SFW Capital Partners, LP (“SFW”), a specialized private equity firm today announced that it has completed a majority recapitalization of Granite River Labs (“GRL”), a global leader in test and certification services and automated test solutions for digital connectivity and charging technologies. Co-founders Johnson Tan and Quintin Anderson will continue to lead the business and remain significant shareholders. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based GRL specializes in helping product developers implement the latest connectivity and charging interfaces – such as USB, Qi wireless charging, Ethernet, and PCI Express – in a rapidly expanding universe of connected devices and applications, including consumer electronics, mobile, automotive, cloud computing, data center, medical, and industrial automation. With over 200 employees, six state-of-the-art labs and two R&D centers across the globe, GRL supports the entire electronics value chain, from semiconductors to PCBs, cables, connectors, and end products.
The company works closely with early adopters, standards committees, and supply chain partners to develop test methodologies, implement testing programs and provide easy-to-use automated test solutions. GRL is a trusted partner to companies ranging from small, emerging hardware developers to leading global technology brands. GRL helps its customers ensure standards compliance, reduce complexity, shorten time to market, and improve product quality and performance.
“GRL is a tremendous business with a significant growth opportunity, and we could not be more pleased to announce this new partnership,” said Ahmad Sheikh, Partner at SFW. “Led by a veteran team with an intense focus on quality and customer service excellence, GRL has a built a strong reputation for technical leadership and a loyal customer base. We are thrilled to bring the additional resources and expertise to help Quintin and Johnson achieve our shared vision for GRL’s future.”
“Working with GRL’s management team, we have identified areas we will focus on to drive growth, including increasing capacity and investing in expanded technical capabilities to serve our existing customers more effectively, accelerating new lab openings in key geographies, launching new test automation solutions, entering new verticals, and pursuing strategic add-on acquisitions,” Sheikh added.
“We are very excited to enter the next chapter of GRL’s growth with SFW as our strategic investment partner,” said Co-Founder and CEO Johnson Tan. “After deciding to bring on a partner to help us grow, we spoke with a wide variety of organizations, and SFW immediately stood out. They bring extensive sector knowledge, a deep understanding of our business and, most importantly, a long, successful history of supporting the development of founder-owned test services, automated test solutions and instrumentation businesses like ours.”
“We have enjoyed great success over the past decade and we’re confident that SFW’s extensive network and market expertise will enable us to accelerate our growth while maintaining the highest level of quality and innovation in the industry,” added Co-Founder and COO Quintin Anderson. “Our customers face an extraordinary challenge as connectivity and charging technologies become faster, more complex and more difficult to test, and end users’ expectations constantly increase. With SFW’s support, we are well-positioned to not just keep pace, but to increase our market share through delivery of new, innovative solutions, enhanced technical capabilities, greater lab capacity, and an expanded global footprint.”
SFW has led investments in several leading, founder and family-owned businesses in the Industrial and Healthcare Technology sectors, including Caron Products & Services, Essen Bioscience, Micromeritics and Filtec.
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