DENVER, February 6, 2017 – Mountaingate Capital (Mountaingate) announced today that it has completed an investment in Elite SEM (Elite). Elite is a performance-driven digital marketing agency with proven success in helping clients drive tangible business results. The investment in Elite marks the third platform investment for Mountaingate in its debut fund, and the third platform investment completed within the last twelve months.

Founded in 2004 by Ben Kirshner, Elite has experienced tremendous growth since inception and has earned a stellar reputation as a leader in digital media strategy and execution, and as one of the best places to work in the industry. With six offices across the United States and more than 150 employees, Elite is partnering with Mountaingate to accelerate its growth organically as well as through selective strategic acquisitions.

“We are very excited to partner with Ben and Elite’s talented leadership team; Elite is a true market leader in helping brands navigate the entire digital media landscape and most efficiently deliver their customer acquisition and conversion goals,” said Colton King, Managing Director of Mountaingate. “The company has an exceptional track record of revenue growth, a diverse client roster of blue chip brands, a highly motivated team of digital marketing experts and an award-winning culture that is disrupting the traditional agency model through novel approaches to serving and aligning with clients.”

“The partnership with Mountaingate will help accelerate Elite’s growth and better address our clients’ needs with additional resources and capabilities,” said Ben Kirshner, CEO and Founder. “Mountaingate’s extensive experience within the digital marketing industry and alignment with Elite’s unique culture and client-focused value proposition made Mountaingate the right partner for Elite. We are thrilled to have their support and are very excited about this next chapter of client-focused growth for Elite.”

Mountaingate Capital, based in Denver, is a leading buy-and-build lower middle market private equity firm formed by a group of partners at KRG Capital. Mountaingate invests in industry leading middle market companies that demonstrate strong growth potential and are led by management teams committed to a strategic vision to realize that growth. Mountaingate supports management in prioritizing, funding, and executing on growth opportunities, including strategic add-on acquisitions. The principals of Mountaingate have extensive experience investing in marketing and communications agencies, including KRG Capital’s investments in OLSON, a Minneapolis-based digital agency that grew to become one of the top five independent digital agencies in the U.S.; Ansira, a St. Louis and Dallas-based leading data-driven results marketing agency; and Aspen Marketing, a Chicago-based leader in direct and digital marketing. Additionally, in 2016, Mountaingate completed its first two platform investments in W2O Group, a San Francisco-based marketing and communications firm serving healthcare and technology clients with industry leading proprietary analytics and insights, and HS2 Solutions, a Chicago-based full service digital transformation agency. In addition to marketing services opportunities, Mountaingate focuses on investments in specialty distribution, specialty manufacturing and business services. Mountaingate targets investments in new platform companies with $5 million to $25 million of EBITDA. More information on Mountaingate can be found at www.mountaingatecap.com.

Elite SEM is an award-winning performance-driven digital marketing agency. Elite offers a broad range of services, including Paid Search (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Shopping & Feed, Performance Display, Paid Social, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Insight & Analytics. Elite prides itself on developing and executing on strategic plans for clients that reach the right audience to generate sales and/or qualified leads at a cost-effective rate. More information on Elite can be found at www.elitesem.com.

For more information please contact:

Colton King, Managing Director

Phone: 303.390.5001