Milwaukee, Wisconsin · Independent sponsor
Hinterland Capital acquires profitable lower middle market manufacturing businesses and works closely with the teams that run them. We are based in Milwaukee and know the Midwest best, but we look at the right business anywhere in the country. We do a small number of deals, we underwrite them ourselves, and we fund them with our own family office capital alongside other family offices and institutional investors.
What we look for
Within food, we buy businesses involved in the food manufacturing process, both branded and contract manufactured. Within industrial, we buy component and product manufacturers with real production assets and a durable customer base.
Milwaukee is home and the Midwest is where we have the deepest relationships, but geography is the one criterion we flex. If the business is right, we will get on a plane.
We are not generalists and we would rather tell you no in a day than sit in your process for a month.
We pass on turnarounds, pre-revenue businesses, and anything outside food or industrial manufacturing. If a deal is close but not quite, send it anyway and we will tell you why.
How we work
Here is how a process runs with us, so you can judge that for yourself before putting us in a buyer universe.
We read the book ourselves and come back with a number and the build behind it, not a form letter. Where we need clarity, on adjustments, working capital or customer detail, you get those questions on the first call rather than three weeks in.
Quality of earnings, customer and supplier work, and lender conversations move at the same time rather than in sequence. We tell you early which items would actually change our price.
Family office anchored equity plus co-investors, senior and asset-based debt, and seller paper where it fits. Our offers are not conditioned on a single source of capital.
If our number moves, you hear the reason. If we are out, you hear that too, with enough detail to be useful on your next process.
For owners and management
Most of the businesses we look at were built by one family over decades. What happens the day after close matters more than the headline number, so we start there.
Owners who want to take real money off the table and keep running the business can roll a significant piece alongside us. We prefer it that way and we structure it so it is worth your while.
Where the team is staying, we back them and give them equity in the outcome. Where an owner is retiring, we plan that handoff carefully and do the work to make it smooth for customers and employees, rather than leaving it to sort itself out.
We do a small number of deals and we hold them. There is no fund clock forcing a sale on a schedule that has nothing to do with your business.
For capital partners
We raise for each transaction rather than against a blind pool, which means our partners see the specific business, the specific model, and the specific downside case before committing a dollar. Family offices are our anchor and we co-invest alongside them.
Every deal is underwritten in house. We build the model, we take the adjustments apart, and we project growth conservatively, underwriting to what the business has actually done rather than to a forecast. If we cannot make the numbers work at a price that protects capital, we pass, and we would rather explain a pass than a loss.
If you invest in lower middle market manufacturing and want to see our current pipeline, get in touch.
About
Alex founded Hinterland Capital in 2025 to buy the kind of businesses he had spent his career around: profitable Midwest manufacturers, most of them family owned, most of them too small to interest the funds and too complicated for a first-time buyer.
He brings nearly two decades of experience in finance, including eight years in private equity. At different points in his career he has originated deals, worked on the operations side of the businesses he invested in, and run investor relations. He started out at Barclays Capital and in consumer finance. He holds a BA from Duke University and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
He is a Wisconsin native, based in Milwaukee. Outside the office he golfs, plays hockey, skis with his wife Christine, and walks their Australian Shepherd, Maya.
Contact
If it is food or industrial manufacturing, we will read it and give you a straight answer quickly. Midwest deals get our fastest turn, but send us anything that fits the size.