Food & Beverage Private Equity Firms
31 mid-market firms that invest in food & beverage companies. Each profile covers check size, target EBITDA, strategy, and add-on appetite, sourced from the firms' own published criteria.
Food and beverage buyers live in SKU-level and customer-level detail: margin by product, trade spend, and the split between distribution and direct. The firms below will ask for data most founders keep in spreadsheets, and they discount what they cannot verify. Getting SKU and channel data to reconcile before the process starts is what protects the multiple.
Most are headquartered in Illinois, New York, Connecticut. Published EBITDA targets: 12 at $5M-$15M, 5 at $15M-$40M, 5 at $40M+. 21 state an active add-on programme.
- Benford Capital Partners
A Chicago firm buying $3M to $20M EBITDA food, consumer, and ingredients businesses, including categories like pet food and confections that bigger funds overlook.
- Boyne Capital
A Miami firm targeting $3M to $15M EBITDA companies under $100M of revenue across business services, healthcare, consumer, and niche manufacturing.
- Bregal Partners
The North American lower-middle-market arm of the Bregal family, backing founder-owned consumer, multi-unit, food, and business services companies up to $75M of EBITDA.
- Brookside Equity Partners
A Stamford holding-company-style investor in manufacturing, food ingredients, and services businesses with $5M to $25M+ of EBITDA.
- Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. (BRS)
BRS has been doing consumer and multi-unit deals in New York since 1995, from restaurant groups to specialty distribution, across a wide $1M to $25M EBITDA range.
- Brynwood Partners
Brynwood buys orphaned and under-loved food and consumer brands from large corporates, then rebuilds them, with enterprise values from $25M up to $1B.
- Encore Consumer Capital
A San Francisco consumer specialist investing $5M to $50M in food, beverage, personal care, and pet businesses with $10M to $150M of revenue.
- Entrepreneurial Equity Partners
Chicago food and beverage specialists with $1.7B under management, investing $25M to $150M in private label, contract manufacturing, and foodservice businesses.
- Forward Consumer Partners
A Greenwich consumer specialist with a $500M second fund covering food, beverage alcohol, personal care, pet, and enthusiast brands.
- Frontenac Company
A Chicago firm investing through a CEO1ST model: it identifies proven executives first, then buys companies for them to run.
- Gauge Capital
A Dallas-area firm that showed up in four of the five sectors this directory covers, which tells you what a true generalist looks like at this size.
- Guardian Capital Partners
A Wayne, Pennsylvania firm taking control of food and beverage and non-discretionary services companies with $4M to $20M of EBITDA.
- ICV Partners
A New York firm investing in business services, non-discretionary consumer services, and food companies with $5M to $15M of EBITDA.
- InvestBev
A Chicago specialist in adult beverage: brands, infrastructure, and even inventory financing for aging spirits.
- Kainos Capital
A Dallas firm managing ~$2B exclusively in food and consumer products.
- KarpReilly
A Greenwich growth firm investing $10M to $25M in consumer brands, restaurants, and omnichannel retail.
- LaSalle Capital
A Chicago firm concentrated on lower-middle-market food and beverage: manufacturing, B2B supply chain, and agriculture-adjacent businesses with $2M to $15M of EBITDA.
- Mason Wells
Milwaukee's mid-market standard-bearer, buying outsourced business services, engineered products, packaging, and consumer packaged goods companies with $5M to $30M of EBITDA and $25M to $300M of revenue.
- Peninsula Capital Partners
A Detroit firm providing junior capital and equity: subordinated debt of $5M to $50M and equity up to $30M for companies from $3M of EBITDA.
- Prairie Capital
A Chicago firm with a $450M seventh fund investing $25M to $45M+ in consumer, food, packaging, and restaurant businesses with $4M to $15M of EBITDA.
- Prelude Growth Partners
A New York consumer growth firm with a $600M third fund, investing $15M to $75M in high-growth beauty, wellness, and food brands.
- Prospect Partners
A Chicago firm buying niche manufacturing, distribution, and specialty services companies with $3M to $10M of EBITDA.
- Sequel Holdings
A Dallas firm making control investments in profitable lower-middle-market food and beverage businesses above $5M of EBITDA.
- Shore Capital Partners
The most prolific microcap investor in the country, with ~$17B AUM and dedicated healthcare, food and beverage, business services, and industrial funds.
- Stellex Capital Management
A New York and London firm investing $75M to $150M in industrial, consumer, and food businesses, with real appetite for operational complexity, carve-outs, and turnarounds.
- Swander Pace Capital
A San Francisco consumer specialist that has bought food, wellness, and home products companies for three decades across seven funds.
- Tenex Capital Management
A New York firm with a $1.9B fourth fund investing $25M to $125M in industrials, services, and healthcare companies with $3M to $40M of EBITDA.
- The Riverside Company
One of the largest small-company investors in the world, with strategies spanning micro-cap (under $10M EBITDA), capital appreciation ($10M to $35M), flexible capital, and software acceleration.
- Topspin Consumer Partners
A Mamaroneck firm investing $10M to $50M in consumer companies across wellness, personal care, food, pet, and children's products with EBITDA up to $25M.
- VMG Partners
A San Francisco consumer growth firm that backed Justin's, KIND, and Quest at early institutional stages.
- Wind Point Partners
A Chicago firm buying consumer products, industrial products, and business services companies with $10M to $75M of EBITDA.
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