Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Apex is a residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services platform that partners with leading providers across the country. With over 8,000 employees nationwide, Apex focuses on empowering its people to build a strong network of industry leaders who can share resources, best practices and expertise in order to deliver unparalleled service to customers.
The transaction is solely dedicated to the further expansion of Apex and underscores Alpine's commitment to facilitating the next stage of growth for the services platform, as well as Alpine’s dedication to offering liquidity to its limited partners. The announcement follows the recent close of Alpine’s latest fund, Alpine Investors IX (“Fund IX”), which reached the fund’s hard cap of $4.5 billion of LP commitments. Fund IX invested $450 million in Apex alongside the continuation fund.
"Apex has a unique model that is built on combining leading brands with exceptional people,” said Graham Weaver, Founder and CEO of Alpine Investors. “The result is that Apex creates outstanding experiences for its customers and continues to experience explosive growth. We believe the extraordinary people at Apex have only begun to scratch the surface of the market opportunity ahead of them. We are excited to continue supporting their growth and to have given our investors the opportunity to participate in this collaborative secondary process.”
Commitments for Apex include contributions from Blackstone Strategic Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Lexington Partners, and Pantheon, as well as commitments from Alpine’s Fund IX. Limited partners of Fund VII were able to receive liquidity for their 2019 investments or roll a portion of their investments into the continuation fund and remain stakeholders. In line with Alpine’s investor-friendly process, limited partners were also given opportunities to combine their liquidity and rollover options to varying degrees based on their preferences.
“In just four years, Apex Service Partners has built a leading national business by serving as a force multiplier for the incredible employees and leading local brands within our platform,” said AJ Brown, CEO of Apex Service Partners. “Alpine’s support through its industry experience, resources and focus on people supercharged our growth while helping us hire, train and retain exceptional talent. They’ve been a true thought partner for us at each step in our journey and we’re excited to continue to have them by our side as we seek to scale to new heights with the help of continued and new investors alike.”
AJ Brown was part of Alpine’s CEO-in-Residence program, and he previously served as CFO of construction software company Avitru, a former Alpine portfolio company. Apex President Will Matson is an additional example of recruiting through Alpine's talent programs, having been hired through its CEO-in-Training program. Both are excited to continue leading Apex during its next phase of growth.
Evercore Inc. acted as the lead financial advisor along with J.P. Morgan and Cowen for the transaction and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to Alpine. Morrison Foerster served as debt counsel.
About Apex Service Partners
Apex Service Partners is a residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services group whose goal is to partner with world-class service providers to build an industry leading national platform. Apex focuses on leveraging the power of people to build a strong network of industry leaders who can share resources, best practices and expertise in order to deliver unparalleled service to customers and opportunities for employees. To learn more about Apex Service Partners, please visit www.apexservicepartners.com.
About Alpine Investors
Alpine Investors is a people-driven private equity firm committed to building enduring companies by working with, learning from, and developing exceptional people. Alpine specializes in investments in the software and services industries. Alpine’s PeopleFirst strategy includes a talent program that allows Alpine to bring leadership to situations where additional or new management is needed post-transaction. Alpine has $16 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023, and has three offices in San Francisco, New York, and Salt Lake City.1 For more information, visit www.alpineinvestors.com and https://alpineinvestors.com/terms-conditions/ for full disclaimers including, but not limited to, third-party statements and certifications and Alpine Operations Group.
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1 Inclusive of additional commitments to the continuation fund as of October 20, 2023 and fair market value as of June 30, 2023.