Prairie Capital, a Chicago-based middle market private equity firm, is pleased to announce the successful sale of DRB Systems from Prairie Capital V to New Mountain Capital LLC, a New York-based private investment firm. This exit highlights Prairie’s strategy of partnering with founders and management teams to build market-leading companies in high-growth industries.
DRB is the leading provider of technology-enabled devices and software solutions to the car wash industry. With an installed base of over 10,000 systems in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada, DRB has catalyzed the industry’s professionalization and technology-enablement that drives value creation for operators within the car wash market. DRB, founded in 1984, was family owned and operated until Prairie’s investment in March, 2014.
The Prairie investment thesis focused on transforming DRB into an enterprise capable of capturing the accelerating demand for technology solutions in the car wash industry. The transformation required substantial company-building investments including: (i) recruiting a new CEO and several other senior managers; (ii) restructuring and expanding the sales and marketing organization; (iii) investing in new product development; and (iv) acquiring the leading point-of-sale software provider to the C-store market. These initiatives, among others, along with robust market growth, have led to a more than quadrupling of EBITDA during Prairie’s 3 ½ year hold period.