KKR, a global investment firm, launched Akrapoint Commercial Capital, a mid-ticket equipment finance company established by a team of experienced industry professionals and KKR. Investment funds managed by KKR will commit $350 million, via KKR’s asset-based finance strategy, to support the launch.
Akrapoint combines stable, long-term capital with decades of experience in equipment finance. It will focus on financing vocational assets, specialty trailers and industrial equipment for small and middle-market businesses across a broad range of U.S. industries, including manufacturing, energy and power, sanitation and waste services, construction, and transportation and logistics. The platform will bring together manufacturers, equipment vendors and customers with flexible financing solutions to support equipment purchases and business growth.
Akrapoint is led by CEO Nate Smith, an experienced and entrepreneurial executive who most recently spent nearly a decade at Trans Lease, where he ran credit, portfolio management, funding and compliance, and significantly expanded the company’s capital markets function. A seasoned management team with decades of experience in equipment finance will support Smith, along with Gary Shivers, a 30-year veteran who will chair Akrapoint’s board of directors. Shivers previously founded and scaled Navitas Credit into a national platform with more than $1.8 billion in assets and co-founded and held senior leadership roles at Advanta Leasing and Marlin Business Services (now PEAC Solutions) earlier in his career.
“Demand for vocational, specialty trailer and industrial equipment is growing fast, and the operators who run that equipment need a financing partner who understands their business,” Smith said. “Akrapoint was built to meet this growing need, pairing disciplined underwriting with KKR’s long-term capital so mid-ticket equipment operators have a financing partner they can count on through every cycle.”
Daniel Pietrzak, Partner and Global Head of Private Credit at KKR, added, “As reshoring, electrification and supply chain resilience drive a multi-year capital spending cycle, demand for essential equipment keeps climbing. Akrapoint’s asset-backed cash flows offer compelling downside protection that aligns well with our long-term capital, and we believe Nate, Gary and their team are well positioned to build a leading platform in the space.”
Nomura Securities International served as financial advisor in connection with the transaction, and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to KKR.
