True Wind Capital Makes Growth Investment in Sterling Capital Brokers, A Leading Canadian Tech-Enabled Benefit Consulting Platform

Partnership Will Enable Sterling to Accelerate Growth Initiatives and Invest in Innovation

SAN FRANCISCO & TORONTO – February 22, 2022 – True Wind Capital (“True Wind”), a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in leading technology companies, today announced a significant growth investment in Sterling Capital Brokers (“Sterling”), one of Canada’s leading independent benefit consulting firms that provides proprietary technology solutions to high-growth businesses and multinational enterprises. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2014, Sterling offers a comprehensive suite of bespoke employee benefit insurance solutions, including payroll integration, automatic billing reconciliation, and streamlined digital onboarding, to 1,000+ clients across Canada. Sterling’s proprietary platform provides competitive, cost-effective plans that dramatically reduce the administrative burden for both clients and carriers and seamlessly integrates into leading HRIS & payroll platforms. Sterling’s senior management team, including co-founders Stefan Ionescu and David Haines, and President John Griffin, will continue to lead the business from its Toronto, Ontario headquarters.

John Griffin, President at Sterling Capital Brokers, commented, “This investment from True Wind, our first institutional capital partner, will enable Sterling to accelerate our platform enhancements to deliver smarter, more integrated solutions to meet the large and growing demand for customizable and affordable insurance benefit options for Canadian businesses. We believe our innovative and easy to use technology platform has set an industry standard and we are excited to draw on True Wind’s considerable expertise and resources.”

Aaron Matto, a Partner at True Wind, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Sterling, which has built a differentiated suite of tech-enabled services that not only enables customized benefit solutions but also lowers costs and simplifies the administrative process for all constituents. We look forward to supporting Stefan, David, John and Sterling’s talented team by leveraging our proven capabilities in scaling technology-enabled businesses through both organic initiatives and strategic acquisitions.”

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP served as legal advisors to True Wind Capital. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP served as legal advisor to Sterling Capital Brokers.

About True Wind Capital

True Wind Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in leading technology companies. True Wind has a broad investing mandate, with deep industry expertise across software, data analytics, tech-enabled services, internet, financial technology, and hardware. Founded in 2015, True Wind has completed 12 platform investments and 20 add-on acquisitions. For more information, please visit https://www.truewindcapital.com.

About Sterling Capital Brokers

Sterling Capital Brokers was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Sterling is Canada’s largest independent benefit consulting firm that specializes in servicing small to large sized businesses and multinational enterprise clients across Canada. Sterling offers comprehensive benefit consulting and customized plan management technology services that provide its clients with rapid and bespoke solutions.

Media Contacts:

For True Wind Capital:
Nathaniel Garnick/Genna Pirrong
Gasthalter & Co.
(212) 257-4170