Profitable small companies belong in private hands.
Arbor Row Capital takes profitable micro-cap public companies private — and builds their value away from the public market's glare.
You built a real business.
The market stopped noticing.
Capital has spent two decades migrating to the top of the market. The institutions that once owned small companies now run funds too large to hold them, the research desks that covered them have closed, and the liquidity that followed has dried up. A profitable company under $100 million is left with no coverage, no natural institutional buyer, and thin trading — not because of how it performs, but because the market that should serve it has moved on. The cost of staying public, meanwhile, buys almost none of what it was meant to.
Taken private, that changes. We think these companies are worth far more in patient private hands than the public market will ever pay.
The overhead comes back
The cost of being public returns to the business, where it can do some good.
Management stays
Owners roll over, keep running the company, and share in the upside they build.
A clear path out
A multi-year partnership toward a sale at private-market value.
A different kind of buyer.
We buy profitable U.S. public companies worth less than $100 million and take them private. We are not activists, and we use no leverage. Every conversation is private, every offer is complete, and management stays on to share in the upside.
Private & bilateral
Negotiated directly with the company — never a public campaign.
One full offer
We arrive once, with a complete proposal — or not at all.
Management rolls over
We back operators; we do not replace them.
Platform from day one
A full operating platform — tax, finance, legal, growth.
Profitable & growing
Real earnings, trending up.
Recurring revenue
Durable, repeatable demand.
A durable moat
An advantage that lasts.
Strong balance sheet
Little or no debt.
High-caliber management
Operators we want to back.
THE OPPORTUNITY
9
In five years, only nine sponsor-led take-privates targeted a U.S. public company under $100 million — each by a different firm, none repeating.
No incumbent. No platform. No firm has made this its focus. Arbor Row has.
Each dot is one U.S.-listed company that filed a Schedule 13E-3 between July 2021 and September 2026 (135 companies). Sponsor-led = a financial sponsor's funds are among the 13E-3 filing persons. Market cap at filing; some values estimated. Source: SEC EDGAR.
The nine sponsor-led deals under $100M
| Filed | Company | Sponsor | Mkt cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2021 | Evolve Transition Infrastructure LP | Stonepeak | $4M |
| Jun 2023 | GreenLight Biosciences Holdings, PBC | Fall Line Capital | $46M |
| Sep 2023 | Minerva Surgical Inc | Accelmed Partners | $12M |
| Nov 2023 | Startek, Inc. | CSP (Capital Square Partners) | $48M |
| Mar 2024 | Fathom Digital Manufacturing Corp | CORE Industrial Partners | $18M |
| May 2024 | MariaDB plc | K1 Investment Management | $38M |
| Jul 2024 | Vapotherm Inc | Perceptive Advisors | $10M |
| Feb 2025 | NeueHealth, Inc. | New Enterprise Associates | $95M |
| Apr 2026 | KORE Group Holdings, Inc. | Searchlight & ABRY Partners | $65M |
How these conversations start
We are part of this ecosystem, not visitors to it.
There is no auction in this market and no banker running a process. The companies we buy come to us through the people who already serve them, and almost every conversation begins with an introduction rather than a cold approach.
David Cohen
Who we know
Co-Head of Investments
Chief executive of two micro-cap public companies, so he has sat in the same seat as the owners we approach. Before that he ran investment banking at a firm built around micro-caps, and he knows the securities lawyers, audit partners, investor relations firms and boutique banks who work at this end of the market.
Jeremy Corkhill
How it gets done
Co-Head of Investments
Served on the executive committee of a publicly traded asset manager and has closed more than forty transactions across twenty-five years, including a $6 billion merger. He knows how a deal travels from a first conversation to a signed agreement, quietly and on a timetable.
Owners talk to us because someone they already trust suggested it. Nothing becomes public until they decide it should.
One strategy. Two kinds of partner.
The discipline that makes Arbor Row a safe home for a company is the same discipline that protects the capital invested behind it.
A partner, not an activist — you keep running the business.
Off the public market, with its cost and quarterly glare gone.
Your team gains a real operating platform from day one.
You roll over and share in the value the private chapter creates.
Patient capital — we buy to build, not to flip.
A differentiated strategy in a market no established firm works.
We buy low. Entry at suppressed public micro-cap valuations, with no leverage — returns come from the business, not the balance sheet.
We build. A multi-year hold to grow EBITDA — bigger, more profitable, better run on the operating platform.
We sell higher. An exit to a larger private-equity firm or a strategic acquirer, at private-market multiples well above where micro-caps trade publicly.
Downside discipline: profitable companies only, and no roll-ups.
Operators first. Investors second.
Neil Jesani
Founder of Neil Jesani Advisors — the operating platform behind every Arbor Row deal.
David Cohen
Ran two public companies himself — he has sat in the seller's chair.
Jeremy Corkhill
25+ years and 40+ transactions worth more than $10B; led Janus Henderson's $6B merger.
Jacqueline de Sanctis
Two decades raising institutional capital, most recently at ClearSky.
Two ways to reach us.
A quiet conversation.
If you lead or advise a profitable public company that no longer belongs in the public markets, we welcome a confidential discussion — no obligation.
Founder & Co-Head of Investments
jeremy@arborrowcapital.com
Partner with the fund.
For Qualified Purchasers exploring an allocation to a differentiated micro-cap take-private strategy.
Managing Director, Capital Formation
jackie@arborrowcapital.com
561-264-2656
An affiliate of Neil Jesani Advisors