Acquisitions in Delaware in 2021

Essity has acquired AquaCast Liner, a privately held US maker of waterproof cast liners based in Newark, Delaware. The acquisition expands Essity’s orthopedics product portfolio and strengthens its position in fracture management by adding waterproof and water-resistant cast liner products to its offering.

Sverica Capital Management LP made a strategic growth investment in ShadowDragon, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) threat-intelligence software provider. ShadowDragon's founder and CEO Daniel Clemens will remain in place, and Sverica partners Frank Young and Michael Dougherty will join the company's board to support accelerated product development and commercial expansion.

Draslovka a.s. completed the acquisition of The Chemours Company’s Mining Solutions business for $521 million, making Draslovka the world’s largest producer of solid sodium cyanide and expanding its global operations across Europe, the Americas and Australasia. The transaction was funded with a $348 million Term Loan B arranged by J.P. Morgan and equity from Draslovka’s existing family owners, and is intended to support further international expansion and capability growth in CN-based specialty chemicals.

Platinum Equity has completed its acquisition of specialty chemicals maker Solenis from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and BASF for an enterprise value of $5.25 billion and simultaneously merged Solenis with Platinum-owned Sigura Water, creating a combined business with approximately $3.5 billion in revenue. The combined company expands Solenis' portfolio into residential and commercial pool & spa treatment markets, increases geographic reach and manufacturing scale, and will be led by Solenis CEO John Panichella with Sigura's Robert Baird heading the new Pool Solutions division.

Clairvest Group Inc., together with Clairvest Equity Partners VI and a Rubico Gaming subsidiary led by Thomas Benninger, completed the acquisition of the Delaware Park racino in Wilmington, Delaware. Clairvest invested US$71 million for a majority interest (CVG’s share US$19 million); the transaction represents a platform investment in the gaming sector and follows the sale by the Rickman family.

Ally Financial announced a definitive agreement to acquire Fair Square Financial for $750 million in cash, completing the deal in late 2021. The acquisition gives Ally a ready-made digital credit-card platform and consumer credit capabilities as it re-enters the credit-card market.

HireQuest, Inc. (Nasdaq: HQI) has acquired Recruit Media, Inc., an HR tech start‑up that operates a next‑gen SaaS recruitment platform. The deal was funded with cash on hand and a modest revolver draw and is intended to accelerate HireQuest's digital strategy by integrating Recruit Media's multimedia candidate profiles, in‑app messaging/video chat, and mobile/web platform into HireQuest's franchise technology suite.

Relation Insurance Services, a PE-backed national insurance brokerage, acquired the assets of Newark, Delaware-based Insley Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. The Insley team, led by Harry "T" Insley, Jr., will join Relation and continue operating from the Newark office to help grow Relation's presence in the Mid-Atlantic region; terms were not disclosed.

Waterlogic (via its Americas business) has acquired Aquarius Water and Coffee, a Wilmington, Delaware–based point-of-use water and office coffee delivery company founded by Andrew Taub. The deal expands Waterlogic Americas’ density in the Mid‑Atlantic, adding Aquarius’s commercial customer base across Delaware, South Jersey, Southeastern Pennsylvania and Maryland as part of Waterlogic’s ongoing roll-up strategy.

MedX Holdings Inc. (OTC: MEDH) announced it has acquired Counterculture Brands Inc., a Delaware company that licenses and franchises the Lazydaze Counterculture and Coffeeshop brands. The deal adds cannabis licensing/franchising and related coffee-shop branding to MedX’s portfolio as the company plans to expand franchised locations nationwide and grow its vertically integrated cannabis-related brand offerings.

Movius, a provider of secure unified mobile communications, has acquired Intentico, an AI-driven cognitive customer experience and conversational AI provider. The acquisition adds Intentico's ML/NLP capabilities (chatbots, speechbots and analytics) to Movius' MultiLine platform to deliver real-time intelligence across voice, text and messaging channels.

Gen Cap America, in partnership with existing management, has acquired Lab Products, LLC and Harford Systems, LLC from Avidity Science. Lab Products manufactures laboratory research animal housing, cages, and environmental control systems and is headquartered in Seaford, Delaware with a manufacturing facility in Aberdeen, Maryland. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ontario Systems, a provider of enterprise workflow automation software, acquired Katabat, a cloud-based debt-collection platform, to expand its collections workflow footprint into the first-party collections market. The deal brings Katabat’s machine-learning driven collections capabilities and customer base into Ontario’s suite of accounts receivable management solutions to improve recovery rates and broaden market coverage.

GraphCDN has acquired FastQL, the first GraphQL CDN service, and will migrate FastQL customers to GraphCDN while bringing FastQL creator Zach Hobbs on as an advisor. The deal strengthens GraphCDN's GraphQL caching and edge capabilities and cements its position in the GraphQL CDN market.

Safeguard Medical has acquired the Universal Splint product line from veteran‑owned VETRUN LLC, adding U.S.‑made splints to its trauma product portfolio. The acquisition broadens Safeguard's emergency medical offerings for both civilian first responders and military users; Safeguard Medical is a PE‑backed company (Water Street Healthcare Partners).

Strikepoint Group Holdings (formerly Horizon Group Holdings) has acquired First Class HVAC, a Millsboro, Delaware-based heating, cooling and plumbing contractor. The deal is the fifth addition to Strikepoint’s home‑services portfolio in 2021 and expands its footprint and service capabilities on the Delaware/Maryland eastern shore.

AssuredPartners, Inc. has acquired B&H Insurance, LLC (BHI) of Newark, Delaware. The 26-person agency, which reports approximately $8 million in annualized revenues, will continue to operate under president John Boykin and join AssuredPartners' national broker network as part of its ongoing roll-up strategy.

Venerable Holdings, Inc. completed the acquisition of Corporate Solutions Life Reinsurance Company (CS Life Re) from Equitable Holdings, Inc., increasing Venerable's pro forma assets under management and reinsurance to approximately $70 billion. Equitable will take a noncontrolling 9.09% equity stake in Venerable's parent (VA Capital Company LLC) and a small dedicated CS Life Re team transitioned to Venerable as part of the deal.

The Option Group, a certified life care management firm based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, has acquired AgeWise Solutions of Bear, Delaware. The acquisition expands The Option Group's service footprint into Delaware and will keep AgeWise's team providing life care management and caregiver support in the Wilmington area.

Matrix Sciences has acquired AgroLab Inc., an agronomic testing laboratory in Harrington, Delaware, expanding Matrix's agri-food laboratory network and geographic coverage across the U.S. The acquisition brings AgroLab's soil, plant tissue, compost and related testing capabilities into Matrix's portfolio to better serve production agriculture, lawn care and compost manufacturers.

Accelerant Holdings acquired Commonwealth Insurance Company of America (CICA) from Brit Group (a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial) and will rename the carrier Accelerant National Insurance Company. The deal expands Accelerant's U.S. capabilities by adding an admitted insurance carrier and coincides with the U.S. rollout of its underwriting and analytics platform, Accelerant InSightFull; Accelerant is PE-backed by Altamont Capital Partners.