Updated:
Columbia River Partners
Nathan Chandrasekaran and Pooneet Goel built Columbia River Partners to deploy over $200M into IT picks-and-shovels carve-outs across the lower middle...
Columbia River Partners
Columbia River Partners was co-founded by Nathan Chandrasekaran and Pooneet Goel. Chandrasekaran spent more than a decade at a New York-based middle-market private equity firm with $1.5B in assets under management, sitting on the boards of companies such as Lift Brands, Neighborly, and DLT Solutions. Goel built a parallel track as an entrepreneur and technology investor, with personal investments that include Aera Technology, Punchh, and LeanData, while independently developing over 10 megawatts of solar farms across India and Spain. The firm operates from Los Altos, California, placing it inside the West Coast technology corridor that generates much of its deal flow. CRP structures its strategy around complex situations — corporate divestitures, carve-outs, and recapitalizations — in the lower middle market where the target company's revenue sits between $10M and $300M. Asset-class exposure spans enterprise software, IT and software support services, technology distributors, resellers, integrators, and select hardware manufacturers. The geographic footprint concentrates on North America with occasional European coverage. The firm's portfolio strategy is built on an identifiable network of operating partners and advisors, including Paul Auffermann, formerly of NetSuite and DataRobot, and Tom Furey, CEO of Sagetech Avionics, which CRP has supported post-carve-out from Sagetech Corporation. The team of eight professionals includes Vice President Delen Wong, who previously led M&A for Softbank- and Warburg Pincus-backed Sojern and Trax Retail, anchoring a blend of institutional buy-side training and operating heft rare in firms targeting sub-$300M enterprise-value transactions. CRP has completed 15 transactions across seven platform investments, surpassing $200M in total deployed capital. The advisory bench extends further into the education-technology ecosystem — advisor Greg Galdi operates Custom Computer Specialists, while Jay Whitchurch runs that firm as CEO and previously led Scantron — giving CRP unusual sourcing depth in K–12 and higher-ed IT infrastructure. In May 2024, the firm's research team executed two deals via cross-border financial due diligence, drawing on Senior Associate Swati Sablok's work coordinating internal and external diligence parties — a signal that the firm is actively deploying and integrating junior talent into transaction execution. What differentiates CRP structurally is its operating-partner mesh rather than a traditional sourcing funnel. The firm embeds sector-specific CEOs and operators — Auffermann in enterprise AI, Furey in aerospace avionics, Galdi and Whitchurch in education IT — directly into its advisory group, creating an origination model closer to a distributed deal network than a centralized PE platform. This architecture lets a sub-ten-person team originate complex carve-outs of technical businesses that larger sponsors overlook, while the named operators provide post-close leadership that typically sits inside the portfolio company.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Los Altos
Corporate office
Los Altos, CA, United States
Principals
Nathan Chandrasekaran
Co-Founder / Partner
Pooneet Goel
Co-Founder / Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Columbia River Partners?
Day-to-day investment decisions sit with co-founders and partners Nathan Chandrasekaran and Pooneet Goel. Chandrasekaran brings buyout governance experience from board roles at Neighborly, Lift Brands, and DLT Solutions. Goel supplies technology assessment and entrepreneurial investing judgment from his personal track record in enterprise software and solar infrastructure. The two-person partnership structure means binding decisions require agreement between both partners.
How does Columbia River Partners source proprietary deal flow?
CRP sources through a dedicated network of sector-embedded operating partners and advisors rather than through a traditional intermediary funnel. Advisors like Greg Galdi (Custom Computer Specialists), Tom Furey (Sagetech Avionics), and Paul Auffermann (ex-DataRobot) sit inside the industries CRP targets — education IT, aerospace components, enterprise AI — and surface carve-out and recapitalization opportunities directly. This distributed origination model is designed to find complex technical businesses before broad auction processes begin.
Does Columbia River Partners participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Based on the firm's disclosed activity, CRP pursues direct control equity positions across its seven platforms and 15 transactions, nearly always in complex situations like corporate divestitures, carve-outs, or recapitalizations. There is no public evidence the firm makes limited-partner commitments into third-party funds. The stated strategy focuses exclusively on direct principal investing in lower middle market operating companies.
What investment stages does Columbia River Partners target?
CRP invests in established lower middle market companies generating $10M to $300M in revenue. While the firm does not use typical venture-stage language (seed, Series A), the focus is on later-stage, cash-flowing businesses that need institutional capital, operational support, or separation from a corporate parent. The team describes its approach as expansion, turnaround, and recapitalization — all targeting existing technical businesses rather than startups.
Which sectors does Columbia River Partners explicitly avoid?
CRP has not published an explicit avoidance list, but the portfolio concentration on IT services, software support, technology distribution, integration, manufacturing, and consulting strongly suggests the firm stays away from pure consumer internet, biotech drug discovery, and heavy-industrial commodity businesses. The unified thread is 'picks and shovels of technology' — infrastructure-layer businesses rather than end-user-facing platforms.
Where does Columbia River Partners invest geographically?
The firm states a primary focus on North America with some attention to Europe. Advisory board members like Tom Furey, Erik Stromquist, and Greg Galdi operate companies in the western and northeastern US, while founder Pooneet Goel's prior solar-farm investments in India and Spain suggest cross-border execution capability, though no current European portfolio company has been named publicly.
Is Columbia River Partners structured as a single family office or a traditional private equity fund?
CRP operates as a private equity fund manager, not a family office. The co-founders did not deploy inherited wealth; both built their careers at institutional firms — Chandrasekaran in middle-market buyouts and Goel as a technology entrepreneur and operator. The firm's investment committee is the two co-founders, and the capital deployed comes from commingled fund vehicles or managed accounts rather than a single-family balance sheet.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on private equity firms?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: