Chicago-based Prosperity Partners (Prosperity), a tax, client accounting and transaction support services firm employing 250 people across nine offices, will receive a majority growth investment from New York-based private equity firm Lightyear Capital (Lightyear). Unity Partners (Unity), which previously invested in April 2023, will retain a minority stake. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Mark Vassallo, MP of Lightyear, says, “Prosperity marks Lightyear’s seventh investment in tech-enabled business services. Our strategy is to partner with strong management teams of growing companies and help them continue to institutionalize their businesses, accelerate their growth organically and inorganically and create enduring enterprise value. We are excited about our investment in Prosperity given the strong growth tailwinds in the high-net-worth space, and Prosperity’s sterling reputation.”
Jay Comerford, Partner at Lightyear, says, “Prosperity operates in a growth market, is a differentiated company with highly recurring revenue and outstanding client relationships and is run by an impressive leadership team. The Company has developed a specialized model, positioning itself as a leader in the fast-growing high-net-worth advisory market. We are excited to partner with the entire Prosperity team and Unity to help drive continued growth through investments in talent, automation and technology solutions and strategic M&A.”
“As we enter our next stage of growth supported by Lightyear, we are eager to pursue our strategic goals and to continue to provide premier services to high-net-worth individuals, family offices and closely held businesses,” said Jeremy Dubow, CEO and Co-Founder of Prosperity. “With significant employee growth and enhancements to key processes, systems and services, I am proud of everything we have achieved alongside Unity Partners and am ecstatic for our employees to reap the rewards of our Employee Purpose Plan.”
Launched concurrently with Unity’s initial investment in Prosperity, the Prosperity Employee Purpose Plan, a broad-based employee ownership program, will distribute approximately $18 million in proceeds across the employee base. Lightyear and Prosperity have agreed to continue an employee ownership program for qualifying employees.
“We thank Jeremy and the team for all we accomplished together over the past three years, including completing nine strategic add-ons, expanding service lines and making significant investments in technology and offshoring,” said Peter Cozzi, Investment Team Lead at Unity Partners.
Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, which advised Prosperity on the transaction, said Prosperity was among the first accounting firms to partner with private equity at a time when most private equity investors were focused on much larger accounting firms. “When Unity Partners invested three years ago, Prosperity was a $10 million firm,” Koltin said. “Today, it’s more than an $80 million firm and one of the accounting profession’s fastest-growing private equity-backed firms. Lightyear’s investment reflects how much the business has grown and where it’s headed next.”
