GROWTH THAT TELLS A STORY.

Partnership and performance news and updates.​


More News


March 20, 2026
Acquisition Furthers Ongoing Growth Strategy and Positions FastLane as Integrated Growth Platform Supporting Franchisors from Concept Through Scale . Greenwich, CT – March 20, 2026 – Southfield Capital (“Southfield”), a premier lower middle market private equity firm, today announced that its portfolio company, Franchise FastLane (“FastLane” or “the Company”), a leading franchise sales organization, has completed the strategic acquisition of Franchise Creator, a premier firm specializing in identifying and guiding early-stage franchisors through concept validation, franchise readiness, and foundational growth planning. The addition of Franchise Creator allows FastLane to establish an integrated growth platform that supports franchisors from concept through scale, leveraging Franchise Creator’s strong reputation working with emerging brands at the earliest stages of their franchising journey and helping founders validate their models, prepare for franchising, and establish strong foundations for growth. As part of FastLane, Franchise Creator will continue to focus on early-stage brand identification and support, while benefiting from the scale, infrastructure, and development capabilities of the broader FastLane ecosystem, enabling it to better help founders build strong, scalable franchise models. “This acquisition represents an exciting step in FastLane’s evolution and the continued execution of our organic and targeted M&A growth strategy,” said Tim Koch, President & COO of FastLane . “In partnering with Southfield, we have set out to build more than a franchise sales organization. Franchise Creator’s best-in-class ability to identify and guide early-stage brands is a powerful complement to FastLane, and we’re excited to integrate their insights and capabilities into our platform. Through this combination, we are able to further our mission of building the first end-to-end franchise services business, capable of working with brands from their formation through maturity.” “From day one, Franchise Creator has been about helping founders turn great ideas into real, viable franchise brands,” said Hossein Kasmai, Founder of Franchise Creator. “FastLane shares that same belief, and they bring the resources, experience, and platform to help our clients go further and faster. This partnership allows us to stay true to who we are while expanding what’s possible for our team and the founders we serve.” “This acquisition aligns perfectly with FastLane’s long-term strategy of building a differentiated, vertically integrated platform across the franchising lifecycle,” said Josh Sylvan, Principal at Southfield Capital. “By expanding upstream into early-stage brand creation and readiness, FastLane is strengthening its recurring revenue profile, improving brand quality entering development, and building a more durable enterprise. We’re excited to have the opportunity to partner with Hossein and the Franchise Creator team to continue building on the Company’s momentum and strengthening both its market position and ability to serve franchisors and founders across the country.” TPG Twin Brook provided debt financing. Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP provided legal counsel to FastLane and Southfield. Boxwood Partners acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Franchise Creator. About Southfield Capital Southfield Capital is a premier private equity firm with a foundational commitment to driving value at high-growth, lower middle market companies in the business services sector. The firm leverages its deep team of highly-experienced investment, technology and value-creation professionals, combined with fully-integrated AI-driven capabilities to partner with founders and manager-owned teams. For more information, please visit www.southfieldcapital.com About Franchise FastLane Franchise FastLane provides franchise development services. It manages the entire franchisee sales lifecycle from initial lead generation to prospect qualification through to deal closure. FastLane works with franchisors to perfect their discovery process, bring qualified franchisee leads, and drive strong growth. FastLane leverages a rigorous diligence and onboarding process, industry-leading technology platform, and exceptional sales executives to drive successful franchise development for its franchisor clients. For more information, please visit www.franchisefastlane.com About Franchise Creator Franchise Creator specializes in identifying and guiding early-stage franchisors through concept validation, franchise readiness, and foundational growth planning, helping founders build strong, scalable franchise models and provides back-end services like bookkeeping and marketing. For more information, please visit www.franchisecreator.com  Investor Contact Jason Perlroth Principal, Head of Business Development, Southfield Capital Email: jperlroth@southfieldcapital.com Tel: 203 813 4117 Media Contact Taylor Ingraham / Max Rayden Email: tingraham@ascadvisors.com / mrayden@ascadvisors.com Tel: 203 992 1230
southfield capital acquires Contextual.ai to provide value creation
January 26, 2026
AI-driven Full-Service Business Contextual.io Complements Southfield Capital's Mission to Enhance Value Creation for Founders and Manager-Owners

More News


November 30, 2016
GREENWICH, CT - Southfield Capital, a leading lower middle market private equity firm, announced today its partnership with Ntiva Inc., a full-service provider of managed IT services for small and medium-sized businesses. Ntiva’s founder and CEO, Steven Freidkin, along with the Ntiva management team will be continuing in their current roles. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Ntiva provides a full suite of outsourced IT services, including onsite support, remote monitoring, cloud services, backup and disaster recovery, and strategic consulting. The company enables its customers to outsource their IT infrastructure, allowing them to improve their performance, reduce costs and enhance security. Ntiva CEO, Steven Freidkin, commented, “Ntiva today is recognized as one of the fastest growing MSPs in the nation mostly due to our continued focus on customer satisfaction and success. As the industry grows, we want to remain one of the top players and we believe this requires a continued commitment to growing people. In order to achieve our goal, we needed to partner with a firm that can assist us with appropriately scaling our organization and executing complementary acquisition opportunities. The partner also needed to share our organizational values and focus on growing people. After an exhaustive search, we are excited to partner with Southfield Capital, a firm that has experience in guiding companies like Ntiva through the next phase of growth and shares our people first approach.” Southfield Partner, Heb James, commented, “The managed IT services industry should benefit from the continued transition of small and medium-sized businesses to outsourced IT management and cloud-based services and from the growing focus on improving data security. Significant opportunity exists for a mid-market focused MSP that understands the sector specific needs of its clients and has the infrastructure to deliver. Ntiva is an exemplary outsourced IT provider with its talented team, deep sector and functional expertise and vast referral network of satisfied clients. Steven, the founder, has clearly built a very impressive business and we are excited to have the opportunity to work with such a successful entrepreneur to continue to expand the company’s footprint.” Crestline Investors provided debt financing. Finn Dixon & Herling provided legal counsel to Southfield Capital. About Southfield Capital Southfield Capital is a private equity firm that invests in exceptional, growing companies in the lower middle market. The firm makes control investments in North American companies generating $4 - 12 million in EBITDA with proven business models, attractive growth and profitability trends, and strong leadership. For more information, please visit www.southfieldcapital.com . Contact Heb James, Partner Southfield Capital (203) 813-4113 hjames@southfieldcapital.com
November 8, 2016
GREENWICH, CT – Vanguard Dealer Services, a portfolio company of Southfield Capital, announced an investment in Centurion Automotive Products Inc. (“Centurion” or “the Company”), a regional agent of finance and insurance (“F&I”) products and services to automobile dealerships in the Northeast. Senior management invested alongside Vanguard and will continue in their operational roles. Centurion, located in Syracuse, NY, offers third party vehicle service contracts and consulting services focused on enhancing dealership profitability. The Company also distributes vehicle appearance protection products. Centurion has a long history of delivering industry leading income development and sales training to F&I departments throughout the Northeast. Mark Fiorini, CEO of Centurion, commented, “The Centurion team is very excited about our new partnership with Vanguard and Southfield. Our team is energized and focused on Vanguard's aggressive growth strategy. We look forward to the future, and anticipate the mutual success of our new team and our long term dealer partners.” “We are very excited to partner with an organization with such deep roots in the F&I industry. Centurion’s long history in the Northeast is a testament to its customer-centric focus and the value it creates for the dealers it services. Mark Fiorini and his team are excellent additions to the Vanguard platform and we will look to leverage them in our ongoing pursuit to create a best-in-class service offering,” said Jim Polley, CEO of Vanguard. East West Bank provided the senior debt financing. Finn Dixon & Herling acted as legal advisor to Vanguard. About Vanguard Headquartered in Fairfield, NJ, Vanguard Dealers Services is a premier agent and administrator of F&I products and services to automobile dealers nationwide. Vanguard offers a full suite of proprietary and third party auto extended warranty products, F&I consulting and reinsurance services focused on enhancing dealership profitability. Vanguard’s value-added services include, F&I training, compensation plan development, dealer incentive management, compliance review, sales strategy and F&I specialist staffing. About Southfield Capital Southfield Capital is a private equity firm that invests in exceptional, growing companies in the lower middle market. The firm makes control investments in North American companies generating $4 - 12 million in EBITDA with proven business models, attractive growth and profitability trends, and strong leadership. For more information, please visit www.southfieldcapital.com Contact Andy Cook, Partner Southfield Capital (203) 813-4100 acook@southfieldcapital.com