Each week the Thomas team tracks merger and acquisition activity across the industrial space to stay aware of the investments, partnerships, and other business deals shaping the future of the industrial landscape. We’ll be sharing a selection of those M&A deals with you in our new Thomas M&A Tracker, featured both on Thomas Insights and in the Thomas Industry Update Newsletter every Tuesday.

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The Latest M&A Activity at a Glance: 

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Aras, a digital transformation company offering a low-code platform to digitize industrial processes, received a growth investment from GI Partners, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, California. [Read more in the featured coverage below.]

ProAmpac, a global flexible packaging company majority owned by Pritzker Private Capital, acquired El Dorado Packaging, a manufacturer of custom, paper-based packaging solutions. [Read more in the featured coverage below.]

Magnolia River International, Inc., a provider of inspection and geographic information systems (GIS) for natural gas distribution, was acquired by Warren Equity Partners, a lower middle market private equity fund. 

Cape Privacy, a first of its kind global encrypted learning platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding from multiple investors. 

Supreme International Limited, a Canadian manufacturer of feed mixers for the dairy and beef sectors, has received funding through a partnership with TriWest Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm.

American Pacific Corporation, a manufacturer of propulsion materials for the aerospace and defense sectors, made a minority investment in Frontier Aerospace, a space propulsion startup based in Simi Valley, California. 

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With Eye to Future of Digital Transformation, GI Partners Invests in Aras’ Industrial Software Platform

GI Partners, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, California, last week announced a growth investment in Aras, a digital transformation platform offering a low-code platform to digitize industrial processes and a diverse set of other digital solutions.

“We believe the pace of digital transformation in manufacturing is just beginning to increase,”  said Travis Pearson, managing director and co-head of private equity at GI Partners, “and that Aras is uniquely positioned to deliver the next generation of platform-based applications for global companies.” 

Aras already has a number of major clients, including Microsoft, Honda, Nissan, and Airbus, who use the company’s platform and product lifecycle management applications to overhaul their internal production and operational processes. 

“As hardware and software processes merge across the lifecycle, an industrial low-code platform with open interoperability is critical to layer over, rationalize, and replace legacy systems faster, creating a single, end-to-end digital thread foundation to enable artificial intelligence & machine learning analysis and optimization,” Aras founder and CEO Peter Schroer said in a press release.

Capitalizing on Surging Growth in Packaging Sector, ProAmpac Acquires El Dorado Packaging 

ProAmpac, a global flexible packaging company majority owned by Pritzker Private Capital, last week said that it had acquired El Dorado Packaging, a manufacturer of custom, paper-based packaging solutions headquartered in Rosemount, Minnesota. El Dorado has three production facilities located in Minnesota, Arkansas, and Nebraska. 

Through this acquisition, ProAmpac said in a recent release, the company plans to strengthen its paper packaging capabilities across the industrial sector in addition to expanding its multi-wall bag product offering into flour and food ingredients markets.

“Together with El Dorado, we will enter new end markets, broaden our product offering and serve an expanding customer base with high-quality, innovative flexible packaging solutions,” Greg Tucker, founder and CEO of ProAmpac, said in the release. 

This acquisition marks ProAmpac’s third in 2021, bringing the company to a total of 41 manufacturing sites globally staffed by more than 5,200 employees. 

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