Two former private equity executives, Jim TenBroek and Scott Peters, have teamed up to launch a middle-market PE firmed called Growth Catalyst Partners LLC. “Our strategy is to partner with leading executives and companies in our sectors, and to act as a catalyst for accelerating growth, both organic and through add-on acquisition opportunities,” states managing partner Peters.

GCP, headquartered in Chicago, will target buyout investments in marketing and information, media, and business service sectors. The firm will focus on acquiring companies with Ebitda between $3 million and $12 million. GCP has already made its first investment in Opus Agency, a full-service corporate events agency based in Beaverton, Oregon. Serving the technology sector, Opus Agency is a brand events and marketing firm that provides strategy, creative, production, event management and promotional marketing services. Opus Agency has helped concept and plan events with companies such as Dell Inc., Intel Corp. and EMC Corp.

TenBroek, a former managing director at Wind Point Partners, has approximately 23 years of private equity experience in the middle market. He spent nearly 20 of those years with Wind Point, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Before joining Wind Point Partners, TenBroek spent three years with GTCR.

Peters’ private equity experience includes more than 18 years with The Jordan Edmiston Group Inc., a middle-market investment banking firm for the media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors. Prior to joining Jordan, Peters spent four years with private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

GCP’s backing of Opus Agency reinforces private equity firms’ interest in business services technology companies. Quad-C Management recently closed a $1.1 billion private equity fund to back companies in the business services sector and Vector Capital also raised its fifth PE fund with $1.4 billion capital commitments to target technology investments.