Hazelwood Growth
Holdings
Acquiring and scaling exceptional lower middle-market businesses
Acquiring and scaling exceptional lower middle-market businesses
Value creation driven by operational excellence.
Hazelwood Growth Holdings invests in high-quality lower middle-market businesses where active ownership can unlock lasting value. We partner closely with founders and management teams, aligned around a shared commitment to long-term growth. We focus on companies with strong fundamentals, defensible market positions, and clear paths to operational improvement.
We believe in preserving the culture, legacy, and relationships that an owner has invested a career building — and partnering with the people who built them to drive the next phase of growth.
We align incentives across ownership and management, and focus our efforts on driving growth through operations, not financial engineering.
$5 – $40 million
$1 – $6 million
Clear competitive moat with sticky customer relationships, mission-critical demand, and low cyclicality.
Defensible niche within a local or regional market, operating in a fragmented industry with opportunity for consolidation and inorganic growth.
Strong leadership team with deep industry expertise and a desire to remain involved post-close.
Proprietary and off-market opportunities including founder buyouts and majority control transactions.
"Committed to long-term partnership, disciplined ownership, and durable growth."
Mark Frakes is the Managing Partner of Hazelwood Growth Holdings. He brings nearly a decade of private equity experience spanning deal sourcing, financial analysis, transaction execution, and post-acquisition value creation across the lower and middle market.
Prior to founding Hazelwood, Mark was a member of the investment team at LKCM Headwater Investments, a Fort Worth-based middle market private equity firm focused on acquiring and scaling essential service businesses. At Headwater, he played a central role in evaluating and executing platform acquisitions and add-on investments. He led due diligence workstreams, built financial models, and collaborated with senior leaders to execute strategic organic and inorganic growth initiatives.
Before joining Headwater, Mark began his career on the investment team within Neuberger Berman's global private equity division, where he built a rigorous foundation in investment underwriting, valuation-focused analysis, and disciplined capital allocation.
Mark holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.
We welcome conversations with business owners, intermediaries, and advisors.