CHARLOTTE – A Charlotte-headquartered asset management firm, Capitala Group, has acquired a Massachusetts-based digital marketing agency, Overdrive Interactive in a deal that Overdrive CEO Harry Gold called a “no brainer.”
Wells Fargo participated in the investment, according to a statement issued by Capitala Group this week.
According to Joe Alala, III, the founder and CEO of Capitala Group, this is the first closed transaction the firm has made from its newest fund. According to the firm’s website, it has opened 10 funds and made more than 170 investments totalling more than $2 billion since the company was founded in 1998 by Alala as CapitalSouth Partners. An SEC filing dated in 2013 showed the firm raising nearly $180 million from 10 investors, the same year that the company rebranded as Capitala Group.
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The firm invested in Sunset Digital Holding in 2018 and Freedom Electronics in 2019.
“We are excited to close our first deal from this new fund and are equally excited to have recruited a blue chip co-investor, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, to join us in the acquisition of Overdrive,” said Alala in the statement.
According to the statement from the firm, adding Overdrive to the company’s portfolio will continue “Capitala’s long history of pursuing control buyouts as the lead equity investor into entrepreneur-founded small businesses.”
The firm has offices in Raleigh; Atlanta, Ga., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Louisville, KY; Charleston, SC, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, Ca.
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