H.I.G. Capital Wins PE Hub’s 2025 Small-Cap North America Deal of the Year Award
MIAMI – March 17, 2026 – H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $74 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that it received PE Hub’s “2025 Small-Cap North America Deal of the Year” for its successful exit of Koozie Group in April 2025. The annual awards honor exceptional buyouts that demonstrate significant value creation, operational improvements, and sector leadership.
PE Hub recognized H.I.G.’s exit of promotional products supplier Koozie Group as a standout transaction among buyouts with an enterprise value between $100 million and $200 million. H.I.G. acquired Koozie Group when it was a non-core division of its French parent company Bic, and worked closely with its management team to create a stand-alone platform that became a leader in the promotional products industry. Under H.I.G.’s ownership, Koozie Group invested in new product development, technology, and customer experience enhancements, and completed four strategic add-on acquisitions, expanding its reach across product categories and customers.
Doug Berman, Head of U.S. Private Equity at H.I.G., said, “We are honored to be recognized by PE Hub for our work with Koozie Group. This award reflects our focus on building market leaders through operational improvements and strategic investments. We continue to look for similar opportunities where we can work side-by-side with management teams to drive growth and create value.”
Jonathan Fox, Managing Director at H.I.G., and Camilo Horvilleur, Managing Director and Co-Head of the Small Cap and Growth Fund at H.I.G., added, “It was a privilege for us to partner with Pierre and the Koozie team to establish Koozie as a stand-alone entity. We identified several transformational opportunities during our original underwriting and executed on them during our hold. This included overcoming a significant COVID-related industry contraction during our ownership, and ultimately delivering a superior outcome to our investors.”
Pierre Montaubin, Chief Executive Officer of Koozie Group, commented: “H.I.G.’s partnership and support enabled us to transform our business and accelerate key areas of growth better and faster than we could have done ourselves. We are grateful for their guidance and support along the journey.”
The successes of Koozie Group is one of many examples of H.I.G.’s time-tested 33-year track record of investing in lower middle market businesses with elements of complexity and asymmetric risk-reward. H.I.G. Small Cap & Growth Buyout strategy, which focuses on making control equity investments in undermanaged and/or high-growth North American companies, will continue to explore opportunities with similar investment dynamics.
PE Hub’s Deal of the Year awards are selected each year by PE Hub’s editorial team, with input from PEI Group’s awards judging panel, based on criteria including innovation, timeliness, financing structure, add-on transaction success, operational and personnel improvements, exit timing, and sector impact. The recognition highlights H.I.G.’s continued focus on operational excellence and value creation across its portfolio.
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global alternative investment firm with $74 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Stamford in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Dubai, and Hong Kong, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to middle market companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:
- H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
- H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. also manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
- H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
- H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.
Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The Firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at hig.com.