RKCA

Jay Kholodenko and Mike Rapp lead the firm as managing partners and originate the majority of the transaction flow. Because RKCA operates as an M&A advisory and capital placement platform rather than a discretionary fund, the firm does not make investment decisions on its own behalf; instead, it structures and negotiates transactions for seller clients and places equity and debt capital with independent sponsors and family offices. The managing partners' reputations and regional relationships serve as the primary deal-quality filter.

RKCA draws deal flow from a decades-old network of business owners, regional accounting firms, and commercial lenders operating across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Much of its pipeline originates from succession- or liquidity-driven mandates where founders or family owners seek a first institutional transaction. The firm supplements relationship-based origination with targeted outreach to privately held companies in business services, niche manufacturing, and consumer.

RKCA is neither a family office nor a venture firm. It operates as an M&A advisory and capital placement platform serving the lower middle market. The firm does not invest a proprietary balance sheet; instead, it advises business owners on exits and recapitalizations, then raises dedicated capital for each transaction from a curated network of independent sponsors, family offices, and lenders. This structure functions as a transaction-by-transaction bridge between sellers and pools of opportunistic capital.

RKCA does not raise or manage blind-pool investment funds and does not make structural fund commitments. Its capital placement work is entirely transaction-specific: for each acquisition, the firm identifies an independent sponsor, assembles the equity group, and coordinates mezzanine and senior debt providers. This approach appeals to investors who prefer discrete co-investment exposure without committing to a multi-year fund vehicle.

The firm concentrates on founder-owned, cash-flow-positive businesses with enterprise values between roughly $10 million and $100 million. These are typically mature companies undergoing a first institutional transition — a founder sale, a family recapitalization, or a management-led buyout — rather than growth-stage or venture-backed assets. RKCA has closed transactions across a range of deal structures including full exits, partial recapitalizations, and independent-sponsor acquisitions.

RKCA focuses on the industrial and commercial base of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana tri-state region, with offices in Cincinnati, Covington, and Indianapolis. The firm occasionally executes transactions outside the core region when the buyer network or the specific sector opportunity warrants, but its origination strength and most of its closed deal volume originate from within the manufacturing, healthcare, and business services clusters of the American Midwest.