DC Capital Partners acquires unmanned avionics provider

Private equity firm DC Capital Partners has acquired UAvionix, a manufacturer of small-form factor avionic products for use on manned and unmanned aircraft so they can fly in U.S. civilian airspace.

No terms of the transaction announced Thursday were disclosed, but DC Capital said this represents the second acquisition for its third fund that is still being raised. That fund supported the August 2021 acquisition of Sionyx Corp., a maker of silicon-based photonics.

UAvionix was founded in 2005 to provide communications, navigation and surveillance avionics that support the safe integration of unmanned aerial systems into national airspace, as well as help customers in the management of that airspace.

“Our goal is connecting everything that flies, and our current general aviation and UAS avionics products are an important aspect of that,” UAvionix CEO Paul Beard said in a release.

“(DC Capital’s) experience in maturing young companies will help us to improve our internal operations, allowing us to expand our solutions to existing, adjacent and defense markets, while enabling us to scale globally.”

UAvionix has dual headquarters in Leesburg, Virginia and Bigfork, Montana. Investment bank Houlihan Lokey acted as their financial adviser for the transaction.

The company touts its specialty as in the miniaturization and certification of low-size, weight and power products that include transponders, transceivers, receivers, command and control solutions, multi-function panel displays, autopilots and GPS products.

DC Capital Partners is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and buys controlling interest in middle-tier companies that operate in the government and engineering markets.

Some of the other government technology and services companies owned by DC Capital include Acuity International, Digital Force Technologies, Hill Technical Solutions and Owl Cyber Defense.

All of those acquisitions took place through DC Capital’s second fund, while the purchase of Acuity was supported by the first fund in addition to the second.