Headquartered in Greenville, Texas, Polara designs and manufactures the most technologically advanced and durable ADA-compliant and pedestrian-friendly crosswalk devices on the market. Polara's APS (Accessible Pedestrian System) units and push buttons can be found in cities across the United States and Canada, and they have been instrumental in enhancing pedestrian safety and driving innovation in the market.
Polara, founded by the McGaffey family, has been in business 50+ years, and has been specifically serving the pedestrian safety market for the past two plus decades. As part of the transaction, the McGaffey family rolled a significant ownership position in Polara and will continue to serve in leadership positions during the business' next chapter of growth. "I am extremely excited about this partnership because it opens up significant opportunities for Polara to grow at an even faster pace as the leader in the Pedestrian Traffic industry, while maintaining a culture that strives to meet and exceed our distributors and their customer's needs and expectations," said John McGaffey, President of Polara. "Vance Street's strong track record of partnering with family-owned businesses and supporting them through investments in people, process and product innovation is a great fit for our organization."
"We are excited to partner with the Polara team to support the Company's commitment to pedestrian traffic safety. Polara's focus on product innovation centered on enhancing pedestrian safety, notably for the disabled community, will continue to be a core focus as part of Vance Street's partnership with Polara," said Steve Sandbo, Principle at Vance Street. "Polara's focus on IoT and connectivity is a great fit with our past investment experience and we are excited to support these initiatives."
"Polara is a great example of our continued strategy to partner with best-in-class family-owned businesses," said Brian Martin, Managing Partner at Vance Street. "The McGaffey family and management have built a terrific organization, and we're honored to be able to support their continued growth."
Harris Williams and Paul Hastings LLP acted as financial and legal advisors to Vance Street Capital. Capstone Partners served as financial advisor to Polara while Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP served as legal advisor to Polara. Debt financing for the transaction was provided by Barings' Global Private Credit. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About Vance Street Capital LLC
Vance Street Capital is a middle-market private equity firm focused on investing in highly engineered solutions businesses across the industrial, medical, life science, aerospace and defense sectors. For over two decades, Vance Street's partners have worked with management teams and family owners to accelerate revenue growth, improve operations and acquire strategic assets for the companies in their investment portfolio. For more information please visit: www.vancestreetcapital.com.
SOURCE Vance Street Capital
Share this article