Align Capital Partners invests in data consultancy Cleartelligence

Align Capital Partners (ACP), a Cleveland-based private equity firm, has recapitalized Cleartelligence, a data engineering and analytics consultancy based in Boston.

Cleartelligence was founded in 2011 by managing partners Joe Marino and Ron Keler and specializes in helping healthcare, life sciences, and manufacturing industry clients solve data-centric problems. The firm’s technology partners include Databricks, Snowflake, and Tableau. Cleartelligence has over 40 employees, according to LinkedIn.

As part of the recapitalization, co-founders Marino and Keler as well as managing director Anil Bharadwa will remain significant investors and continue to serve as leaders at Cleartelligence.

“This is an important milestone for everyone at Cleartelligence. With this partnership, our customers can expect the same leading service experience from our highly engaged team, but with additional resources to help us best serve our customers and their ever-evolving needs,” Keler said.

Equiteq, an investment bank focusing on the knowledge economy, served as financial advisor to Cleartelligence.

“Equiteq’s role started with us long before embarking on an M&A process. The team showed themselves to be reliable, trusted advisors and provided strategic guidance that ensured we were prepared for a transaction when the time was right,” Marino, Keler, and Bharadwa said. “Furthermore, the Equiteq team ran a highly effective process that provided significant optionality – ensuring that we found a partner that could help us achieve our financial, strategic and operational goals.”

The deal marks ACP’s first investment in IT services and builds on the PE firm’s consulting investments in WilliamsMarston and E Source.

“Cleartelligence has built a highly respected firm in its markets and ACP is excited to invest in the continued expansion of the Cleartelligence team and service offering,” said Jack Parks, partner at ACP. “Together with management, we will also be pursuing strategic add-on acquisitions to expand the Company’s reach and better serve its customers.”

ACP targets lower-middle market companies in business services, technology, specialty manufacturing, and distribution. The firm was founded in 2016 and manages $1.5 billion in committed capital.

Equiteq in November served as exclusive financial advisor to HBR Consulting on the sale of its advisory practice to Renovus Capital Partners.