Independent Advisory for Private Companies
Private Capital and M&A Advisory for the Lower Middle Market.
Zaidwood Capital advises privately held companies on raising capital through private placements, on acquiring and selling businesses, and on the operating work that determines what a transaction is worth.
$1B+
Aggregate transaction volume
300+
Transactions completed
80+
Years of collective experience
$5B+
Access to capital
Transactions were led by Zaidwood professionals, at Zaidwood or at prior institutions, as indicated. Full transaction credentials available on request. Past transactions are not indicative of future results.
Track Record
Representative transactions of our team
$2.5M
Debt Financing
$35M
Equity Financing
$110M
Structured Debt
$230M
Acquisition Financing
$230M
Acquisition Financing
$15M
Equity & Debt Financing
$155M
Buy-Side M&A Advisory
$250M
Sell-Side Advisory
$7.8M
Private Equity
Sector Mandate
Privately held companies where capital has become the binding constraint
$5M – $250M+
Lower middle and middle market. Transaction values across private placements, debt and mergers and acquisitions.
Advanced Manufacturing
Energy
Digital Infrastructure
Medtech
Consumer
Enterprise Tech
The firm accepts mandates outside these sectors where the transaction is executable as structured and the counterparty universe is one we already cover.
Sector Experience
Where This Team Has Executed
Advanced Manufacturing
Industrial automation and diversified industrials, across mandates involving ABB, Volvo Aero, Kone and DuPont.
Energy
Chemicals, oil and gas, including Phillips 66. A $250M renewable energy transaction structured with Lehman Brothers’ Osprey. Supply and offtake with sovereign and institutional counterparties.
Digital Infrastructure
Capital raises in digital infrastructure, and cross-border execution across North America, West Africa and the Middle East.
Medtech
Biopharma and medical technology advisory across more than $500M in transaction value.
Consumer
Food and beverage.
Enterprise Tech
Fifteen years of technology M&A across fintech, software and digital assets, including IPREO and Fiserv.
Transactions were led by Zaidwood professionals, at Zaidwood or at prior institutions. Full credentials available on request.
Mandates are led by professionals who previously held positions at Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan, Morningstar, Northern Trust, PNC and FFTW.
Our Practices
Three practices, one underwriting standard
We work exclusively with privately held companies. Each practice is built on the same test: whether the transaction is executable as structured, and whether we can identify what an investor or acquirer will find before they find it.
Practice
Practice
Zaidwood also operates a Merchant Services and Payment Solutions practice, providing payment infrastructure and working capital to operating businesses.
Sources of Capital
The capital available to a private company is not interchangeable
Each source carries structural terms decided by the nature of the capital itself rather than by the negotiation that follows. The cost of selecting the wrong one is rarely visible in the term sheet that presents it.
01
Venture Capital
Funds with defined sector mandates and committed capital, underwriting to a return profile and an exit horizon set by their own fund life. Appropriate where growth is the constraint and management accepts the governance and pace that follow.
02
Private Equity
Control and majority positions, and growth equity where the sponsor will take a minority. The cash flow and the operating plan are underwritten directly, and the structure is priced against both.
03
Private Lending
Private credit funds, specialty lenders and asset-backed facilities outside the commercial banking market. Priced against collateral, covenants and cash flow coverage rather than against the equity narrative.
04
Family Office
Principal capital deployed without fund-life constraints or committed-capital deadlines. The absence of an LP structure permits structures a fund cannot approve and holding periods a fund cannot underwrite.
05
Strategic Capital
Corporate venture arms, holding companies and conglomerates taking positions in later-stage businesses, frequently ahead of an acquisition. The commitment carries distribution, supply, technology or market access alongside it.
06
Sovereign Wealth Funds
State-backed institutional capital with long-dated mandates and scale. Engaged where the transaction is large enough to be relevant and the sector sits within a stated national or strategic priority.
Our Approach
Execution framework
Eight stages. Three are completed before an engagement is signed, because the firm does not accept a mandate it does not believe is executable.
Before engagement
Three stages
01
Fit assessment
A senior professional forms a view on whether the transaction is executable as structured: the amount, the instrument, the valuation expectation and the narrative. Where it is not, we say so directly, including when the answer is no, and identify what would have to change.
02
Structure
How the transaction should be shaped, including the entity, domicile and capitalisation work required by the investors or acquirers being targeted.
03
Instrument and terms
Set against the counterparty universe rather than against a template. The instrument follows the counterparty, not the reverse.
Once engaged
Five stages
04
Positioning and materials
Positioning is settled before anything is built: which comparable set the business is read against, which metrics it will be judged on, and which of its risks are addressed in the file rather than discovered in diligence. The materials then express that position rather than describe the company. Model, presentation, teaser and data room, rebuilt rather than redesigned. Every institutional counterparty reconstructs the model; ours is built to agree with theirs when they do. The presentation is written for the partner who must carry it to committee - frequently the participant least familiar with the sector. Materials are released as a complete set, because an incomplete file is a decline.
05
Counterparty screening
A defined universe screened against the specific profile - geography, stage, cheque size, instrument, revenue and EBITDA thresholds, and sector mandates - before any approach is made. Identifying funds or acquirers is not the constraint. Establishing which are permitted by their own mandate to participate, at that size and in that instrument, is the exercise that determines the outcome.
06
Outreach and process management
The process opens with a small group of counterparties the firm knows well, approached for candid feedback rather than for a commitment. What comes back on the structure, the valuation expectation and the gaps in the file is acted on before the process widens. Adjustments made at that stage cost nothing. The same adjustments made after a broad launch cost the round its momentum, because the universe that has already declined cannot be approached twice. The broader universe is then worked in parallel, with calls convened and attended, diligence questions tracked, and a live view of where each counterparty stands. A process run in parallel creates competitive tension. A process run sequentially becomes a queue, and the queue sets the terms.
07
Diligence support
Financial, legal, operational, commercial, technology and human capital workstreams managed alongside management. Six concurrent workstreams arriving on a team that still has a business to operate is where processes deteriorate.
08
Outreach and process management
Term sheets and offers evaluated on more than headline valuation: control, liquidation preference, consideration mix, board composition and the conditions attached to each. The process is then managed through to signing.