LightBay Capital

Investment decisions are made jointly by Co-Founders and Managing Partners Adam Stein and Nav Rahemtulla. Both partners previously worked together in the private equity group at Ares Management, where they executed control and growth investments across services sectors. The dual-managing-partner structure means no single individual holds exclusive investment-committee veto power, a governance design tailored for a first-time fund. Day-to-day oversight of portfolio companies is shared, with both partners sitting on each portfolio company board.

LightBay leverages the institutional sourcing playbook its founders developed at Ares Management, emphasizing intermediary relationships, thematic sector mapping, and direct founder outreach rather than auction-heavy processes. The firm targets lower-middle-market services companies that fall below the minimum equity check size of mega-fund platforms. Its Los Angeles location gives it proximity to a concentrated pool of healthcare and business services founders across the Western US. The firm also draws on operating advisors with deep sector-specific networks to surface off-market opportunities.

LightBay Capital is a traditional private equity firm, not a family office. It is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser and manages pooled capital from external institutional limited partners. The founding partners do not invest a disclosed family fortune; rather, the firm was formed as a classic GP-stake spinout when Stein and Rahemtulla left Ares Management in 2020 to build an independent middle-market platform.

LightBay executes direct control and minority growth investments rather than allocating capital to third-party funds. The firm does not operate a fund-of-funds strategy. All capital deployed goes directly into portfolio companies, with co-investment occasionally offered to limited partners on a deal-by-deal basis, consistent with standard middle-market private equity practice.

LightBay targets both full buyout situations and selective expansion-stage growth investments. The firm does not invest in seed, early-stage venture, or public equities. Its focus is on founder-owned and family-owned businesses generating several million dollars of EBITDA, where it can deploy control-oriented capital to professionalize operations, scale geographically, or execute add-on acquisitions.

LightBay does not invest in technology startups, real estate, energy, infrastructure, or financial services. Its mandate is concentrated on three verticals: healthcare services, business services, and consumer. Within healthcare, it avoids biotech, pharma, and devices with binary regulatory outcomes. In consumer, it stays away from fashion and high-trend discretionary categories. The common thread is services-based recurring revenue models in non-cyclical end markets.

LightBay has no formal or structural affiliation with Ares Management. The connection is limited to the professional pedigrees of its co-founders, Adam Stein and Nav Rahemtulla, who both served as partners in Ares' private equity group prior to 2020. LightBay is independently owned and operated, and Ares holds no economic interest in the firm or its management company. The spinout was amicable and publicly acknowledged at the time of LightBay's launch.