Apr 1, 2024   SOURCE: BusinessWire

HKW Strengthens Investment Team Across Core Competencies with Two New Partners

HKW, a middle-market private equity firm focused on growth companies, today announced that it has hired Laurence Lederer and Devraj Roy as Partners. Based out of HKW’s New York City office, Lederer and Roy will seek to help drive forward HKW’s strategy of prioritizing investments in basic industrial manufacturing, distribution and business services companies including IoT/telematic and tech-enabled businesses where innovation is driving growth in the middle market.

HKW is one of the longest tenured private equity firms, with history dating back over 120 years, and is focused on driving growth in high-potential businesses. With the new hirings, HKW continues to emphasize its strategy of partnering with business builders that strive to identify investment opportunities, accelerate growth and generate value.

Lederer joins with more than two decades of investment experience and will seek to leverage this experience to help identify growth companies and partnership opportunities for HKW. Most recently, he served as Managing Partner at Branford Castle Partners and has spent his career focusing on middle-market companies in the range of $3M-30M EBITDA. Lederer specializes in industrial and business services and has helped manage, invest and raise capital.

Roy joins HKW with 25 years of investment experience, having most recently served as Partner at Radial Equity Partners, an industrial-focused private equity firm spun out of Irving Place Capital. Roy has experience in sourcing and executing investments, and will seek to leverage his extensive professional network to help identify and execute investments for HKW.

“We look forward to working closely alongside two strong business builders as we concentrate our investments on what has led HKW to success over its history,” said Ted Kramer, CEO of HKW. “Both Laurence and Devraj help articulate our go-forward vision for HKW, bolster our firm’s footprint, and enhance our ability to work closely alongside exciting companies and management teams.”

“Adding these experienced investment professionals to our team will help reinforce our central thesis of focusing where we can best serve the founders and companies with whom we partner,” added Michael Foisy, President of HKW. “We are confident that our legacy will continue with the support of our team members and portfolio companies.”

About HKW

HKW is a middle-market private equity firm investing in companies with talented management teams in the US and Canada. HKW targets basic industrial manufacturing, distribution and business services companies including IoT/telematic and tech-enabled businesses where innovation is driving growth. Since 1982, HKW has sponsored 69 platform transactions of middle-market companies throughout North America and 77 add-on acquisitions. For more information on HKW, please visit hkwinc.com.