NAVASOTA, TX / ACCESS Newswire / July 8, 2026 / Raises.com is pleased to announce the successful closing of the inaugural acquisition of an operator-led roll-up platform founded by Cody Sechelski, with the controlled buyout of a profitable Texas-based heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services business. The transaction marks the first completed acquisition in what is intended to be a multi-deal roll-up of family-operated service businesses across Texas and the broader Gulf Coast. The transaction was funded by a multi-tranche capital structure that combined an institutional senior credit facility with a structured seller-financing instrument designed to preserve long-term founder participation. Tre Brown, Head of Capital Markets at Raises.com, worked closely with Mr. Sechelski over the course of the engagement to negotiate and structure an equity-light transaction that allowed the buyer to acquire control of the platform with minimal sponsor cash equity at closing, source the senior lender, and architect the seller-financing instrument that ultimately enabled the closing. The buyer was originally onboarded to the Raises.com platform by Keneil Clarke, the firm's first point of contact for incoming operator-led acquirers, who introduced Mr. Sechelski to the advisory team. Tre Brown, Head of Capital Markets at Raises.com, served as the buyer's deal-structuring and capital advisor throughout the engagement and personally led the transaction from initial lender outreach through closing. Raises.com, the capital advisory firm built on the founding vision of Natu Myers, supported the engagement with its broader capital-markets platform and lender relationships. Transaction terms were privately negotiated.
The closing marks the inaugural platform acquisition under Cody Sechelski's operator-led roll-up strategy, which targets profitable, family-operated service businesses across Texas and the broader Gulf Coast. The acquired company is an established provider of HVAC installation, service, and maintenance work with a diversified residential and commercial customer base, a deep service-agreement footprint, and a tenured operating team. The acquisition is structured to preserve operational continuity, retain key personnel, and provide the founder of the acquired business with optional re-entry into the post-closing capitalization through a contractually defined participation right. With the inaugural transaction now successfully closed, the platform is actively progressing on additional pipeline opportunities.
The capital structure was engineered to align the lender's underwriting framework with the founder's long-term economic participation while preserving a clean closing-day capitalization. The result is a stack that delivers institutional credit on terms appropriate to the asset, founder-aligned seller paper subordinated to the senior facility, and an optionality feature that allows the founder to re-enter the equity column at his election. The structuring approach has applicability across a broader set of lower-middle-market service-business acquisitions in which preserving the founder's economic stake is central to the deal.
Senior debt financing for the transaction was provided by US Strategic Capital Advisors, LLC ("USSC"). Candler Cook, Senior Vice President at USSC, led the credit facility on behalf of the institutional lender and was the expert relationship driving the financing from initial diligence through closing. The underwriting and closing process demonstrated, in real time, the value experienced deal advisors bring to a transaction when the path to closing is anything but straightforward. The transaction was completed following an in-person facility visit by the senior lender's investment team to the company's Texas operations
Founded on the vision of Natu Myers, Raises.com has built a distinct franchise advising operator-led buyers on the structuring, sourcing, and closing of acquisition transactions across the lower middle market. The firm has become known for the discipline of its capital-raising process, the creativity of its seller-paper engineering, and the willingness of its team to architect bespoke late-stage workarounds that keep transactions alive when conventional structures break. The transaction was led day-to-day on the Raises.com side by Tre Brown, Head of Capital Markets, who served as the buyer's primary deal-structuring and capital advisor on the engagement and personally managed the lender sourcing process, the dataroom, the diligence cycle, and the late-stage negotiations and structural refinements that ultimately enabled the closing.
"This closing reflects exactly the kind of structured-credit and seller-financing work we built Raises.com to deliver: disciplined capital sourcing, a defensible capital stack, and a creative restructuring path when one is required. Our edge is the ability to keep a deal alive in the worst week of the process, when most platforms would have walked away. We are proud to have advised this operator-led buyer in completing a transaction that lays the foundation for a long-term acquisition platform in the specialty trades sector, and that demonstrates, again, that creative structure beats brute force every time," said Natu Myers, Founder of Raises.com.
"This is the successful inaugural acquisition of our roll-up platform, and working with the Raises.com team changed the trajectory of the transaction. They sourced the right capital partner, designed a structure that worked for both the seller and the lender, and when the deal nearly fell apart in the last few weeks, they engineered the workaround that ultimately got us to a wire. I would not have closed this first acquisition without Tre and the team, and we are already moving on the next deals in the pipeline together," said Cody Sechelski, founder of the acquiring holding company and the operator leading the roll-up.
"From the first dataroom build to the final closing checklist, the goal was always the same: protect the buyer's economics, respect the founder's legacy, and present the lender a stack their committee could underwrite without hesitation. The result is a closing that every party at the table can be proud of," said Tre Brown, Head of Capital Markets at Raises.com, who led the firm's work on the transaction.
Raises.com remains active in advising independent sponsors, family-office buyers, and operator-led holding companies on structured acquisition financing, seller-paper engineering, and capital-stack design for transactions across the lower middle market.
www.raises.com
About Raises.com
Raises.com is a capital advisory firm founded and led by Natu Myers, focused on helping independent sponsors, operator-led holding companies, and family-office acquirers source, structure, and close acquisition transactions across the lower middle market. Raises.com advises on debt and equity capital raises, structured seller-paper engineering, capital-stack design, and the end-to-end orchestration of acquisition closings. The firm brings access to a network of senior lenders, specialty credit funds, private capital partners, and bespoke capital sources, and has deep experience working with operator-led buyers acquiring profitable family-run businesses across the specialty trades, services, and lower-middle-market industrial sectors.
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This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Specific transaction terms, parties, and structures are confidential and have not been disclosed beyond the information set forth herein. Securities-related services, where applicable, are offered through duly registered broker-dealer affiliates. Raises.com and any such broker-dealer affiliates are separate entities.
SOURCE: Raises.com
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/raises.comr-advises-on-successful-inaugural-acquisition-of-a-texas-b-1174449
