Bertram Capital invests in Percopo Coatings, launching a Southeast commercial coatings and restoration platform from its Ignite fund

Bertram Capital, the Foster City, California lower middle-market private equity firm, announced on October 6 an investment in Percopo Coatings Company (PCC), a provider of coatings and restoration services for commercial, industrial, and institutional structures across the Southeastern U.S. PCC is the fifth platform investment in Bertram's Ignite fund. Terms were not disclosed.

The asset.

PCC does interior and exterior painting, protective coatings, waterproofing, seamless flooring, sandblasting, fireproofing and intumescent coatings, and restoration on industrial, commercial, and institutional buildings. Its customers are general contractors, developers, and facility owners, and the company names work at airports, resorts, theme parks, schools, and federal buildings. Hospitality, aviation, education, and government are the end markets it calls out.

The point of differentiation in the release is self-performance. PCC handles several finish and envelope scopes with its own crews, so a GC or facility manager can hand one contractor the painting, waterproofing, flooring, and fireproofing on a job instead of managing three or four subs. Founder and CEO Mike Percopo stays in place.

The platform.

Bertram has raised more than $4.0 billion since 2006 and runs two fund lines. Bertram Capital V makes control investments in companies with EBITDA above $7.5 million. Bertram Ignite I makes control and non-control investments with a minimum EBITDA of $3 million. Both lines use Bertram Labs, the firm's in-house technology team, for digital marketing, data, and application work, and Mike Percopo pointed to Bertram Labs as part of why the company chose this partner.

Bertram is already in the trades. It backs Ridgeline Roofing & Restoration, the Birmingham-based roofing platform that closed its eighth add-on in September. On this deal, Vice President Zack Bassi described Bertram as "backers of several scaled platforms across the trades," and the release headline frames PCC as an extension of the firm's trade services platform.

Cook M&A, led by Arnis Kins, advised on the transaction, and Ashurst Perkins Coie, led by Blake Schell, served as counsel.

A platform check written at the $3 million EBITDA line.

Ignite is the reason a business like PCC can be a platform rather than an add-on. A fund with a $3 million EBITDA floor can back a founder-owned specialty contractor at a size where larger funds would only look at it as a tuck-in for someone else's platform. Bertram also leaves room to take a minority position, and this release calls the deal an "investment" without saying whether Bertram has control.

Commercial painting and coatings is fragmented and mostly founder-owned, and the work recurs: repaints, recoating, waterproofing repairs, and fireproofing touch-ups on the same buildings over time. PCC says it is actively pursuing acquisitions and partnerships to widen its geographic footprint, so the platform plan is to add operators across the South, not only grow Central Florida.

What it means.

For owners of commercial painting, coatings, waterproofing, and restoration contractors in the Southeast, there is now a PE-backed buyer in their own trade. Platforms like this usually look for self-perform capability, repeat GC and facility relationships, and a mix of maintenance and new-build work that holds up when construction slows. An owner who already handles several scopes with their own crews, and can show which customers come back each year, is the profile PCC's pitch describes.