ARG, one of the channel’s oldest and largest technology advisory firms, has agreed to a growth investment as a new wave of investors descends on the TA market with fresh strategies.
The Virginia-based company on Feb. 16 agreed to an infusion from Bear Creek Partners, advised by investment bank Q Advisors. ARG will use the funding to hire new enterprise sellers and sales engineers, make strategic acquisitions and expand its business development network.
The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but it is one of the largest the TA space has seen. Founded in 1991, ARG is one of the channel’s oldest agencies and has helped organize trade associations and industry events.
“I would say [Co-founder] Greg Praske is the OG. I think ARG has been the last independent, really big company, so ARG taking on private equity is a moment,” President James Larsen told Channel Dive.
The TA market underwent mass consolidation starting in 2020, as private equity firms entered the space and baby boomer TA owners sought a retirement option. ARG spoke with suitors several years ago and nearly went to the altar, but executives say they’re glad they waited for the newest group of investors.
“There were a lot of new people that had working, operating theses to put money into this channel to help it grow further,” ARG CEO Mike Shonholz said. “There wasn't a lack of choice.”
Key private equity investors and TA operators have seen the insurance brokerage industry as a parallel for the less mature TA market. ARG’s status as a partner for some of the winning insurance brokerage platforms did not go unnoticed by Bear Creek.
“Those companies become billion-dollar-plus companies, and that's completely doable here in this channel, provided you have the right platform company. We think ARG is that,” Larsen said.
The new investors
New buyers are bringing a novel thesis to the table: platforms are the future. The most recent round of TA “roll-ups” has been substantially lighter on M&A.
Opex TEchnologies has yet to announce an acquisition following its May 2025 investment from Bregal Sagemount. Nor has CXponent since announcing its initial merger last September. That could be because the field of acquisition targets has narrowed significantly over the last five years.
Columbia Capital-backed Bluewave has completed 26 agent transactions, Berkshire Partners-backed Upstack has completed 37, and Charlesbank Capital Partners-backed Bridgepointe has completed 59 transactions as of October 2025. But scarcity doesn’t fully explain the acquisition-sparse strategies of the newest players.
Larsen said the latest round of PE investors want to put their funds into companies that have already built a set of people, processes and digital tools.
“It seems as if the real focus right now is on trying to find a platform company,” Larsen said. “I would call us a super regional direct selling agency that has the ability to scale nationally. And we're the only ones I think are really ready to do that.”
Inside the platform
ARG already underwent the process of lifting and shifting its database into a Salesforce system of record to make its 35 years of customer and supplier data AI-friendly. The company’s sellers are generating AI insights to improve their consulting and close deals faster.
“What I'm hearing back from our peers is, the work we've done in the custom GPTs and AI initiatives to create scale is well ahead,” Shonholz said.
Bear Creek also liked ARG’s sales structure, according to Shonholz.
Many TAs rely on contractors and sub-agents as their salesforce, and these 1099 employees are an efficient way to acquire customers. However, managing those clients in the long-term through contractors is difficult.
ARG maintains a mix of 1099 and W2 sellers, and it orients its full-time sellers on path toward managing partner status.
“There's nothing better for your company than to have a W2 person that you're paying a salary and a one-time commission to drive long tail business into your company year over year,” Larsen said.
TA roll-ups have faced major agent churn, where partners who sold them their book of business have spun up new, separate agencies after their non-competes expire, instead of remaining at the platform company and managing their existing client base. Platform companies need to incentivize their sales talent to stick around.
“It is more clear than ever; the powered-by model doesn't add value, [compared to] having organizations fully institutionalized, fully branded, and operating out of a consistent and singular playbook,” Shonholz said.
All managing partners that have been with ARG for a year or longer participated financially in the proceeds of the sale.
“And when I say ‘participated,’ I mean meaningfully,” Larsen said.
Shonholz said all employees received some kind of bonus.
“Our leadership team was literally able to hand every single person in the company a nice note and envelope,” Larsen said. “I don't think our channel has seen that before.”
Correction: In a previous version of this article, Bear Creek’s portfolio companies were misidentified.
