The new private equity firm founded by serial technology entrepreneurs David Cummings and Jeff Hilimire made its first purchase.
Purpose Group bought Bowling Green, Kentucky-based Davis Printing Inc., which operates under the name Gerald. Purpose Group picked a new CEO for the company as its current leader retires. The firm also plans to enhance the almost 50-year-old custom printing company's technology to aid expansion.
Hilimire, who serves as Purpose Group’s CEO, declined to give financial details of the deal. Purpose Group plans to close a $25 million fund by the end of this year, and raised just enough to complete this acquisition. The fundraising is about a third of the way finished, Hilimire said, and the firm will use revenue from purchases to expand its portfolio.
Purpose Group differs from typical private equity firms because it plans to hold its acquisitions forever, Hilimire said. It targets profitable, “Main Street businesses” in the Southeast with older executives who are looking for a succession plan.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, operate about 40% of all U.S. small businesses, according to Guidant Financial, a small business and franchise financing company. Between 2010 and 2020, the 65-and-older population grew by a third, which was the fastest increase of any group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All baby boomers will be above retirement age by 2030.
That creates an opportunity for private equity firms and industry competitors to scoop businesses run by people from that generation. Garden City, a private equity firm that launched in Atlanta in 2021, has the same model as Purpose Group.
Hilimire said Purpose Group chose Gerald because of its strong customer base and CEO Joe Davis’ retirement plan. The company has 90 employees across six offices in Kentucky and one in northern Tennessee. Purpose Group plans to keep all of Gerald’s employees and pay rates the same. John Mazeita, who previously served as president, now leads the company.
“[Gerald] has relationships that go back literally decades,” Hilimire said. “We can use the age of digital and more on-demand services to tighten those relationships.”
Hilimire and Cummings are two well-known names in Atlanta’s tech scene. Hilimire founded fast-growing digital marketing agency Dragon Army and led it for nine years before stepping back into the executive board chair position to run Purpose Group. Jenn Leahy is now president and CEO of Dragon Army.
Hilimire also founded nonfiction publisher Ripples Media and nonprofit Ripples of Hope.
Cummings is the founder of Atlanta Tech Village, a successful software startup incubator. He has started or helped start 10 companies that employ thousands, including Pardot and Salesloft. Atlanta Business Chronicle named him one of the 100 Most Influential Atlantans.
