Everside Capital Partners Announces Investment in CentralBDC

New York, NY – Everside Capital Partners (“Everside”) is proud to announce its investment, along with Aaron Kleinhandler, SJ Partners, LLC (“SJ”) and Northcreek Mezzanine (“Northcreek”), into CentralBDC, LLC, a Boca Raton, Florida based Outsourced Business Development Company that provides lead management services to auto dealerships nationwide. The new Company will be named CentralBDC, Enterprises, LLC (“CentralBDC”). Everside together with Northcreek provided senior subordinated debt and equity to the CentralBDC, while Enterprise Bank & Trust provided a senior term loan. The remaining equity investment has been provided by Aaron Kleinhandler, SJ and the founder of the Company.

CentralBDC is the automotive industry’s fastest growing outsourced BDC Company. CentralBDC’s proprietary technology coupled with its highly trained and motivated employees currently support many of the largest dealerships and dealership groups nationwide as their full-service BDC for sales, equity-mining, appointment setting and customer service. Its management team has over 50 years of experience in the automotive industry.  Benjamin Shamsizadeh will continue to help lead the Company as President and will be joined by Aaron Kleinhandler who will become the Company’s new CEO.

“This investment is really a powerful leadership combination that will help fully institutionalize CentralBDC. In today’s auto market, we believe the value proposition for its customers is extremely compelling” says Nate Kirk, Founder of Everside. “We also truly appreciate the quality of the people we are working with in Scott from SJ Partners and with Northcreek and believe Aaron and Benjamin make a winning team.”

“I was looking to find a collaborative partner to help take us to the next stage of growth, and I believe I found that in Aaron and the teams from SJ, Northcreek, and Everside,” says Benjamin Shamsizadeh, the Founder of CentralBDC. “I am eager to help continue leading the business and see tremendous value in leveraging their experience to guide our growth strategy.”

“I am thrilled to be partnering with Benjamin and the rest of the CentralBDC team,” says Aaron Kleinhandler who led the investment. “CentralBDC is well positioned to capitalize on a massive market and strong underlying demand tailwinds for our services. We believe that their technology-enabled, highly scalable delivery model is differentiated from smaller competitors and will allow the business to capture an outsized share of the growing market.”

“The partnership with Aaron and Benjamin is an exciting new phase for CentralBDC,” adds Scott Johnson, founder of SJ Partners. “This is our second investment with Aaron.  Under Aaron’s leadership, that previous investment, Spectrio, experienced enormous growth from startup to approximately $40M in EBITDA driven by 38 add-on acquisitions.  We now see an opportunity to deliver solutions to a much larger set of clients and to continue growing the organization to better meet the needs of those clients as well as serving as a platform to acquire others in this exciting space.”

About Everside Capital Partners, LLC:

Everside, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), is a New York based, independently owned asset management firm focused exclusively on the U.S. lower middle market. The firm is led by a team with extensive backgrounds in credit, direct investing and origination from top global institutions.  Everside has a track record of investing in debt and equity in lower middle market companies across the US, generally through partnering with Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) or directly partnering with lower middle market companies. Everside has closed more than 80 investments since inception and currently manages $800 million in commitments across multiple funds.

About Aaron Kleinhandler:

Aaron Kleinhandler is the Founder of Audio Messaging Solutions, LLC and its successor Spectrio, LLC a 10-time member of the Inc. 5000.  He has worked in the tech enabled B to B services sector for over 25 years.  During his career, Aaron has worked with Institutional Investors including The Riverside Company, Abry Partners, Bertram Capital, and The Jordan Company.  His platforms have acquired over 45 add on acquisitions and delivered impressive results to his investors.

 About SJ Partners LLC:

SJ Partners is a leading lower middle market private equity firm that, for over fifteen years, has focused on the acquisition of consumer and services companies. It works closely with portfolio company management and maintains a group of highly qualified operating partners. It has won numerous awards including being named ACG NY Champions Firm of the Year. For more information, visit www.sjpartners.com

About Northcreek Mezzanine:

Northcreek is a Small Business Investment Company (“SBIC”) currently investing out of Fund III, our $195 million 2019 vintage-year fund. Northcreek provides creatively structured mezzanine debt and equity investments to middle market companies. Northcreek works with management teams, business owners and private equity groups to provide the capital needed for a variety of purposes including the acquisition or buyout of a business, capital for growth including acquisition of equipment, product lines and/or personnel, and capital to deleverage a balance sheet. As a financial partner to over hundreds of businesses, the principals of Northcreek have developed a strong and valued reputation as a trusted and reliable financial partner. Learn more at NorthcreekMezzanine.com.