Star Mountain Capital, an employee-owned, specialized private credit and secondaries investment manager with ~$4 billion in assets under management targeting systematic alpha and low market correlated returns for its clients announced that Ravi Ugale has joined as a Managing Director to further bolster its Secondaries, governance, reporting and client partner team.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a rapidly growing specialized private credit and secondaries investment firm targeting systematic alpha and low market correlated returns for its global institutional and high-net-worth investors is pleased to announce that Ravi Ugale has joined as a Managing Director and member of the firm’s investment committee for its secondaries strategies. With ~$4 billion in assets under management, alignment of interest is a core value of Star Mountain’s investor-centric business, including being 100% employee-owned and sharing investment profits with 100% of its U.S.-based full-time team. Star Mountain is a purpose-built business with one of the largest teams focused on investing in established, profitable, small and medium-sized private U.S. businesses (the “lower middle-market”) which represents approximately 50% of U.S. GDP.

Ravi Ugale has over 30 years of private capital fund and direct investment experience, business operations, governance, and leadership experience. His alternatives investment experience includes private credit, secondaries, private equity, venture capital and real assets.

“With over 10 years of success in private credit and private equity secondaries, and with growing opportunities in these asset classes, we’re thrilled to welcome Ravi to join our team.” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “Having known Ravi for over a decade, I have always been impressed with his knowledge, thoughtfulness, passion, and values. We are excited for the additional leadership, capabilities and expertise he will bring to the enterprise, our team, investors, and portfolio in an aligned manner.”

“I was intrigued with Star Mountain’s distinctive business plan to provide investors with high quality, customizable and diversified access to one of the largest and most inefficient markets targeting attractive risk-adjusted returns and low market correlation as a potential benefit to an investor’s portfolio. Having witnessed Brett and Star Mountain execute against their purpose-built business plan creating what is now I believe a world-class business, I am excited to join at this inflection point where we can deliver compelling value for global institutional and individual investors,” said Ravi Ugale. “Over the past 30 years, I am convinced that the highest performing fund managers across economic cycles focus on economic alignment, steadfast values and governance which Star Mountain exemplifies. As the investment industry has matured, I find specialized businesses like Star Mountain to be a compelling value proposition and am excited to be a part of the team.”

Mr. Ugale has 30+ years of private credit, secondaries, private equity, venture capital, investment banking and business operations experience. He was a YPO member for 10 years and has substantial board and c-level executive operating experience. He was also an active member of the governance and thought leadership Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) alternative investment organization where Star Mountain Capital is a signatory to ILPA’s Diversity In Action Initiative.

Most recently Mr. Ugale spent 12+ years from GenSpring Family Offices through to Truist via various mergers and acquisitions where he was a Managing Director and Head of Manager Research for Private Capital Strategies. Mr. Ugale led the investment advisory group team responsible for sourcing, underwriting and portfolio monitoring of alternative investment funds across private credit, secondaries and private equity at Truist Advisory Services, Inc. a wholly owned division of $500+ billion in assets Truist Bank (NYSE: TFC). In addition, he oversaw selection and coverage of illiquid and semi-liquid long dated assets within private equity, private credit, private real estate, and private real assets. Additionally, Mr. Ugale provided client advisory, education, and subject matter expertise to Truist advisors and clients on the private capital asset class which included endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. He has evaluated and underwritten hundreds of private credit, private equity and secondaries fund managers.

Prior to joining the Investment Advisory Group at GenSpring Family Offices in 2011 (which was later acquired by SunTrust Bank which subsequently merged with BB&T to form Truist), Mr. Ugale was a Managing Director at Catalyst Financial focused on principal investing and M&A for private small and medium-sized businesses and public micro-cap companies.

Prior to Catalyst, Mr. Ugale spent 10 years as a Partner & Investment Committee Member at Crossbow, a private investment firm where he sourced, led and successfully exited several of the firm’s direct investments in the information technology, business services and healthcare sectors.

Before moving into the alternative investments industry, Mr. Ugale spent nearly 12 years gaining substantial hands-on business operating experience at leading organizations including IBM, Xerox and Siemens in the United States.

Mr. Ugale graduated from Pune University in India with a degree in instrumentation engineering with a specialization in biomedical instrumentation. He received an MS in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering from Marquette University and an MBA in Finance & International Business from Florida Atlantic University.

Read the full press release here.

About Star Mountain

With ~$4 billion in assets under management (committed capital including debt facilities as of 1/15/2024), Star Mountain takes a data-driven approach to investing into the North American lower middle-market through two complementary investment strategies: (i) direct debt and equity investing and (ii) secondaries (acquiring LP interests and direct assets and making primary LP commitments). Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide data-enhanced, scalable, diversified, and customizable access for its institutional and qualifying high-net-worth investors to established businesses that generally have at least $15 million in annual revenues and under $50 million in EBITDA. Its investors include public pensions, private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Star Mountain is 100% employee-owned and shares its profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees as part of its focus on maximizing value for its stakeholders and investors through alignment of interests.

Since 2010, Star Mountain has made over 200 direct investments in businesses and over 40 secondary / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem®, focused on the North American lower middle-market. One of Star Mountain’s specialties is seeking current cash income for investors that is materially above the typical yields found in the public markets, often accompanied with potential long-term capital gains equity returns and low correlation to public markets through its distinctive origination, underwriting and value-added investment capabilities.

Star Mountain was recently named one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America.

For the fifth straight year, Star Mountain was again named one of the Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business as well as once again one of the Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments.

Star Mountain believes its focus and dedication has been productive for job creation and economic development including in underserved areas and communities. Star Mountain is dedicated to this large market of underserved businesses purpose-built to address the challenges and opportunities of these companies. As part of its commitment, Star Mountain has trademarked Investing in the Growth Engine of America ®.

Star Mountain’s Charitable Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 focuses on improving lives through economic development, including job creation, health & wellness and cancer research. Notable missions include helping match veterans and women with high quality small and medium-sized business career opportunities across the country, including within Star Mountain’s portfolio.

Note: This does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he / she / it will experience a certain level of results if Star Mountain is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of Star Mountain or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and / or submitted by the recognized advisor. Moreover, with regard to all performance information contained herein, directly or indirectly, if any, readers should note that past results are not indicative of future results. The description and the selection methodologies of each award and recognition are subjective and will vary.

Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies, and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she/it will experience a certain level of results if SMFM is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of SMFM or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized advisor.

Crain’s two-part survey process consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part involved an employee survey to measure the employee experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Star Mountain must pay a fee to Crain’s only for survey collection purposes. Detailed eligibility criteria can be found here: https://bestcompaniesgroup.com/best-companies-to-work-for-in-new-york/eligibility/

To be named to P&I‘s Best Places list, all firms met Best Companies’ high threshold for inclusion and were evaluated against others of similar size. Individual firm profiles, which were compiled based on survey results, reflect U.S. employment numbers and were confirmed by Best Companies in the summer. Company and employee comments were edited for space, style and clarity. Assets under management or advisement are as of June 30, unless otherwise noted. To participate, companies had to have at least 20 employees in the U.S., at least $100 million of discretionary assets under management or advisement and be in business for at least one year. An anonymous employee survey, which aimed to evaluate employee engagement and satisfaction, accounted for 75% of a firm’s score; an employer survey, which evaluated workplace policies, practices, benefits and demographics, made up 25%. https://bestcompaniesgroup.com/best-places-to-work-in-money-management/eligibility/

Companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2022. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2022 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine rankings were calculated to four decimal places. https://www.inc.com/inc5000