Austin, TX-based Top 40 distributor Boundless (asi/143717) has been acquired by an affiliate of Point Rider Capital and Treaty Oak Equity. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Point Rider and Treaty Oak are both Austin-headquartered private investment firms. Charley Dean, president of Point Rider, has been appointed chairman and interim president of Boundless.

“As an early investor in Boundless through Silverton Partners, it has been inspiring to watch this company grow over the past 15 years from under $1 million in sales to a leading promotional products distributor,” said Dean. “I am excited to rejoin the Boundless team and look forward to helping the company achieve its goals in this next chapter.”

Ben Williams, founder and managing director of Treaty Oak, added: “Boundless represents an ideal opportunity to invest in a storied company and leading team within the promotional products industry. Boundless is known industry-wide for its creativity, technology, and commitment to quality and customer service, and we look forward to continuing that legacy.”

Pat Barry, executive vice president of sales at Boundless, said that the resources the private equity backers can provide will empower Boundless to “invest for the future, reach new heights as a company and continue to provide industry-leading service.”

Boundless was founded in 2005. It was acquired by Zazzle in 2014. Last year, Boundless co-founder/CEO Henrik Johansson stepped away from the company and Zazzle’s Bridget Smith took over as CEO. Executives noted that Smith will resume her responsibilities at Zazzle and will not be affiliated with Boundless going forward. Beyond that and Dean coming aboard, there are no other changes to the Boundless leadership team, officials told ASI Media.

Full ownership of Boundless has transitioned to Point Rider Capital and Treaty Oak Equity. As explained to ASI Media, the “affiliate” acquiring Boundless is simply a legal entity that serves as a holding company. Point Rider and Treaty Oak contributed capital to that legal entity, which then acquired Boundless.

With reported 2019 North American promo product revenue of $100.4 million, Boundless ranked 21st on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.

Executives described Point Rider as a PE firm that makes significant investments into profitable companies where it believes it has a competitive advantage to drive outsized value creation. Point Rider, executives detailed, invests from a dedicated partnership funded by a single-family office with a 50-year history in private equity and a multi-generational time horizon.

Treaty Oak is a PE firm with capital commitments from two Texas family offices. “We partner with privately held and family-owned businesses to address funding needs, ownership transitions and succession planning issues, while preserving legacy, existing culture and values,” the company said in a statement. Learn more.

In recent years, more private equity money than ever before has been flowing into the promotional products industry – a phenomenon ASI Media documented at length here. As another recent example, Top 40 supplier S&S Activewear (asi/84358) was acquired in March by  private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). The move meant that three of the five largest suppliers in promo are now private equity-owned, with alphabroder (asi/34063) and PCNA (asi/78897) also being held by PE firms.

On the distributor side, some of the biggest Top 40 firms are private equity-owned, including HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000) and Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601).