Timeline Slider | Kohlberg & Company

1987

Kohlberg & Company was founded by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., the senior founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and James Kohlberg to concentrate on private equity investments in the middle market

1988

Kohlberg Investors I began investing, marking the inception of firm’s 30 year track record

2001

Kohlberg & Company accessed the institutional markets and raised Fund IV with $576 million

2007

Fund VI is raised with $1.5 billion of capital and is deployed consistently between 2007 and 2011, exemplifying the firm’s ability to source and execute successful deals during all phases of the economic cycle

2008

Leadership transitions to current management team of Sam Frieder (Managing Partner) and Gordon Woodward (CIO) who refined Kohlberg’s thesis-driven sourcing and operational transformation strategies

2008

Fund VI invests in United States Infrastructure Corporation, a simultaneous carve-out of two divisions from separate parent companies to create the #1 market share leader in underground utility locating. This investment began what is now a core practice area for the firm; Infrastructure Services, leading to investments in Franklin Energy Group (2015) and Osmose Utilities…

2010

Fund VI invests in Phillips Plastics Corp, a contract manufacturer of medical devices, creating a foundation of sector expertise that led to investments in Spectrum Plastics Group (2014) and Cadence (2018)

2012

Fund VII commences investment period with $1.6 billion of capital. White Paper program becomes a core tenet of the firm’s investment and sourcing approach, enabling the firm to better control its sourcing destiny, linking portfolio construction goals with pre-diligenced deal flow, resulting in 9 of the 13 investments in Fund VII

2013

Fund VII invests in Risk Strategies, a specialty insurance broker, as a result of a White Paper in the sector. The investment’s success led to Kohlberg’s investment in U.S. Risk Insurance Group (2016) and several pivots on the original White Paper, resulting in theses and expertise in sub-sectors within insurance

2015

Leveraging the success and experience of its USIC investment, Kohlberg publishes its Infrastructure Services White Paper and complete its investment in Osmose Utilities Services.