on the way in and by the acquirer on the way out, which is two independent sources arriving without being asked. This record takes nothing on one source, so it fills up with the deals that generate two.

Alone or With a Partner

45 of these were bought by one person and 27 by a pair or a team. That is the whole of what this record can say about it: the partnered deals here are older on average, so comparing how many of each have sold would measure how long each group has had rather than anything about searching with somebody.

Whether Anybody Gets Out

24 of these have a published liquidity event. 19 were outright sales, 2 were majority sales where the searcher reinvested and stayed on, and 3 were recapitalizations that returned capital without changing who runs the place. The other 48 record none, which for most of them is because the searchers still run the company and for some is only that nobody has published a sale.

15 of the outright sales name both years. The middle one came 4 years after the purchase, the quickest at 1 and the longest at 10. Read that as a census of what gets published and not as a sample of what happens: the holding period a searcher signs up to is set by the investors and the debt, and a searcher who bought and quietly still owns is easier to leave out of a record like this than one who sold to a name you recognize.

Who Is Behind Them

The backing firms these deals cite, and how many each is behind: Pacific Lake Partners (29), Futaleufu Partners (20), Search Fund Partners (17), WSC & Company (17), Anacapa Partners (10), Endurance Search Partners (7), Trilogy Search Partners (7), Housatonic Partners (5), Northspring Partners (3), Relay Investments (3), Von Zeo Capital (2), Blue Frame Capital Partners (1). A deal can name more than one, and the biggest names here are the firms that publish a portfolio rather than the firms that back the most searchers.

Method & Source

A record joins when both ends of the journey can be read in primary sources: the backer's or searcher's own account of the purchase, and the exit buyer's announcement where the company has traded on. Each deal's own page links the sources it rests on. Nothing here is drawn from a rumor, a database of unnamed transactions, or our own inference about what a price must have been. It is small on purpose and grows when a deal verifies rather than when it is rumored, and the exit ends of these journeys live on Buyers.

What those sources are, counted: 121 are the backer's own account, 35 are the company's own account, 19 are the acquirer's announcement, 15 are the searchers' own account and 1 is a third party's record of the deal. The weighting is the shape of the world rather than a preference: a company almost never announces that it was bought, and its backer almost always does.

What it deliberately leaves out: deals where a fund bought the company and appointed an operator to run it. Those are a real route into ownership and several are worth knowing about, but the sentence this page makes is that a searcher bought a business, and a sponsor purchase is a different one. Where a searcher's own vehicle is named as the buyer, self-funded or backed, it belongs here.