Onyx Capital invests in small, founder-owned businesses. We partner with the owner-operators who run them — supplying the capital, the back office, and the operating know-how to grow. You keep building. We help you scale. When the time is right, we exit together.
The traditional PE playbook strips the owner out of the business. We do the opposite. We take a controlling stake, leave you with real equity, and put institutional muscle behind the company you built.
Onyx takes a controlling stake — but keeps the founding operator in command of the business they built. We're not a strategic acquirer looking to absorb you and walk you off the floor. We're not a PE roll-up looking to swap you out for a corporate playbook. The owner stays in the seat.
Growth equity without the personal guarantees the bank wanted. The accounting, tax, finance, HR, and back-office systems you've been carrying alone since the business got real. And a thirty-year operating partner — not a board member — who's scaled owner-led businesses before.
Every Onyx partnership is structured for a sale at a higher multiple than entry. Travis Industries is the design spec: the founding 30% partner walked away with more on his retained minority than his pre-deal 70% majority would have been worth.
A 30-minute conversation. We learn the business. You learn how we work. No commitment, no NDA theater.
Light-touch financial and operational review. We do the heavy lifting so you keep running the company.
Controlling interest for us, meaningful equity retained by you, with carry on the upside. Clear and on paper.
Capital deployed. Back office centralized. We grow the business toward a strategic exit you participate in.
Carlos paid $4M for a 70% interest in a sandblasting, coatings, and scaffolding business — and kept the founding operator in the seat as a meaningful 30% partner. The business was scaled to roughly $23–25M and a successful exit. At exit, the 30% retained minority was worth more than the pre-deal 70% majority would have been. Additional portfolio entities and prior deal history detailed under NDA.
Every Onyx partnership starts with a confidential conversation. No deck, no NDA, no obligation — just an honest read on whether what you've built is a fit for what we do.