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Charles Ackerman Joins $1M Round for Horticultural Asset Management - cbl

By Julie Armstrong

Horticultural Asset Management Inc., a provider of tree and shrub services, caught my eye this week when it closed a $1 million Series C financing round provided by lead investor TC Capital Fund LLC, of Chapel Hill , and Charles Ackerman, a land developer based in Atlanta .

The privately held Cary-headquartered company, which does business as HMI, also is backed by co-founder William Glynn, of McDonough , Ga. ; Kenneth Zekavat, of Moorestown, N.J.-based Zekavat Private Equity Group VIII LLC; and Grant Lippincott and Kristina Castle, both of Rockbrook Advisors LLC in Omaha , Neb. , according to an SEC filing.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to drive HMI's commercial activity through its insurance claim support business, including inspections and valuations for trees and shrubs. The proceeds also will support the launch of the company's TreeShield service warranty program.

"TreeShield enables the professional tree care companies in HMI's network to provide their clients with a warranty of their services that represents a comprehensive storm recovery solution," said President and CEO Doug Cowles in a news release Tuesday. "TreeShield covers not only the costs property owners would incur to clean up after a storm, but also the services needed to repair storm damaged trees."

Services provided by Horticultural Asset Management and its national network of tree care companies include large tree and limb removal, debris removal, preservation of damaged trees and cause-of-loss analysis. HMI has partnerships with insurance providers such as Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. and Live Asset Insurance Co., as well as with recovery service companies.

Founded in 2003, HMI has amassed a repository of horticultural data that includes current wholesale prices along with descriptions, cultural details, expert care instruction and photographs on thousands of different trees and shrubs. The data allows HMI to provide detailed reports with information about the specific type and condition of the assets and replacement costs.

In 2008, HMI raised $7.2 million from two separate offerings of equity and debt.

TC Capital Fund is a joint venture between private equity firms Carrboro Capital and Tryon Capital, both based in Chapel Hill . Clay Hamner, of Carrboro Capital, and Peter Coker, of Tryon, will join HMI's board of directors.

Do you have tree insurance? HMI may have found its niche.

Reg D filing: http://tinyurl.com/6xqe3r5

Also at citybizlist, see:

UNC Kenan-Flagler's Student-Run Private Equity Fund Holds Final Close on Fund II

Bio from Carrboro Capital's website:

W. Clay Hamner
Partner

Mr. Hamner has years of board-level and transactional experience in a variety of industries. He is the Frank Hawkins Kenan Professor of Private Equity and the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is also is the Chairman of Montrose Capital Corporation, which has owned or held majority interest in over forty businesses. Prior to founding Montrose Capital, Mr. Hamner was formerly a faculty member at Northwestern and Duke Universities .

Mr. Hamner has served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Wendy's International, Inc. (NYSE), Fuqua National Corporation (NYSE), Fuqua Industries (NYSE) Triton Group, Ltd. (NYSE), Interstate Johnson Lane , Giga Media (OTC and Taiwan Exchanges), Southmark (NYSE), Kleinfield, Inc., The Pantry, Inc., and Capital Technology, Inc. He is a consultant to or board member, of several Private Equity funds including the RTP Real Estate Opportunity Fund, the Bacchus Fund, and the Infinity Israel China Fund. He is also a consultant to WorldVest, a private equity fund placement agency.

Mr. Hamner has served on the Board of Visitors for the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, the UNC Investment Company, Inc., the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund, Inc., the UNC Funds, the Duke University Medical Center, Trinity College Board at Duke University, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and the Indiana University Business School Board of Visitors.

Mr. Hamner received his undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Georgia and his doctorate in Business Administration from Indiana University .

Bio from Tryon Capital's site:

Peter L. Coker
Partner

Peter has over 35 years experience in investment management, financial transactions, and executive management. He has held senior positions at several financial services companies including investment banks and asset management firms on Wall Street. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina State University Investment Fund and several startup companies. He received his BS and Masters degree in Economics from NC State University.

Bio from BusinessWeek.com:

William P. Glynn
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman, Collective IQ

Mr. William P. Glynn is the Member of the Advisory Board at VoX Communications Corp. He is the Founder of Collective IQ. He is currently associated with the company as Chairman of the Board. In January 2001 Information Week, a widely read technology publication, voted Mr. Glynn one of the 15 most influential technology leaders for the next decade. Mr. Glynn was appointed to the National Congressional Business Counsel in 2002 -2003 and was elected by the NCBC as businessman of the year for 2002 for the State of Colorado - in addition Mr. Glynn played a leadership role in the development of the Royal Institute's World Science Assembly (RiSci) - comprised of world political and scientific leaders, focused on bridging the gaps between world public policy makers and scientific discovery and continues to support the organization in its ongoing efforts. Mr. Glynn was recently appointed to the advisory board of The US Veterans Corporation. Most notably, Mr. Glynn has participated in investing in and building the management teams, business strategy and partnerships for OpenSite Technologies (acquired by Siebel Systems NASDAQ: SEBL ), Upside Magazine (Sold to MCG Capital NASDAQ: MCGC), BuildNet (a building software roll-up - that during a work out was sold to several investment, building and technology companies), Mediaspan, Inc. (formerly KOZ) where he helped in the acquisition of Ichat and assisted the team in making chat and IM technology ubiquitous, HAHT Commerce, Accipiter (acquired by CMGI NADSAQ: CMGI ), Elumens Corporation, iEntertainment Network (NASDAQ: IENT ), Wave Systems (NASDAQ: WAVX ), Arsenal Digital Solutions Worldwide, Red Storm Entertainment (JV with Tom Clancy - sold to Ubisoft Entertainment: Euronext Paris Stock Exchange), Time Line Studios (JV with Virtus corp. and Michael Chricton), Mercari Technologies (Sold to a leading supply chain company), Allconnect, ChanneLogics (Sold to Scientific Atlanta NYSE: SFA ), How Stuff Works (Sold to Convex Group) and VisionAIR. He also is responsible for developing and managing the UPSIDE Southeast Technology Conference that attracted over 600 senior executives in information technology from across the world to Duke University - for 7 years as well as the NCEITA Information Week & Network Computing Conference based in Charlotte, NC. Mr. Glynn through his venture capital organizations has directly invested over $250 million with a cumulative IRR in excess of 25% and has attracted over $1billion in capital to the companies he has been involved with. Along with J. Turner Stewart, Mr. Glynn pioneered Collective IQ a network of scientific, business, political and social influencers - that participate in leadership capacities across all the various entities Mr. Glynn advises - builds and owns.


Douglas Cowles

 

 

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