Sentinel Capital Partners acquires SmartSign


Leading Online Provider of Signs, Labels, and Tags Added to Business Services Portfolio


NEW YORK, September 7, 2022 – Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising lower midmarket companies, today announced the acquisition of SmartSign, a leading online provider of customizable signs, labels, and tags for regulatory, compliance, and safety applications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, SmartSign operates a network of nearly 30 websites, each dedicated to offering highly specialized and customizable products to customers to fit thousands of specific-use cases. SmartSign services businesses of all sizes, including sales to 75% of the Fortune 1000 and across hundreds of verticals, including education, healthcare, and industrials.

Sentinel partnered with SmartSign's management team and incumbent investor Norwest in the transaction. "SmartSign is strategically positioned to capitalize on favorable secular trends underpinning the online signs, labels, and tags industry," said Louis Brotherton, a principal at Sentinel. "With a talented and committed management team and a highly dedicated team of employees, we believe SmartSign is well-positioned to continue its rapid growth, both organically and through acquisitions. We are extremely excited about the opportunity to partner with the SmartSign team."

"We are very pleased to partner with Sentinel as SmartSign continues to expand within the large and growing signs, labels, and tags market," said Max Smith, SmartSign's CEO. "We look forward to leveraging the many actionable opportunities ahead to drive organic and acquisitive growth and better serve our customers." Stew Campbell, a Partner at Norwest, said "We are excited to work with Sentinel and continue our successful partnership with SmartSign. We think Sentinel is a great steward for SmartSign's next phase of growth."

SmartSign represents Sentinel's latest investment in the business services sector. The firm's current business services investments include Apex Companies, an environmental services company specializing in water resources and industrial hygiene; Mobile Communications America, a regional provider of communications solutions and services; New Era Technology, a global provider of managed IT services focused on collaboration and data networks; Revenew, a provider of cost recovery and cost containment services that deliver monetary recoveries and cost reduction benefits; TranSystems, a national provider of infrastructure engineering and design services; TriMech, a provider of 3D engineering design solutions and services; TTG Imaging Solutions, a national provider of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging solutions; and UBEO, a provider of best-in-class document management services.