Houlihan Lokey Advises Uptime Institute

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Uptime Institute has been acquired by Dominus Capital, LP, a leading middle-market private equity investment firm. The transaction closed on January 13, 2022.

Uptime provides assessment, certification, and consulting services for owners, operators, and users of digital infrastructure and also provides education, accreditation, and membership network services for data center professionals and organizations. Uptime primarily serves financial institutions, telecom, colocation, government, and cloud markets on a global basis. Founded in 1993, Uptime is a true data center industry pioneer, having created the universally recognized and proprietary Tier classification system for data center design, construction, and operations. It has awarded over 2,300 certifications for data centers in over 100 countries. Uptime has also trained and accredited over 10,000 data center professionals and operates an elite membership network for data center owners and operators. Uptime is headquartered in New York, New York, with offices in Brazil, Russia, the UAE, the UK, Singapore, and Taiwan and staff in 27 countries, currently servicing more than 700 active projects worldwide.

“We are excited to work with Dominus to accelerate growth through further geographic expansion, new service offerings, and strategic acquisitions. Dominus’ team of operating advisors, along with their experience, position us well to support Uptime’s global growth,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO of Uptime.

Based in New York, Dominus Capital, a 2022 Top 50 PE Firm in the Middle Market, focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital investments, particularly in family- and founder-owned companies in the business services and light manufacturing sectors of the economy. Drawing on the experience, knowledge, and network of its founders and a team of in-house operating executives, Dominus Capital works hand in hand with exceptional management teams to unlock the untapped potential of its portfolio companies. The firm takes a long-term approach to investing and has a consistent and highly successful track record of achieving significant growth at its portfolio companies. The Dominus Capital team members have executed more than 80 transactions over the past 20+ years.

Bob Haswell, Founding Partner at Dominus Capital, added, “We’re thrilled to partner with Martin and the Uptime management team. Uptime is the undisputed market leader worldwide, with results-oriented solutions for mission critical data centers, the true digital foundries and factories of the Internet economy. We are excited about the scale opportunities ahead for the company, both organically and through add-on acquisitions, and are committed to help Uptime exploit them.”

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of Uptime.