Private equity firm Abry Partners has made a minority investment in SDI Presence LLC (SDI), an IT consultancy and managed services provider (MSP). Financial terms of the deal and the MSP's valuation were not disclosed.
SDI, founded in 1996, is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) that focuses on the government, utility and private sector technology markets. Key regions served include Chicago, Illinois; as well as Los Angeles and Sacramento, California. The private equity investment will allow SDI to pursue acquisitions and organic expansion nationwide, the MSP says.
SDI's areas of expertise include managed IT services, consulting, applications, infrastructure and security. The company emphasizes as "presence" approach -- which means SDI takes the time to know each customer's unique needs and business strategies, the MSP says.
Key SDI partners include Accenture, Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco Systems, Dell Technologies, eSentire, IBM, Microsoft and ServiceNow, among several other firms.
Abry Partners Understands MSP Investments
Meanwhile, private equity firm Abry Partners has extensive experience in the MSP market. Indeed, the firm has made multiple investments in and around the MSP, CSP and IT consulting industries.
Example Abry Partners moves include:
- February 2021: The private equity firm acquired CloudWave, a cloud-centric MSP in the healthcare sector.
- January 2021: Options Technology, backed by Abry Partners, acquiring managed trading service provider Fixnetix from DXC Technology.
- September 2020: NexusTek, backed by Abry Partners, acquired Symmetrix Solutions.
- November 2020: Searchlight Capital Partners and Abry Partners launched a new standalone UCaaS company called Clearspan.
- January 2020: Abry Partners acquired Options Technology, a cloud-centric MSP in the financial services market.
Related: See more than 700 M&A deals involving private equity, MSPs and technology companies here.
Abry Partners Invests In SDI Presence: Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the investment, Brian St. Jean of Abry Partner said:
"In SDI, we see an outstanding IT services business that is answering the call for greater diversity in critical IT service providers. We are excited to support the SDI Presence team in accelerating their efforts to replicate their service model and build out their MBE network in the public and private sectors nationwide. With their tremendous reputation, experienced management team, and powerful culture, SDI is the right platform for our strategic support in its next phase of growth in the IT infrastructure and managed services space."
Added David A. Gupta, founder and CEO of SDI:
"This investment acknowledges both SDI's business model, and Abry's unique appreciation of the immense potential of minority firms of scale in today's business climate. We are thrilled to be part of the Abry portfolio of companies, and we look forward to working with Abry as we capitalize on the significant growth opportunities ahead."
Abry Partners, founded in 1989, has completed over $82 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. The firm currently manages over $5 billion of capital across their active funds.
