Rising Point Capital

Rising Point Capital

Rising Point Capital was formed in 2019 by Michael Drai and Justin Marku after both left Sterling Partners, where Drai had been a managing director and Marku a principal within the business services group. The firm is built around a narrow thesis: acquiring majority stakes in US-based, lower-middle-market service companies with at least $10 million in revenue and $2 million in EBITDA. The founders brought along their institutional training from GTCR, Allen & Company, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which shows in the firm's preference for corporate carve-outs and founder transitions. The portfolio reveals a heavy tilt toward industrial and infrastructure services. Confirmed investments include Cinterra, a utility-scale solar and electrical construction firm based in North Carolina; Conco Services, a provider of industrial cleaning and non-destructive testing to power generation clients operating out of Pittsburgh and Houston; and PirTano, an underground telecom and transportation-construction company in Illinois. The firm also backs residential service platforms like ABC Plumbing, Sewer, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, which operates across the Midwest and Florida, and JDS Pipe, a Georgia-based water and stormwater infrastructure contractor. Rising Point writes majority checks and targets businesses with clear organic and acquisition-based growth levers. The partnership group remains lean. In 2023, the co-founders added Marc Perez, who had previously led the Menper Group and helped launch RiverGlade Capital, as a partner focused on operational leadership. In 2024, they promoted Natalie Greene to partner after she joined from RiverGlade. The firm's most recent hire was Eric Kennebeck, a former GTCR fund controller, who came aboard as CFO and Chief Compliance Officer in early 2026. Rising Point has completed nine investments since inception — including platform deals and add-on acquisitions — and reports that 100% of its platform investments were made in partnership with founder, family, or management-owned businesses. The firm's structural edge is its integration of operators into the partnership itself. Both Perez and Greene brought hands-on experience launching and running investment firms and operating companies before reaching partner, creating a team where deal execution and post-close operations sit under the same roof. This blurs the traditional line between GP and operating partner and matches Rising Point's insistence that it delivers transparent, side-by-side partnership rather than just institutional oversight.