CapitalPad simplifies fundraising for independent sponsors and offers curated investment opportunities for accredited investors, funds, and family offices.
CapitalPad provides highly curated access to the top independent sponsor deals in the space.
CapitalPad helps independent sponsors meet investors, raise capital, and build enduring businesses.
CapitalPad for Investors
CapitalPad offers funds, family offices, and accredited investors a highly curated selection of independent sponsor deals.
Gain access to direct investment in established historically profitable business acquisitions and rollup opportunities.
Highly curated deals inside the dashboard.
Our streamlined platform lets you easily discover, evaluate, and invest directly in independent sponsor deals.
Access our network of family offices, M&A funds, and eager accredited investors to quickly secure the equity capital needed to close your target business.
Fast direct access to large-check decision makers, while CapitalPad rolls smaller investors into a single check and cap table entry. Removes the need for endless cold emails.
Leverage our team’s extensive independent sponsor private equity experience and passion for the space.
CapitalPad for Sponsors
CapitalPad pairs independent sponsors with an engaged network of M&A investors who understand lower-middle market deals, and all at no-cost.
See why sponsors choose us.
“CapitalPad was instrumental in helping close our transaction. They’ve remained excellent partners even after the close, leveraging their professional backgrounds to help modernize the business. Looking forward to working with the CapitalPad team in the months and years to come.”
CapitalPad is the go-to platform connecting sponsors and investors. Its founding team has deep experience in private equity deals and a passion for successful small businesses.
Access a carefully curated stream of high-quality independent sponsor opportunities. Invest directly in lower middle market private equity deals in established, profit-focused companies.
Post once and instantly allow a pool of interested investors to view your deal, at no cost to you. Automated NDA’s, deal rooms, and more.
Our team has successfully helped close dozens of lower-middle market M&A deals using our improved approach.
CapitalPad features independent sponsor private equity deals (and search fund deals).
The platform is industry-agnostic but applies a large amount of filtering and curation on the platform to avoid unattractive deals.
CapitalPad offers a convenient alternative to endless networking and independent sponsor conferences. We love the McGuire Woods conference, but it’s about time that more of this happens online. Here, we bring the deal flow to you.
CapitalPad screens out deals that don’t meet our standards, including pre-LOI deals, difficult industries, non-standard terms, and deals with poor or non-standard economics. We only present a curated selection of independent sponsor private equity deals to investors on the platform.
Each deal includes a teaser, and then a full deal room once inside. Deal room includes everything expected, including detailed business breakdown, investor terms, LOI, estimated modeled returns, historical financial statements, tax returns, sponsor profiles, and extensive access to due diligence documents. Funds and family offices are given direct access, and accredited investors can choose to co-invest on a per-deal basis. See these pages to learn more about how to invest in CapitalPad’s independent sponsor deals or how to raise capital for an independent sponsor deal on CapitalPad.
Funds or other entities that write checks of $750,000 or more are given direct access to sponsors.
Contact us here to be added to the institutional list.
CapitalPad does not provide specific investment advice to any individual investor. The information on this website specifically related to any potential investment opportunity is not provided by CapitalPad. Investors acknowledge and accept the risks associated with privately investing. Investors also acknowledge that past performance of entities, individuals, or products or services is not a guarantee of future performance. Investors are solely responsible for completing an independent due diligence review before investing. Investment products are not FDIC insured, may lose value, and there is no bank guarantee. A loss of an Investor’s entire investment is possible, and no profit may be realized. There is no guarantee that projections related to the performance of any potential investment will be realized. There may be no secondary market for the sale of securities. Any investment may not be accompanied by sufficient voting rights to have a material impact as to the operation of the entity and all Investors should assume any such investment will not be accompanied by meaningful voting rights.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results and any expected returns on disclosed through the platform are hypothetical and may not reflect actual future performance. All investments made through the platform may result in partial or total loss.
The independent sponsor model is a method for individuals or small teams to acquire established lower-middle market companies. Unlike with traditional private equity, they do not have a fund of pre-committed capital (hence the alternative name of Fundless Sponsor that is sometimes used). Instead, they line up investors on a deal-by-deal basis.
The McGuideWoods Independent Sponsor Survey provides a benchmark for market independent sponsor deal economics. CapitalPad does not accept raises without at least standard market terms and standard investor protections.
The better the terms a sponsor offers, the easier it is to attract investors and raise.
Independent sponsors vs. search funds:
Searchers approach their deals as entrepreneurs, typically assuming an operational role leading the acquired business. This is why the search fund model is sometimes called “entrepreneurship through acquisition” (ETA). By contrast, independent sponsors approach their deals like investors, acquiring equity and board seats but not running the day-to-day operations of their portfolio companies.
Search funds usually target $500k–$2M EBITDA companies, and independent sponsors typically target larger companies in the $2M–$5M EBITDA range. Searchers often rely on SBA loans as their primary source of debt, while sponsors generally use private debt financing companies.
Independent sponsors vs. private equity:
Private equity funds raise a pool of pre-committed capital from investors prior to sourcing their deals. Independent sponsors fundraise on a deal-by-deal basis, with no pre-committed capital pool.
Most independent sponsor deals top out at $5M EBITDA businesses (sometimes up to $10M). But private equity targets larger deals on average—at least $5M in EBITDA and often much higher, with practically no upper limit.
Private equity funds tend to employ larger teams and charge investors the traditional 2-and-20 fee structure (2% management fee, 20% carry).
Independent sponsor economics very a bit, but standard deal terms include 5% of EBITDA as a management fee for the sponsor (with a capped top), and a carry varying from 10%-30% depending on returns.
Empowering Searchers,
Enabling Investors
Investments on CapitalPad are only available to accredited investors.
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