Sentinel Capital Partners Acquires SmartSign

Leading Online Provider of Signs, Labels, and Tags Added to Business Services Portfolio

NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising lower midmarket companies, today announced the acquisition of SmartSign, a leading online provider of customizable signs, labels, and tags for regulatory, compliance, and safety applications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, SmartSign operates a network of nearly 30 websites, each dedicated to offering highly specialized and customizable products to customers to fit thousands of specific-use cases. SmartSign services businesses of all sizes, including sales to 75% of the Fortune 1000 and across hundreds of verticals, including education, healthcare, and industrials.

Sentinel partnered with SmartSign's management team and incumbent investor Norwest in the transaction.

"SmartSign is strategically positioned to capitalize on favorable secular trends underpinning the online signs, labels, and tags industry," said Louis Brotherton, a principal at Sentinel. "With a talented and committed management team and a highly dedicated team of employees, we believe SmartSign is well-positioned to continue its rapid growth, both organically and through acquisitions. We are extremely excited about the opportunity to partner with the SmartSign team."

"We are very pleased to partner with Sentinel as SmartSign continues to expand within the large and growing signs, labels, and tags market," said Max Smith, SmartSign's CEO. "We look forward to leveraging the many actionable opportunities ahead to drive organic and acquisitive growth and better serve our customers."

Stew Campbell, a Partner at Norwest, said "We are excited to work with Sentinel and continue our successful partnership with SmartSign. We think Sentinel is a great steward for SmartSign's next phase of growth."

SmartSign represents Sentinel's latest investment in the business services sector. The firm's current business services investments include Apex Companies, an environmental services company specializing in water resources and industrial hygiene; Mobile Communications America, a regional provider of communications solutions and services; New Era Technology, a global provider of managed IT services focused on collaboration and data networks; Revenew, a provider of cost recovery and cost containment services that deliver monetary recoveries and cost reduction benefits; TranSystems, a national provider of infrastructure engineering and design services; TriMech, a provider of 3D engineering design solutions and services; TTG Imaging Solutions, a national provider of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging solutions; and UBEO, a provider of best-in-class document management services.

About Sentinel Capital Partners

Sentinel specializes in buying and building lower midmarket businesses in the United States and Canada in partnership with management. Sentinel targets aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, distribution, food and restaurants, franchising, healthcare, and industrial businesses. Sentinel invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures, going-private transactions, and structured equity investments of established businesses with EBITDA of up to $80 million. Sentinel also invests in special situations, including balance sheet restructurings, operational turnarounds, and minority junior capital solutions. For more information about Sentinel, visit www.sentinelpartners.com.

About SmartSign

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, SmartSign is one of America's fastest growing e-commerce companies, and parent of brands like MySafetySign, MyParkingSign, and nearly 30 other sites. The company manufactures and distributes a wide range of signs, tags, mats, and labels and has offices in Brooklyn and Jaipur, India. The company also has manufacturing facilities across the United States. Customers can tailor their signs to meet their individual needs, and through content-rich and authoritative retail sites, the company provides specific solutions to specific problems, such as preventing accidents in the workplace.  For more information, please visit www.smartsign.com.

About Norwest

Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $12.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 650 companies and currently partners with more than 200 companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late-stage businesses across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. The Norwest team offers a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.

Contact: Roland Tomforde
Broadgate Consultants
212-232-2222

SOURCE Sentinel Capital Partners