RCP Announces 2024 Deal of the Year
RCP Advisors Names Longshore Capital Partners’ Stuzo 2024 Deal of the Year
RCP Advisors has awarded Longshore Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on buyouts of growing services companies in the lower middle market, its 2024 Deal of the Year Award in connection with its stewardship of its portfolio company, Stuzo (the “Company”). We reviewed over 100 realization events across our portfolios and selected Stuzo not only for the excellent results but also for all the excellence in sourcing and value creation that made this success possible. The success of this investment came from a collaboration between Longshore and Stuzo’s management team, which is a case study on how a buyout transaction should be done.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Stuzo is a leading provider of loyalty and payments technology solutions for retailers, primarily in the fuel and convenience store industry. Longshore and management transitioned Stuzo from an attractive loyalty technology managed services company into a high growth business-to-business commerce and loyalty software platform, rapidly displacing legacy c-store technology. A shared vision for value creation and tremendous execution resulted in the transformation into a highly attractive industry leader. Stuzo was sold last year to a strategic buyer, returning over half of Longshore’s fund in approximately 34 months.
“Over the course of our investment, the Company refined its go-to-market approach and team, expanded its executive team and Board, and invested heavily in product development that drove measurable outcomes for customers, resulting in accelerated growth and a mix shift to highly predictable recurring software revenue streams. We are extremely thankful to the team at Stuzo for the partnership,” said Anthony.
RCP has been a proud partner of Longshore’s for several years, and our relationship with them has involved all three of our core strategies, including co-investment, secondary, and primary fund investing. We have been a multiple deal co-investing partner with Longshore, and we were an investor in their multi-asset continuation vehicle, which facilitated their spin-out from their predecessor firm in 2020. Longshore has achieved a great deal of success for a firm that is still in its early innings and will participate in a panel at our annual meeting in June, which will showcase some of the emerging leaders in the small buyout market.
About Longshore Capital Partners
Founded in 2020, Longshore is a private equity partnership that is currently investing out of its second fund, a $325 million investment vehicle. Based in Chicago, IL, Longshore was established to invest alongside founders and management teams of services businesses with unique value propositions in growing end-markets. Before founding Longshore, the Co-Founders built a long history of successful investments in the lower middle-market while Partners at LaSalle Capital. For more information, visit www.longshorecp.com.
About RCP Advisors
Founded in 2001, RCP Advisors, a subsidiary of P10, Inc. (NYSE: PX), is a private equity investment firm that provides access to North American small buyout fund managers through primary funds, secondary funds, and co-investment funds, as well as customized solutions and research services. RCP believes it is one of the largest fund sponsors focused on this niche, with over $15 billion in committed capital* and 56 full-time professionals as of March 1, 2025.
Past performance does not predict, and is not a guarantee of, future results. This announcement may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment sponsored by RCP or Longshore or be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or investment products. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal. References to investment performance reflect individual portfolio company performance and do not necessarily represent a funds overall performance. No assurance can be given that any investment will achieve similar results.* “Committed capital” primarily reflects the capital commitments associated with our SMAs, focused commingled funds, and advisory accounts advised by RCP since the firm’s inception in 2001 (including funds that have since been sold, dissolved, or wound down and certain historical advisory accounts for which RCP’s advisory contracts have expired). We include capital commitments in our calculation of committed capital if (a) we have full discretion over the investment decisions in an account or have responsibility or custody of assets or (b) we do not have full discretion to make investment decisions but play a role in advising the client on asset allocation, performing investment manager due diligence and recommending investments for the client’s portfolio and/or monitoring and reporting on their investments. For our discretionary SMAs and commingled funds, as well as for our non-discretionary advisory accounts for which RCP is responsible for advising on all investments within the client’s portfolio, committed capital is calculated based on aggregate capital commitments to such accounts. For non-discretionary accounts where RCP is responsible for advising only a portion of the client portfolio investments, committed capital is calculated as capital commitments by the client to those underlying investments which were made based on RCP’s recommendation or with respect to which RCP advises the client. Committed capital does not include (i) certain historical non-discretionary advisory accounts no longer under advisement by RCP, (ii) assets managed or advised by the Private Capital Unit or Hark Capital Advisors, LLC, and Bonaccord Capital Advisors, LLC which are independent business lines of RCP 2, (iii) capital commitments to funds managed or sponsored by RCP’s affiliated (but independently operated) management companies, and (iv) RCP’s ancillary products or services.