This story appears in the November 2026 issue of Utah Business.Subscribe.
Private equity has reached nearly every corner of Utah.
In June, the University of Utah became the first collegiate athletic department in the country to close a private equity transaction. Partnering with New York-based Otro Capital, the deal created Crimson Brand Partners, a for-profit entity that now runs the Utes’ ticketing, sponsorships, licensing, digital media and events.
In July, Carlyle’s first investment in its middle-market aerospace, defense, government and industrials platform was an acquisition of Secturion Systems, a Centerville company that provides NSA-certified encryption for military infrastructure and high-security data.
This summer, Salt Lake City commercial HVAC and plumbing contractor Mechanical Service & Systems joined PremiStar. PremiStar is a national portfolio company backed by Partners Group, a global private-markets investment firm with $186 billion in assets under management.
Across college sports, tech and the trades, private equity is making its presence known across Utah. In 2025, 4.98% of Utah’s private companies were backed by private equity or venture capital — well above the national average of 3.49% Utah is consistently ranked among the top three states in private equity penetration, behind only California and Massachusetts
To many, private equity is like the boogeyman — there is an inherent fear and skepticism when private equity becomes involved in a business. Investors, on the other hand, see it as a way for ordinary Americans to turn years of work into wealth.
For founders and business owners like Corey Vandenberg, the influx of private equity funding in the state means a steady stream of outreach from funds looking for acquisition opportunities. Vandenberg co-founded Clixsy, a Layton-based company that advises law firms and home service brands on search engine optimization and AI search visibility.
At any given time, Vandenberg receives emails from various funds across the country — hitting, at most, six to 10 emails a week. He reads every email. “I’m always just inherently skeptical and inquisitive,” Vandenberg says.
Private equity firms are currently sitting on a substantial amount of capital waiting to be deployed, and they are searching in places like Utah for deals. This leaves local business owners to decide whether to take on equity funding or to continue alone.
The Utah X-factor
So why Utah? When deciding where to invest, investors typically start with the founder.
“We love [founders] that have an ability, kind of a superpower, to go create revenue,” says Casey Baugh, co-founder and managing partner of Sandlot Partners. Sandlot is an investment firm headquartered in Utah that has deployed about $1 billion in equity, mostly into companies local to Utah
Baugh credits Utah’s culture of church missions, door-to-door sales and multi-level marketing with producing founders who know how to sell.
“Utah has a phenomenal culture of sales and revenue generation,” Baugh says. “It develops people in a way where they get really good sales skills.”
Another reason for Utah’s high level of private equity penetration is the prominence of venture capital in the state. Silicon Slopes has drawn investors ranging from local firms like Sorenson Capital and Pelion Venture Partners to national players like Sequoia Capital and KKR.
“If you zoom out and think about the distribution of institutional capital, I do think Utah has a heavy preponderance of VC-backed firms,” says Zach Larkin, managing director at The Cynosure Group, a Salt Lake City-based investment firm.
Historically, traditional private equity is newer in Utah. “We’ve got a growing and evolving ecosystem,” Larkin says. “Back when we started up Cynosure, there wasn’t much of what I would call institutional private equity. Things have evolved in such a phenomenal way over the last decade.”
Not only has the number of local investment firms grown, but Utah’s growing network of bankers and investors has made equity and debt capital markets more accessible than ever.
“Bank of America has a managing director here in town, and Zions Bank just started an investment banking group,” Larkin says. “It can all be done inside Utah; you don’t have to call a bank in New York.”
Knocking at the door
Part of the reason why business owners like Vandenberg are receiving interest from private equity funds is due to the nature of how these funds work. A fund raises money from pension funds, wealthy families and endowments, then uses the committed capital to buy companies over the span of a few years. The fund earns its returns by increasing the value of its investments and selling the companies it invested in for more than what it paid.
Higher interest rates have been disruptive to the industry. Many acquisitions are paid for partly with borrowed money, making it more expensive to acquire new businesses. This makes companies harder to sell, causing funds to hold on to investments for longer.
“Understand your own personal goals, desires and what you want out of your business first, and then find a partner that matches with those. … Who you take capital from is like choosing a partner, and you’re kind of getting married to them.”
— Casey Baugh
“You’re seeing this dynamic where it’s more difficult to exit a business, especially a heavily levered business in today’s environment,” Larkin says. “That’s causing the return of capital to be slower, and the deployment of capital is also slowing.”
This results in funds investing money more slowly as investors remain wary of the current market environment. “There is a ton of money on the sidelines,” Larkin says.
Nationally, private equity deal counts are falling as firms become more selective, according to an Aug. 2026 report from S&P Global Intelligence, which is causing some larger firms to move into the middle market within a slower economic cycle for exits and fundraising.
At the same time, smaller funds are popping up. Fund Launch, a platform that helps people start their own investment funds, has helped launch about 400 of them. These funds have an average target of about $30 million.
“In terms of funds, that’s a very small fund,” says Bridger Pennington, co-founder of Fund Launch. “There is almost no reporting done on these small funds. It’s just hard to track them.”
Pennington himself runs two funds that target service businesses earning $2 million to $5 million a year in EBITDA.
“We put a broad net out, and then we have a very narrow buy box,” Pennington says. “Getting outreach and closing a deal are two very different things.”
To sell or not to sell?
Vandenberg isn’t against selling, but he is conscious of what it could cost him.
“I put my blood, sweat, tears and my whole heart into building this brand,” Vandenberg says. “The general reputation of private equity [is that it is] singularly motivated to generate as much cash flow as possible and leave [a company to be] a shell of its former self.”
That fear applies to the clients and customers of private-equity-owned businesses as well. As private equity firms have acquired Vandenberg’s peers, their clients also become cautious. “[Clients] are very skeptical and suspicious of brands that have been acquired,” Vandenberg says. “They wonder, ‘Am I truly getting a boutique experience?’ or ‘Am I just getting something a lot less attuned to my needs?’”
Vandenberg considered a deal once. “I did get pretty far down the path with one group in particular, and then, ultimately, it was stalled and stopped at the negotiations,” he says. “They had asked me to send them financials, and I didn’t.”
The investors say that fear is fair. “There are reasons to be scared of private equity,” Larkin says. “You need to know that’s what you’re signing up for.”
“[Private equity] has produced a lot of wealth in America,” Pennington says. “It’s redistributed a ton of wealth. That’s an amazing thing for regular folks that live in Utah who just ran a business for 15 years.”
The trade-offs of saying yes also show up for business owners later — after the transaction has closed. Vandenberg hears from clients who sold to private equity and now answer to a larger entity. “It’s never easy to feel as though you are not in control of your destiny,” Vandenberg says.
So how should owners decide? According to the investors, it’s about having clarity on the direction you want your business to take and finding the right team to achieve those goals.
Some owners may not need private equity at all. “If all you’re looking for is capital and you’ve got EBITDA, go get a loan from a bank,” Larkin says. “It’s a way cheaper cost of capital.”
For now, Vandenberg considers private equity as an option while continuing to believe in the business he built.
“I’m of two minds right now where I’m working to get us offer-ready, but at the same time, I’m kind of betting with them on the future of the agency business model,” Vandenberg says. Even as private equity maintains its strong presence in Utah, the investors give Vandenberg confidence in the future.
“There must be some upside [the investors] see on the horizon about [our] business model,” Vandenberg says. “I’m going to keep betting on myself.”
