Brentwood Associates, a Sawtelle-based private equity firm, received commitments of $190 million for a fund designed to buy legacy assets from two of the firm’s prior funds and provide liquidity to investors.

The transaction, which was led by Spring Bridge Partners with significant backing from Hollyport Capital and other institutional investors, provides capital and additional flexibility to support the growth of portfolio companies with Brentwood Associates.
 
The firm announced the fund May 18. It did not identify which legacy assets would be
targeted.  

Since 1984, Brentwood Associates has invested in more than 50 portfolio companies with a total transaction value of more than $6 billion. The firm’s assets under management exceed $2.5 billion.
 
In the past, Brentwood Associates has worked with companies ranging from Orange-
theory Fitness, a Boca Raton-based chain of workout studios, to Blaze Pizza, a Pasadena-based pizza chain.

This month, Brentwood Associates acquired majority control of Colorado-based Watermill Express, a chain of 1,300 refill stations that provide safe drinking water and ice in a convenient drive-up format, predominantly across the West Coast and Sunbelt.

Brentwood Associates has owned Virginia-based Teaching Co., which sells audio and video learning classes, since 2006.

The firm invests in middle-market growth-oriented consumer and technology-enabled business services companies with annual revenue between $10 million and $1 billion in annual revenue.

Neither Eric Reiter nor Bill Barnum, partners at Brentwood Associates, were available for comment on the new fund, called Brentwood Associates Opportunities Fund.

Brentwood raised $1.15 billion in capital commitments for its previous fund in September 2017, according to the firm’s website. That fund, Brentwood’s sixth, followed the strategy of the firm’s fifth fund, which received commitments of $688 million in November 2014.

“We are excited to partner with these highly respected and experienced institutional investors in a structured transaction that allows us to provide a liquidity option to our limited partner investors,” Barnum said in a statement.

“The completion of the fund will enable us to continue to support our management teams and execute on the well-defined expansion plans at our portfolio companies,” Reiter added in a statement.
 
Brentwood Associates, founded in 1972, is one of the oldest private equity firms in L.A.  
 
Spring Bridge Partners, founded in 2017, is a New York-based investment firm focused on partnering with private equity managers to develop liquidity solutions for existing stakeholders.