Spire Capital Announces Successful Sale of Portfolio Company, PROtect, a Leading Provider of Testing, Inspection, Compliance and Certification Solutions

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Spire Capital Partners ("Spire Capital" or "Spire"), a leading private equity firm with an investment focus in companies within the technology-enabled business services, media, communications and education sectors, announced that it has closed on the sale of PROtect (the "Company"), one of the nation's fastest growing, tech-enabled testing, inspection, certification & compliance businesses of scale. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

During Spire's six-year investment, PROtect demonstrated strong and sustained organic growth by diversifying its end markets, expanding its geographic footprint, and adding new lines of service. The Company developed a recruitment and retention platform that built a best-in-class employee base of over 550, who were directly engaged with customers and contributed significantly to customer satisfaction.

Alongside its organic growth, PROtect also successfully completed and integrated five acquisitions, including the transformative acquisition of DBI, Inc. and strategic tuck-in acquisitions of BLOC Environmental, RCS Consulting, Houston Integrity Consultants, and Testmasters. These acquisitions accelerated PROtect's service and geographic expansion while adding specialized software capabilities to its solution suite.

"Nathan VanderGriend has guided PROtect through remarkable expansion, establishing the Company as a preeminent provider in the industry," stated Bruce Hernandez, founding partner at Spire Capital. "The collective efforts of the entire PROtect team have been crucial to the Company's achievements and working with such a skilled and dedicated group has been truly rewarding."

"We are incredibly proud of what we've achieved with Spire's partnership," said Nathan VanderGriend, CEO of PROtect. "The team at Spire was crucial in providing the financial and strategic support we needed to meet our objectives. We're deeply thankful for all their efforts and their significant contributions to our success. It's been an amazing journey together over these past six years."

Brad Johnson, principal at Spire, remarked, "PROtect has distinguished itself as a standout in the industry through operational excellence. With Nathan at the helm, the team has seamlessly executed key strategic initiatives that have established the Company as industry leaders. We are eager to see their continued success in the years ahead."

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor to Spire Capital and PROtect. Dentons served as legal counsel to Spire Capital and PROtect.

About Spire Capital Partners
Spire Capital Partners (https://www.spirecapital.com/) is an active and experienced private equity firm with an investment focus on small market companies within the technology-enabled business services, media, communications, and education sectors. Spire Capital Partners was founded on the principle of partnering with management teams and founders to help effectuate the next stage of growth for their companies. Spire professionals have a broad range of operating, investing, and advisory experience that they leverage to help portfolio companies accelerate their growth, guide their strategic direction, and execute their business plan. Spire Capital Partners is a New York-based investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

About PROtect
PROtect is a leading provider of safety, reliability and compliance serving companies in several essential industries including chemicals, food & beverage, midstream energy, pharmaceutical, power generation, refining, and renewables. PROtect provides a range of services all centered around helping our customers manage operational risks including advanced and conventional non-destructive testing (NDT), mechanical integrity, pipeline integrity, environmental, industrial hygiene, safety process safety engineering, rope access and leak detection and repair, and benzene waste operations. PROtect is a team of highly trained, certified, and experienced professionals who are strategically located to efficiently serve our customers with a noticeably different commitment to partnership and service delivery. For more information, please visit www.protect.llc.

Spire Capital Management, LLC ("Spire") is a New York-based investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The Funds managed by Spire are unregistered, privately offered funds. Spire does not solicit or make its services available to the public or other advisory clients. This press release is intended solely to provide information regarding Spire's potential capabilities for prospective portfolio companies and is not an offer to sell to any person, or a solicitation from any person of an offer to buy, any securities. This is not considered an advertisement of the advisory services of Spire nor an offer to provide new advisory services.

SOURCE Spire Capital Partners