Across the United States, private equity is backing entrepreneurs and investing in small businesses to facilitate operational growth, innovation, and job creation.

• Private equity is committed to helping small businesses across the country succeed.

• In 2022, the overwhelming majority (85%!) of private equity-backed companies were small businesses with 500 employees or less, while over 60% had fewer than 100 employees.

• In fact, the median private equity-backed business employed 69 workers.

• Private equity-backed businesses and their suppliers, along with related consumer spending, supported 4 million workers who earned $360 billion in combined wages and benefits.

Innovative companies like Sunshine Beverages, Anthos Therapeutics, Inland Coatings, and Black Rock Coffee are all making their mark with the help of private investment.

Sunshine Beverages: redefining the energy drink market

Female-led Sunshine Beverages, backed by Teall Sports and Entertainment, is an energy drink manufacturer that is helping change the beverage market. Focused on providing energy drinks made with healthy and natural ingredients, Sunshine Beverages – with the help of private equity – has been able to expand their vitamin and electrolyte-boosted energy drinks’ footprint.

From establishing key grocery chain partnerships to expanding their distribution network, private equity’s support has helped propel this small business forward. Crediting some of her own success to private equity, the company’s CEO Lizzie Ward Roediger has even encouraged other female entrepreneurs to tap into private equity to help grow their businesses in the way that she has been able to at Sunshine Beverages.

Anthos Therapeutics: developing advanced and innovative care for blood clot patients

Blood clots are responsible for 1 in 4 deaths in the United States and can lead to dire health consequences like strokes and heart attacks. For private-equity backed biopharmaceutical company Anthos Therapeutics, finding a way to prevent this health risk is at the core of their mission.

Based in Massachusetts, Anthos Therapeutics – launched by Blackstone Life Sciences in 2019 – is committed to finding new solutions for those suffering from cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. In fact, the company is conducting late-stage clinical trials on a new drug that could potentially prevent blood clots – a feat that “without the backing of private equity,” according to the company’s CEO John Glasspool, “would sit on the shelf and wouldn’t be possible.”

Inland Coating: leveraging partnerships to support industrial innovation in rural Iowa

Based in rural Iowa, Inland Coatings is a family business that offers industry-leading coating and roof restoration solutions across the country. While Inland Coatings has been able to provide its customers with top-tier roofing solutions, it struggled to support its employees with adequate benefits. Fortunately, private equity has helped change that.

Thanks to sponsorship from Midwest Growth Partners, Inland Coatings now offers health care and retirement benefits to employees that the small company previously could not provide. By enabling an improved benefits offering, private equity has helped Inland Coatings better take care of its employees and bolster its workforce, both by attracting new talent and retaining its dedicated workers.

Black Rock Coffee: forging neighborhood relationships through delicious coffee

For community-focused Black Rock Coffee, serving their customers carefully crafted drinks is the foundation of building strong relationships with the communities in which they operate. As the company struggled to adapt to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity’s support proved critical.

Through funding from the Riverside Company, Black Rock Coffee has been able to expand across the United States and continue serving its valued customers, despite pandemic headwinds. In CEO Jeff Hernandez’s words, “(Private equity) stuck with us…They saw that connection our customers have to our brand and our baristas was almost unshakeable and they followed through and made that investment.” Providing their expertise and critical capital, private equity has been a crucial partnership for supporting Black Rock Coffee’s growth while maintaining the company’s community-focused mission.

The bottom line

Private equity is committed to investing in America’s small businesses so that they can build their communities and provide customers and employees alike with the best service and care.