Investors take majority stake in HiTech Assets

Caretta, a Chicago-based growth equity investment platform, and GBT Capital, a Phoenix-based founder-focused investment firm, have acquired a majority stake in HiTech Assets LLC, Oklahoma City, and established a long-term partnership with the company’s founder Lane Epperson and existing senior management. The transaction closed March 25, 2016, and terms were not disclosed.

HiTech, founded in 2002 and with locations in Oklahoma City and in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the largest independent information technology asset disposition (ITAD) companies in the United States. The company offers enterprise class data destruction and sustainable technology asset disposition services that feature asset reconciliation and disposition. The company is R2/RIOS (Responsible Recycling Practices/Recycling Industry Operating Standard), ISO 9001 and 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified. HiTech’s clients include Fortune 500 companies.

“We are delighted to have found partners in Caretta and GBT Capital, who share our values and bring decades of operational experience and a unique vision to the table,” Epperson, who will continue to lead HiTech, says in a news release issued by the companies. “With this partnership, we look forward to continuing to provide our best-in-class ITAD solutions to current clients, expanding services and markets and building a world-class organization as the IT industry continues to evolve.”

In a conversation at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) 2016 Convention & Exposition in Las Vegas in early April, Epperson said the partnership will enable HiTech to expand its services to include mobile data destruction in the form of physical destruction and data overwriting, as well as to increase its geographic coverage area.

He added that Caretta, GBT Capital and HiTech share a commitment to providing best-in-class services with a focus on customer service and to environmental responsibility. He says all parties share the same “sense of mission.”  

In the partnership, Caretta is working with long-time technology entrepreneur and founder George Slessman of GBT Capital, who will serve on the board of HiTech and advise on strategy. Slessman is founder and CEO of IO, a leading provider of colocation and data center services, and brings decades of experience in building and leading technology companies to success.

“Having worked with Caretta Founder Eric Becker over the past two decades, I could not be more excited about this partnership,” Slessman says in the news release. “The ever expanding scope and criticality of technology in our personal and business lives combined with our fundamental desire to responsibly manage data and protect the global environment lead us to HiTech, a founder-led company that we feel is best suited to grow in this industry and shares the same values that Eric and I cherish.”

As an anchor investment for Caretta, Becker says he believes HiTech’s unique focus on environment, compliance and cybersecurity exemplifies his firm’s unique investment model. “We set out to invest in and build companies creating long-term value that are changing the world for the better,” he says. “HiTech is a good example of our mission at work, and we look forward to nurturing the next evolution of this exciting business.”

Ryan Schultz led the transaction for Caretta, a growth equity investment firm that invests in small and midsized businesses.

Founded in 2006, GBT is a global venture capital firm that says it empowers founders and entrepreneurism in next generation technology and service businesses.