Built by operators.
Backed by families.
Ai native.
The alternative to traditional private equity.
Alverna Partners is dedicated to acquiring and growing industrial businesses across North America. We focus on long-term growth, strengthening operations, and building enduring value. We are committed to partnering with each business to ensure sustainable success over the long term. We invest alongside our partners, ensuring we share both commitment and opportunity. We align our long-term goals with the businesses we grow, fostering enduring value for everyone involved.
“We spent three decades on the floor, in the boardroom, and at the negotiating table building a real business from scratch. That experience is what we bring to every acquisition.”
— Jarred Knecht, Co-Founder
Philosophy
How we think about
ownership
Our ownership philosophy is shaped by years of hands-on experience in building, scaling, and ultimately exiting a real business. Our operational experience drives every decision, ensuring we build with purpose and execution in mind.
“Financial discipline gives you the foundation. Building a business requires experience and execution. That is our advantage.”
— Brandon Knecht, Co-Founder
- 01
Patience is our edge
Permanent capital with no fund lifecycle forcing a sale. We compound through cycles, and support management through hard years.
- 02
Operations over financial engineering
We create value by improving businesses: talent, pricing discipline, go-to-market clarity, technology integration, operating systems. Financial rigour is our foundation, but operators is our edge.
- 03
Structure follows the situation
Every transaction is designed around what the seller needs. Majority buyout, recapitalization, minority growth, we honour the complexity of a lifetime’s work in how we structure every deal.
- 04
Legacy matters
For most founders, a sale involves employees, customers, community, and identity built over decades. We take those obligations seriously before and long after closing. We know exactly what that feels like, because we lived it.
Our Investment Thesis
We’re here to build,
not to exit.
Our long-term focus ensures we can execute and build value over time. We are young and not winding down. We intend to build a portfolio of industrial businesses that the Knecht family can own and grow for the next decades.
- Reshoring & Nearshoring
- Industrial Technology
- Supply Chain Resilience
- AI-Driven Operations
- North American Manufacturing
Alverna is committed to generational growth.
Most industrial business owners spend decades building something extraordinary. They then hand it to investors thinking about their next fund, not the next generation. We are a second-generation family that just navigated our own major exit. We are now building Alverna as our third-generation platform with the energy, technology fluency, and long-horizon thinking to match.
We are technologically fluent in ways that matter operationally: AI-driven process improvement, digital sales and marketing, data-led supply chain management. These are tools we use and understand, and they give the businesses we back a real, compounding edge.
For Owners, Founders and Families
You've spent decades building something real.
We treat it that way.
Most acquirers see your business as a spreadsheet. We see the employees who have been with you for fifteen years or decades, the customers who call you by name, and the reputation you’ve spent a lifetime earning. Because we’ve been in your seat and we know exactly what’s at stake.
Why Business Owners Choose Alverna
A different kind
of partnership.
- 01
We've been in your seat
The Knecht family scaled Promark Electronics from a Montréal manufacturing floor to a global exit to Cerberus-backed ECI (three decades, two generations). We know what it means to build, struggle, grow, and navigate a major exit.
- 02
Our investors are family offices, like you
Every dollar we manage comes from family offices. These are families who have built wealth through business, think in decades, and understand what genuine patient capital means.
- 03
We succeed with flexible deal construct
We know all businesses and acquisitions are not made equal. This is why we are flexible with our deal structures to accommodate the needs of the seller.
- 04
You speak directly with decision-makers
There is no committee between you and the answer. The people you meet in the first conversation are the people who write the cheque. Faster process, cleaner communication, genuine accountability from day one.
- 05
We honour what you built
Culture, team, brand, name on the door. These things matter to us because they mattered to us when we sold our own business. We make commitments on continuity that we keep, because we know exactly how much they mean.
- 06
Built for growth
We’re building Alverna with the long-term in mind, ensuring our horizons align with the businesses we grow. With decades of energy ahead of us, we are just getting started, ready to partner for the long haul, not winding down.
What We Do
Capital & capability,
together.
We pursue control and minority acquisitions across North American industrials: manufacturing, value-added distribution, and industrial services. Where our operating depth and technology fluency drive real, compounding improvement.
Focus Area 01
Founder Transitions & Succession
We acquire businesses from founders and families navigating retirement, succession, or a desire for liquidity while preserving continuity. We specialize in keeping what matters intact: people, culture, and the name above the door.
Focus Area 02
Industrial Platform Building
We build platforms in fragmented industrial sectors by combining disciplined acquisitions with operational modernization, leveraging technology to create businesses that compete at a higher level than their individual parts ever could.
Focus Area 03
Growth Capital Partnerships
For founders who want a capable partner without a full exit. We provide growth capital alongside genuine operating counsel, helping industrial businesses scale into their next phase while founders retain meaningful ownership and leadership.
Leadership
Operators first.
Investors second.
Jarred Knecht, CPA, MBA
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Jarred is an operator with deep roots in advanced manufacturing, shaped by a 40+ year family history in industrial businesses. He previously served as President of Promark Electronics, his family company, supporting customers across defense, medical, aerospace, and energy markets.
Following its sale to private equity, he partnered to acquire and scale additional manufacturing businesses, helping build a multi-entity platform that was sold for $1.9B in 2025. He was recognized as an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2022.
Jarred is a CPA with an MBA from the John Molson School of Business. He combines financial discipline with hands-on operating experience and shares practical insights on business, investing, and execution.
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Brandon Knecht , CPA
Co-Founder & Partner
Brandon is a seasoned finance and operations executive with over 15 years of experience driving growth and strategic transformation in family-owned and private equity-backed businesses. Brandon served as Vice-President at Promark Electronics, where he oversaw finance, supply chain, and corporate strategy. His expertise lies in long-term value creation initiatives. Earlier in his career, Brandon served Chief Operating Officer at Ben & Florentine Restaurants (TSX: MTY), where he played a key role in scaling the restaurant franchise to 50 locations. Brandon has successfully led the sale of two privately held family businesses. Brandon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and a Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. He earned his Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) designation in 2011 and began his career at Ernst & Young.
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Robert Knecht
Co-Founder & Partner
Robert Knecht is an operations-focused business leader with over a decade of experience across industrial, manufacturing, and automotive sectors. With more than ten years in the automotive industry, he led transformative initiatives, restructuring leadership and optimizing operations. At Promark Electronics, he managed a team of 300 and played a key role in securing a long-term defense contract. He was instrumental in both the successful exit of Promark to Electrical Components International and the transition into new ownership. Through his disciplined, hands-on approach, he consistently drove operational excellence and long-term value creation.
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Investment Criteria & Strategy
What we look
for in a business.
We focus on North American industrial businesses, durable customer relationships, and owners who care about what comes next. The fit matters as much as the financials.
- 01
North American industrials
Manufacturing, value-added distribution, and industrial services in Canada and the United States, the sectors where our operating credibility and network run deepest.
- 02
Defensible market position
Long-term customer relationships, switching costs, geographic advantage, proprietary process, or a reputation built over decades that a competitor cannot simply replicate.
- 03
Technology upside available
Businesses with strong foundations that can be meaningfully modernized where AI-driven processes, digital tools, or operational technology can create a compounding advantage.
- 04
A seller who cares about continuity
We work best with founders and families who want the business to thrive after they step back, who see us as stewards of what they built, not just a buyer writing a cheque.
Transaction Parameters
Family office capital. Operator discipline.
We structure majority buyouts, minority growth investments, partial recapitalizations, and seller liquidity events. We move quickly, use permanent capital, and don’t require committees that add weeks to every decision.
Target EBITDA
$5M – $50M
Transaction types
Control & minority
Capital source
Family offices
Geography
Canada & United States
How to Connect
Let’s Build Together.
General Inquiries
- Jarred: jarred@alvernapartners.com
- Brandon: brandon@alvernapartners.com
- Robert: robert@alvernapartners.com