Heartwood Partners, LLC

Heartwood Partners, LLC, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a private equity investor, manager, and adviser founded in 1982 and rebranded as Heartwood Partners in September 2020. The firm specializes in making control equity and equity-related investments in small and mid-sized U.S.-based private companies. Heartwood Partners manages approximately $462,300,000 of client assets on a discretionary basis as of December 31, 2022. The firm provides discretionary investment management services to the Fund and co-investment vehicles, focusing on equity and equity-related investments in private companies. Clients typically include high net worth individuals and institutional investors, with a minimum commitment of five million dollars to the Fund. Heartwood Partners' investment strategy aims to generate attractive returns through quarterly cash distributions and long-term capital appreciation by investing in established companies with stable cash flows and moderate capital expenditure requirements. The firm's approach involves active support for portfolio companies' strategic growth plans with a lower-debt, higher-equity capital structure. Heartwood Partners' investment philosophy emphasizes a differentiated approach to sourcing transactions in the lower middle market, focusing on building businesses for long-term gains. The firm's investment strategy aims to reduce financial volatility and offer clients the opportunity to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns with lower volatility compared to other private equity strategies.