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Fort Capital Partners is pleased to announce that Carmanah Technologies Corp. (“Carmanah”) has been acquired by Vance Street Capital (“Vance Street”), a Los Angeles based private equity firm.
Based in Victoria, BC, Carmanah develops and manufactures industry-leading solar and AC powered systems for pedestrian and traffic safety across North America. Since 1999, Carmanah has been developing innovative, MUTCD-compliant “away from the intersection” safety solutions that offer the greatest performance and durability at the lowest cost of ownership. The Company designs systems for a variety of applications including mid-block crosswalks, school zones, traffic-calming and general hazard marking.
“This is an exciting day for Carmanah as we enter a new chapter. Vance Street’s commitment to developing a traffic and pedestrian safety ITS platform aligns with our confidence in the growth of the pedestrian and driver safety market. It kickstarts a new and exciting phase for us that will propel greater opportunities and development of our critical safety products.” said Geoff Wilcox, President & CEO of Carmanah.
In December 2021 Vance Street invested in Dallas-based Polara Enterprises (“Polara”) in its third buyout fund, the USD$432.5 million Vance Street Capital III Limited Partnership. Carmanah, along with Polara, will together form Vance Street’s traffic and pedestrian safety ITS platform. As part of the platform, Vance Street plans to significantly invest in both Carmanah and Polara’s organic product development initiatives as well as look to complementary M&A in an effort to further support the Vision Zero movement to eliminate traffic related fatalities through providing a holistic product and technology solution to municipalities and DoTs.
Fort Capital Partners acted as financial advisor to Carmanah.