Since 2021, private equity firms have acquired more than a dozen franchise broker, lead generation and marketing companies as these investors seek exposure to a business model they view as durable and capable of generating strong returns.
When Don Daszkowski sold a stake in the International Franchise Professionals Group to Princeton Equity Group, he did so for a reason commonly cited by founders, franchisors and franchisees when they bring institutional investors into their business.
“I felt like, in order for us to really continue the growth that we’ve seen in the first 10 years, that we would need more capital behind us,” said Daszkowski, who founded IFPG in 2012. “More of a board of directors, smarter people in the room.”
Dan Daszkowski, founder and CEO of the International Franchise Professionals Group, first brought private equity into the business in 2022.
He sold IFPG, a membership-based franchise broker and consultant network, to Princeton in 2022 (the firm owns franchise brands including Stretch Zone and Restoration 1, and this year it bought KidStrong), which in turn sold it to fellow private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners last summer. Then the add-on acquisitions began.
Franchise Business Review came first. IFPG bought the market research firm known for its franchisee satisfaction research in February, acquired franchise broker network Business Alliance in April, and most recently snapped up St. Jacques Marketing, which it quickly relaunched as Franchise Ignition, a lead generation platform.
Andrew Alexander, senior managing director at LLCP, said the firms sees M&A as a “focused way to strengthen the IFPG platform.”
“The right acquisitions can expand the network, improve the tools and features that drive effectiveness, and add capabilities that make the platform even more useful to members,” Alexander said in written comments. The firm, which over the last decade has invested in franchisors such as Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Nothing Bundt Cakes, and last year bought Synergy HomeCare, understands the role of franchise development in growing a system, he continued.
“With IFPG, we saw an opportunity to invest not in a single brand, but in the infrastructure that powers growth across the broader franchise ecosystem. The franchise sales and development function serves as the gateway to system expansion, yet historically it has been fragmented and relationship-driven,” Alexander said. “That aligns closely with LLCP’s strategy of backing businesses where added resources and strategic support can unlock scalable, repeatable growth.”
Daszkowski has a “grand vision” of IFPG not being looked at only as a franchise broker network, but as a platform that can complement a franchisor’s entire franchise development process.
“At the core, we connect candidates with franchise opportunities through our network, but we’re also building a much broader ecosystem of services that franchisors rely on to grow,” Daszkowski said.
Private equity’s presence in franchising is nothing new. Roark Capital, which has become a giant player and today owns several franchisors including Subway, Massage Envy and Dave’s Hot Chicken, plus multi-brand restaurant platforms Inspire Brands and GoTo Foods, acquired its first franchise in 2001 when it bought retail ice cream chain Carvel. A list of PE-backed franchisors—and increasingly, large multi-unit franchisees—would run for several pages. The Franchise Times Dealmakers project, which recognizes top players driving franchise M&A, is in its 14th year and receives several dozen nominations each year.
READ MORE: Roark Adds to Massive Franchise Portfolio With Dave’s Hot Chicken Buyout
Frandata estimated that more than 12 percent of active U.S. franchise brands have PE owners or investment backing at some level. With 4,000-plus franchises in its database alone, that means hundreds of brands in almost every sector.
What is new, or at least newer, is the growing interest from the PE firms in adding franchise suppliers, especially those in the franchise sales and marketing segments, to their portfolios.
Alicia Miller, who wrote a book on private equity’s influence in franchising, says more firms are identifying supply-side acquisition targets.
Supplier consolidation likely to continue
“I think it was Mark Twain who said, ‘A gold rush is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business.’ So, suppliers are, I think, excellent potential targets,” said Alica Miller, the founder and managing director of Emergent Growth Advisors and author of “Big Money in Franchising: Scaling Your Enterprise in the Era of Private Equity.”
“If you believe in the resilience of the franchise category, working with a supplier expands or diffuses your portfolio risk in a way, because now you can serve franchises in all kinds of different sectors,” continued Miller, who also writes the “Development Savvy” column for this magazine.
Franchising is big business. In its annual economic report, the International Franchise Association estimated franchising’s economic output hit $907 billion in 2025. It projected a 1.6 percent increase this year, to more than $920 billion.
Just as private equity has honed the platform approach by fueling the creation of multi-brand franchisors such as the previously mentioned Inspire Brands and GoTo Foods, plus the likes of home services behemoth Neighborly or health and beauty group WellBiz Brands, it could do the same for suppliers.
L2 Capital, for example, created Full Spectrum Franchise Consulting after it acquired iFranchise Group, TopFire Media and FranDevCo. Greens Farms Capital bought franchise-focused content marketing agency 919 Marketing in 2021 and formed Big Rock Brands, to which it added a handful of digital companies and later purchased franchise public relations firm Fish Consulting.
What was Fish 919 rebranded as Tidehouse Agency in 2025. Michael Kessler, managing partner of Greens Farms Capital, said the firm saw a need for a full suite of marketing solutions for franchisors and franchisees within a fragmented space.
“The sector has also proven to be relatively recession resistant,” he said in written comments. “During period[s] of rising unemployment, workers tend to seek alternative career paths, including franchise ownership, which helps sustain system growth even in softer economic cycles.”
Big Rock’s original investment thesis remains valid, he continued, “as the franchise marketing sector has become increasingly bifurcated, consisting generally of (a) low-cost lead gen providers and (b) higher-end marketing strategists that function more like outsourced growth development than traditional agencies.”
Miller said a side effect of more supplier consolidation could be higher prices, especially at franchise sales organizations, which continue to increase commission rates.
“It’s incredibly expensive to use the broker networks now. So, I don’t know that eliminating the number of broker networks or paring it down is going to be great on pricing,” she said, though it could reduce the pressure on the brokers themselves to join multiple networks.
Franchise Fastlane President Tim Koch says in addition to helping the company set its growth strategy, PE owner Southfield Capital is focusing on capital allocation.
PE’s entry a ‘pivotal moment’ for Franchise Fastlane
Tim Koch joined franchise sales organization Franchise Fastlane as president and chief operating officer in August 2024, about two years after Southfield Capital bought the business from owners Carey Gille and Ryan Zink. He called the transaction a “pivotal moment” for the company as Southfield introduced impactful resources and offered insights that “challenged our assumptions, our understanding of what growth looks like and how to get there.”
Southfield “pushed us to think bigger in terms of what we can be from a business standpoint, and what we can provide and bring to the industry,” said Koch as he also credited the firm with bringing in new artificial intelligence resources.
It also brought in two more companies. Franchise Fastlane bought Raintree, another franchise development company, in 2023, and it acquired consulting firm Franchise Creator in March.
Koch said Franchise Creator, which works primarily with founders and emerging brands, is complementary to Fastlane and that the acquisition will help “eliminate some of the friction … and complexity” that comes with building a franchise.
Fastlane can now “get involved earlier with franchisors and structure them and franchise in the right way. That seems to be a win-win from our standpoint,” he said.
Koch and Josh Sylvan, a principal at Southfield Capital, both said growth through acquisition is a key part of the strategy going forward. As a business services-focused private equity firm, Sylvan said Southfield was drawn to the value proposition of Fastlane and where it sits in the franchise ecosystem.
“It was really the strength of the underlying business service that they’re providing to the franchise community, plus all the other things that we could be doing for a franchisor, or its franchisees,” said Sylvan. There are opportunities to acquire companies that provide franchise marketing services, for example.
“It wasn’t just the core business of what they’re doing, and the specialty around it, and their exceptional ability to deliver, but it was, what else can you do with the business?” that made Fastlane an attractive addition to Southfield’s portfolio, he continued.
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