Most Active Lower Middle Market Firms – Axial Q1 Leaderboards

Last quarter we released the first Axial Leaderboards, highlighting the most active firms on the network. The leaderboards identified firms doing the most deals, connecting most often, and having the biggest impact on the network. Today we’re releasing our updated Q1 leaderboards.

The updates resulted in significant movement in the rankings, with many new Members joining the list and only a few firms remaining from last quarter. Vercor moved up the investment banking list from 4th to 2nd while Hunter Wise, Peter A Sokoloff & Co and Allegiance Capital all dropped in the rankings. G&H Ventures was the big mover on the PE leaderboard, jumping from 7th to 3rd while The Courtney Group moved from 8th to 6th. Lazarus Capital Partners dropped but remained active enough to stay on the list. On the private equity list in particular we found a very narrow difference between firm activity in the top 50 firms, with less than 2 points separating firms #15 and #50.

Most Active Boutique Investment Banks

Most Active Middle Market Private Equity Groups

Most Active Middle Market Corporate Acquirers

Our latest update includes two modifications to the way the Activity Level is calculated. First, we’ve unified sell-side and buy-side Activity Levels into a single metric that compares all network participants. Second, we’ve added response time as an indicator of network activity.

In the previous leaderboards, we only considered sell-side activity for investment banks and buy-side activity for private equity/corporations which created two different, but similar, Activity Level scales. The current rankings are a combined rank for all Members on the network built from a firm’s full sell-side activity, buy-side activity, and general network engagement resulting in clearer and more accurate Activity Levels.

We also made a minor change to include speed in the metrics. One of the most important variables around activity is the timeliness of both sent and received communication. We found that faster communication tends to correlate with more interest and more progress through a process. We wanted to take into consideration the speed with which Members respond by acknowledging those who respond swiftly to Opportunities as more active than those who take 15 days or more.

For more information about any of the Members on the lists above or to learn more about how to join the Axial network, connect with us below.