Reliance Partners Announces Investment from Carousel Capital

August 29, 2022, Chattanooga, TN — Reliance Partners, LLC (“Reliance” or the “Company”), a leading commercial insurance broker serving the transportation industry, announced today that Carousel Capital (“Carousel”) has partnered with Reliance management and Lamp Post Group to recapitalize the Company.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, Reliance is the fastest organically growing commercial insurance broker in the United States with nearly $500 million in gross written premiums. The Company specializes exclusively in commercial transportation risk management solutions, a unique differentiator within the highly fragmented insurance brokerage industry. Through its deep domain expertise, customer-centric sales approach and innovative technology, Reliance provides access to a full suite of insurance solutions to over 8,000 truck fleets and freight brokerage customers across the United States.

Reliance boasts an incredibly diverse employee base with over 25 nationalities represented and 30 languages spoken, allowing the Company to better serve an increasingly diverse network of transportation customers. Reliance strives to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture that values ambition and drive, providing employees with the tools necessary to succeed and challenge the status quo in the transportation insurance marketplace.

“We chose Carousel because of their partnership approach, our alignment on strategy for growth, and their ability to help us achieve our goal of reaching $1+ billion in premiums in the next 3 years,” said Andrew Ladebauche, CEO of Reliance. Chad Eichelberger, President of Reliance, added, “Our company is at an inflection point, and after getting to know Carousel over the past two years, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with them for both financial support as well as strategic guidance. Their experience fits perfectly with our strategy, where we are today as a company, and where we want to take Reliance over the next decade.”

“We were drawn to this partnership due to the strength of the team, their unparalleled track record of organic growth, differentiated sales strategy, and customer-centric focus. Reliance is the leading domain expert in transportation risk management in the U.S., and is uniquely positioned within a very large and fragmented market. We are thrilled to partner with management and help the Company accelerate and achieve its growth objectives,” said Al Welch, Partner at Carousel Capital. “The opportunity with Reliance and management intersects so well with our past experience in insurance services, insurtech, and transportation,” added Jason Schmidly, Managing Partner at Carousel Capital. “This partnership represents our continued belief in an underlying theme in insurance services – technological innovation drives efficiency and facilitates a better experience for all stakeholders.”

“We are beyond proud of the Reliance team and what they have accomplished over the course of our partnership and are excited to continue as investors to support the business,” said Lamp Post Group Co-Founder Ted Alling.

The partnership was funded with equity from Carousel Capital’s sixth fund. Senior debt financing was provided by Apogem Capital. K&L Gates served as legal advisor to Carousel and Bradley served as legal advisor to Reliance.

About Reliance Partners

Reliance Partners is a high-growth commercial insurance agency in the United States and a top tier provider of a wide range of insurance products and risk management services for the transportation and logistics industry. For more than 10 years, Reliance has been providing solutions for safeguarding the supply chain networks that drive the American economy forward.

About Carousel Capital

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Carousel Capital is a private investment firm that invests in companies located in the Southeastern United States. Carousel’s investor base includes institutional investors and an elite group of more than 100 current and former CEOs with deep connections in the region. Since its inception in 1996, Carousel has invested in 49 companies primarily in three targeted growth sectors: business services; consumer services; and healthcare services.