The Riverside Company Bolsters Its Australia Fund with Key New Hires and Promotion

Global investment and private equity firm The Riverside Company is pleased to announce  three new hires and a promotion to its Australian team. The Riverside Australia Fund (RAF) typically works with entrepreneurial founders of high-growth, profitable Australian and New Zealand-based businesses with EBITDA of up to AUD$25 million who are looking for a partner with global knowledge and experience, where the team believes they can help accelerate growth domestically or internationally.

To date, RAF has completed 40  investments with the goal of building bigger, more sustainable, and more profitable businesses through organic and add-on strategies since its inception in 2010.  

RAF is pleased to announce the following:

James Elsom has been hired as Principal, bringing 16 years’ M&A and corporate finance experience across Australia and Southeast Asia, including as Partner in Deloitte’s M&A Advisory team where he focused on advising owners and acquirers of mid-market growth companies.

Kevin Xu has been promoted to Principal, after being with Riverside since 2014 working on numerous investments, add-ons, and divestitures, playing an instrumental role on the team.

Hannah Davies and Dominique Ling have been hired as analysts, with Davies coming from PwC and Ling from BCG. Both bring diverse M&A experience to help the local Riverside team.

Elsom and Xu join Principal Nicholas Pejnovic guiding the local team alongside Managing Partner, Simon Feiglin, who has led Riverside’s Australian investing and operating teams for 14 years, focusing on the development and implementation of strategy, as well as the acquisition, growth, and sale of portfolio companies.

Feiglin is a 16-year veteran of Riverside and an Australian native who relocated back to Melbourne in 2010 to establish and lead RAF, building a team of 10 investment professionals and six operating executives to support local growth.

Leveraging Riverside’s global network, RAF’s mission is to help and support what the team believes are underserved businesses.

Simon Feiglin, Managing Partner of the Riverside Australian Fund, said: “As the world becomes increasingly complex, we believe the owners of Australia’s roughly 80,000 SMEs will more greatly value a partner who can help them develop and implement growth strategies to achieve their personal and professional objectives.

“For this reason, we’re extremely pleased to add James, Hannah, and Dom to the local team to augment Riverside’s strong growth momentum in Australia and New Zealand.

“Over recent years, we’ve worked closely with James on more than a half dozen companies he has sold to and for us, as well as those where he has represented us on the buyside. He has an impressive track record of supporting the owners and acquirers of mid-market growth companies, developing M&A strategies, and significantly contributing to the growth of companies regionally and across the globe. So we’re pleased to officially welcome James to this growing team.”

Elsom will be based in Riverside’s Melbourne office and will focus on building lasting relationships with portfolio companies, sourcing new deals, and supporting strategy execution across Australia and New Zealand.

James Elsom, incoming RAF Principal, said: “I’m thrilled to join such an exceptional team focussed  on growing the critical mid-market segment. I look forward to helping the firm expand its well-established regional presence, while supporting local and national mid-market growth companies by leveraging Riverside’s global reach to help them achieve their goals.”

Kevin Xu, recently promoted RAF Principal, said: “Over the past decade with the Riverside Australia Fund, I have witnessed first-hand the positive impact of the firm’s global connectivity and partnership model across multiple investments, from inception to exit. This impact is manifested in accelerated growth, job creation, and meaningful benefits to our communities.”