Blog

Surgere, the global industry leader in visibility and control for automotive supply chains, has secured a growth capital investment from Cypress Growth Capital. Based in Green, Ohio, Surgere’s platform enables OEMs and their suppliers to operate in a single supply chain data ecosystem. The financing preserved the family’s equity and will fuel the business’ long-term growth.

Cascade Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Surgere.

 

Transcript

William Wappler (00:03): I’m Will Wappler. I am the president and CEO of Surgere. Surgere is a technology company. We understand the science of sensors, or data collection technology, perhaps better than anyone else in the world. I don’t believe that Surgere is unique or unusual as a entrepreneurial company. We may have a growth that a lot of entrepreneurs dream about just like we did. We’re almost vertical now. We could no longer sustain that growth without going out for additional capitalization, not only to cover our current operating needs, but to prepare us for the future. We thought that we needed capital. That’s not true. You need a lot of information that doesn’t come with a check. And so when we began the process of looking for capital, we were fortunate enough to meet the folks at Cascade, and we received a lot more than a doorway to capital. We made the right decision because we met the right people.

William Wappler (01:23): We needed someone that would find a path that was created by a team. A little bit of us, a little bit of Cascade, and all of the decisions came through our culture with everybody on our staff happy. First thing that surprised us is how much we didn’t know. So what Cascade brought was we were educated, we were given sound advice, and they became then our mentors and advisors. We’ve been with our bank for 29 years. They are not investors, they’re bankers. And that was one of the first lessons we had to learn. The right fit came from a non-traditional capital market. Cascade worked with us for quite some time on preparation of going to market. We found out in a very short amount of time, we were ill prepared for those conversations. So not only did they do all of the investigation within the company to prepare us, they pulled us along through that process, and what we really came to is the realization we became trusted friends.

William Wappler (02:31): And I didn’t see that coming, but it’s the most important aspect. After experiencing the Cascade relationship and our growth together through this, how would we go anywhere else? I find myself fortunate enough to travel the globe, giving quite a few speeches nowadays. I always try to at least have some call to action. My call to action when I think of Cascade is review your objectives as a company, look a little bit inwardly about what you feel comfortable with, and not feel comfortable with. If you have any questions whatsoever about your financial acumen, or your ability to have conversations with the capital markets and where you should go, then my call to action for you would be, give Ken and everyone at Cascade a call. They will get you home.