By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Arbor Investments, a specialized private equity firm focused solely on investment opportunities in the food and beverage verticals and their related industries, has closed its fifth fund – Arbor Investments V (Fund V) at $1.5 billion.

Not only has this impressive funding surpassed Fund V’s  goal of $1 billion by 50 percent, and has doubled the $765 million raised for its predecessor fund in 2016, but was accomplished in only 87 days via web conferencing during a global pandemic.

Whoa!

Arbor co-founder and president Gregory Purcell told Barron’s interest was so high in the fund that the team ended up having to turn away some parties, but ended up taking on about one-third new investors, without a single in-person meeting – noting that web-conferencing allowed the process, which typically takes about 18 months, to be concluded in less than 90 days. 

“We compressed a year of work into less than a hundred days,” he said. “That’s pretty incredible.”

At the same time, the firm announced the successful close of its second captive subordinated debt fund – Arbor Debt Opportunities Fund II (DOF II) at $168 million, bringing its current total AUM to $2.9 million.

“We are humbled by the commitments from our longtime limited partners as well as the interest from new investors who have entrusted Arbor with their capital,” said Purcell in a company statement.

“The quick and successful closing of Arbor Fund V, especially during this unique fundraising environment, is not only a testament to our outstanding investment track record but also a continued endorsement of the highly differentiated strategy we’ve refined over more than two decades,” continued Purcell. “We anticipate tremendous opportunity to deploy this new capital with outstanding entrepreneurial families and blue-chip strategic players.”

Arbor’s success in raising not only oversubscribed capital, but $1.5 billion in oversubscribed capital during a pandemic is a reflection not only of a broader trend toward investment in the food sector, but also investor confidence in Arbor’s novel investment model.

“Contrary to typical private equity firms, Arbor has always been focused on adding value beyond just capital and our results reflect this unconventional approach,” said Timothy Fallon, senior operating partner, Arbor.

Fallon explained, “We’re firm believers in the advantages of industry specialization and our model is rooted in leveraging the firm’s experienced team of in-house resources to identify and execute transformative changes to our portfolio companies. It’s an operationally intense, all-hands-on-deck attitude that we believe drives value creation and positions us as the partner of choice to companies in the food and beverage sector.”

Founded in 1999, and with offices in Chicago and New York, Arbor’s team leans more toward operations than financial modeling, according to the firm’s website, with 60 percent in non-finance roles. Each portfolio company is matched with an Operations SWAT Team and Functional Discipline Team that take a granular approach toward positioning for, and achieving growth. This attention to detail and integrated approach allows Arbor to “compress learning curves” as it drives each business in its portfolio to their next level. 

“Arbor’s brand is stronger than ever,” said Carl Allegretti, president, Arbor Investments.

“We are honored to have earned the trust of our investors and I couldn’t be more proud of our people. To raise this amount of capital so efficiently in this unprecedented time is a testament to the strength of our team and the track record that has been built over the 21 years of Arbor. The best is yet to come.”
– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.