WMU faculty get behind $50m buyout fund

Sleeping Giant Capital, a US-based venture firm allied to Western Michigan University (WMU), is looking to raise $50m for a buyout fund aimed at maintaining local ownership of companies, MiBiz reported on Friday.
Principled Impact Fund I is being supervised by Doug Lepisto and Derrick McIver, two associate professors at WMU’s Haworth College of Business who act as managing partners of Sleeping Giant Capital.
Lepisto told MiBiz the fund had generated interest from WMU alumni and could be expected to reach an initial close, of undisclosed size, in the near future.
Principled Impact Fund will adopt a community-oriented ethos to achieve its impact objectives in addition to financial returns for investors and revenues for Haworth College of Business.
The vehicle will mainly seek to acquire small, local businesses with an annual turnover of between $1m and $10m, with a view to retaining ownership in the local area.
Management of each acquired business will be passed onto prospective owners recruited through a new business course to be offered at Haworth College of Business from autumn 2020.
The management would then have an option to progressively increase their equity stake following the acquisition, ultimately enabling them to become the company’s sole shareholder.
Lepisto added: “We want to generate economic returns for our investors and for the College of Business. We want to generate social returns to make sure that capital stays local, those companies stay open, and there is a benefit to changing peoples’ lives so they can actually buy a company.”