Montage Partners Exits Advantco in Strategic Sale to Argano

Montage Partners has successfully exited its investment in Advantco International, a Charlotte-based provider of enterprise integration software, selling the company to Argano LLC, a portfolio company of Dallas-based Trinity Hunt Partners. The transaction, announced January 20, 2026, marks Montage's third exit of 2025 and positions Advantco within a larger platform focused on AI-driven business transformation. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal underscores continued consolidation in the enterprise integration software market, where specialized providers of adapters and middleware solutions are being absorbed into broader technology services platforms. For Montage Partners, a lower mid-market firm managing $80 million in capital, the exit validates its founder-friendly investment approach and demonstrates the firm's ability to execute succession planning transactions that preserve company culture while delivering growth.

Source: Montage Partners

Argano acquired Advantco from Montage Partners in a transaction that deepens the buyer's enterprise connectivity expertise and expands its Data and Integration practice. Montage originally invested in Advantco in 2019 alongside incoming CEO Nick Persavich, facilitating a leadership transition while keeping founder Michael Le involved as a board member.

The acquisition enhances Argano's capabilities in SAP and Oracle integration solutions, adding proprietary adapter technology and custom development services that enable Fortune 500 enterprises to streamline data flows across platforms including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Salesforce.

For Argano, the acquisition addresses a critical need in enterprise digital transformation: seamless connectivity between legacy systems and modern cloud platforms. As companies accelerate AI adoption and multi-cloud strategies, the ability to integrate disparate enterprise applications becomes foundational infrastructure rather than a technical afterthought.

"Together with Argano, we're empowering clients not only to connect their most critical systems, but to transform how those systems drive performance in an AI-forward, connected enterprise world," the companies stated in the acquisition announcement.

The strategic logic centers on three pillars. First, Advantco's proprietary adapters handle complex integration workloads that enterprises struggle to manage with generic middleware solutions. Second, the company's expertise in SAP and Oracle environments—systems that remain entrenched in large enterprises despite cloud migration efforts—provides Argano with differentiated capabilities in mission-critical integration scenarios. Third, the acquisition expands Argano's addressable market by adding integration IP that can be deployed across its existing client base.

For Montage Partners, the exit represents a successful execution of its founder-friendly investment thesis. The firm invested in 2019 specifically to support a leadership transition, bringing in Persavich as CEO while maintaining Le's involvement as an advisor. "The partnership with Montage Partners allowed for a smooth ownership transition and continuity for our customers and team," Le noted in the announcement.

Jordan Tate, co-Managing Partner at Montage Partners, emphasized the cultural fit: "Nick has been a valuable partner and instrumental in the growth and success of Advantco. We've enjoyed working with Nick, Michael, and the rest of the Advantco team."

Founded in 2007 by Michael Le, Advantco built its business around a focused value proposition: providing proprietary integration software and custom development services that enable enterprises to connect complex application ecosystems. The company's core offering consists of adapters—specialized software components that facilitate data exchange between enterprise systems—and professional services to implement and customize those integrations.

Advantco's client base consists primarily of Fortune 500 enterprises operating SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Salesforce environments. These companies face a common challenge: legacy enterprise resource planning systems that must communicate with modern cloud applications, often across multiple cloud providers and on-premises infrastructure.

The company's differentiation lies in handling integration scenarios that generic middleware platforms struggle to address—complex data transformations, high-volume transaction processing, and mission-critical workflows where integration failures create operational disruptions.

Under Persavich's leadership since 2019, Advantco focused on developing adapters for increasingly complex integration workloads. "Our team has spent years developing adapters that handle some of the most complex integration workloads," Persavich said. "Becoming part of Argano gives us the platform to continue that work with additional resources and reach."

The enterprise integration software market has undergone significant evolution as companies navigate digital transformation initiatives. Traditional point-to-point integration approaches have given way to platform-based strategies, with integration platform as a service (iPaaS) solutions gaining traction for cloud-native applications.

However, a persistent challenge remains: integrating legacy enterprise systems—particularly SAP and Oracle ERP platforms—with modern cloud infrastructure. These systems process critical business operations but weren't designed for the API-driven, multi-cloud architectures that now define enterprise IT.

This creates opportunity for specialized integration providers like Advantco. While generic iPaaS platforms handle straightforward cloud-to-cloud integrations, complex scenarios involving legacy systems, high transaction volumes, and custom business logic require deeper expertise and purpose-built adapters.

The market has seen steady M&A activity as larger technology services firms acquire specialized integration capabilities. Strategic buyers recognize that integration expertise becomes more valuable as enterprises pursue AI initiatives—which require unified data across disparate systems—and multi-cloud strategies that increase architectural complexity.

Private equity interest in the sector reflects attractive unit economics: integration software typically generates recurring revenue through licensing and maintenance contracts, while professional services provide additional margin. Companies with proprietary IP and deep expertise in specific platforms (SAP, Oracle) command premium valuations due to high switching costs and the mission-critical nature of their solutions.

Argano positions itself as "the world's first and largest Global Specialist Consultancy exclusively focused on the design and delivery of High-Performance Business Operations with an AI-forward approach to transformation." The company provides technology services focused on enterprise performance optimization, with particular strength in SAP, Oracle, and enterprise application implementations.

As a Trinity Hunt Partners portfolio company, Argano has pursued an active acquisition strategy to expand its service capabilities and geographic reach. Trinity Hunt, a Dallas-based middle-market private equity firm managing over $1.5 billion in assets, focuses on building leading business, healthcare, and consumer services companies through organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

In 2024, Trinity Hunt raised a $618 million continuation fund specifically to support Argano and Improving, another technology services portfolio company, signaling the firm's conviction in Argano's growth trajectory and providing capital for follow-on acquisitions like Advantco.

The continuation fund structure—where a PE firm transfers portfolio companies from one fund to another while bringing in new investors—has become increasingly common as firms seek to extend hold periods for high-performing assets. For Argano, this structure provides patient capital to execute a buy-and-build strategy in the fragmented technology services market.

Trinity Hunt's investment thesis centers on consolidating specialized capabilities within larger platforms that can cross-sell services and achieve operational efficiencies. The Advantco acquisition fits this playbook: adding integration IP and SAP/Oracle expertise that Argano can deploy across its existing client relationships while leveraging Advantco's Fortune 500 customer base for broader service offerings.

The Advantco exit represents the third successful realization for Montage Partners in 2025, following exits from Equity Methods (sold to HGGC in April 2025) and Puroflux (sold to Purgo Holdings in October 2025). This exit velocity demonstrates the firm's ability to execute its investment strategy and return capital to limited partners.

Montage Partners operates in the lower mid-market segment, targeting companies with $1.5 million to $7 million in EBITDA across technology and professional services, healthcare, industrial products and services, and consumer sectors. The firm's differentiated approach emphasizes founder-friendly transactions—often facilitating succession planning, leadership transitions, or providing liquidity while maintaining operational continuity.

The Advantco investment exemplified this strategy. Montage invested in 2019 specifically to support a leadership transition from founder Le to incoming CEO Persavich, structuring the transaction to keep Le involved as a board member and maintaining the company's culture and customer relationships.

"Montage Partners has been a valuable partner in our journey, ensuring we had the financial resources and liquidity to pursue key growth initiatives," Persavich noted, highlighting the firm's operational support beyond capital provision.

With $30 million of committed capital available to deploy in 2026, Montage continues seeking similar opportunities—established businesses where founders or management teams need capital and strategic support to navigate transitions or accelerate growth.

The firm's track record of successful exits enhances its positioning for future deal sourcing. In the lower mid-market, where personal relationships and reputation significantly influence transaction dynamics, demonstrating the ability to execute founder-friendly transitions and deliver successful outcomes creates competitive advantage in a crowded market.

The Advantco acquisition signals several broader trends in enterprise technology M&A. First, specialized integration capabilities command strategic value as enterprises pursue AI initiatives that require unified data architectures. Companies that can bridge legacy systems and modern cloud platforms provide foundational infrastructure for digital transformation.

Second, the transaction reflects continued consolidation in technology services, where larger platforms acquire point solutions to expand service offerings and cross-sell opportunities. For private equity-backed platforms like Argano, this buy-and-build strategy enables rapid capability expansion and market share gains in fragmented sectors.

Third, the deal validates the lower mid-market PE strategy of partnering with founders on succession planning and leadership transitions. Montage's ability to facilitate a smooth transition in 2019 and exit successfully in 2026 demonstrates that founder-friendly approaches can deliver attractive returns while preserving company culture and customer relationships.

For Advantco, joining Argano provides resources to accelerate product development and expand market reach. Integration software markets favor scale—larger platforms can invest more in R&D, support more platform versions, and provide broader geographic coverage. The challenge will be maintaining the specialized expertise and customer intimacy that differentiated Advantco as an independent company.

The enterprise integration market faces both tailwinds and headwinds. AI adoption and multi-cloud strategies increase demand for sophisticated integration capabilities. However, cloud providers continue enhancing native integration tools, and low-code/no-code platforms democratize basic integration tasks. Success requires moving up-market to complex, mission-critical scenarios where specialized expertise and proprietary IP create defensible competitive positions.

The Advantco transaction underscores the ongoing evolution of enterprise technology markets, where specialized capabilities get absorbed into larger platforms pursuing comprehensive service offerings. For Montage Partners, the exit validates a differentiated investment approach focused on founder partnerships and operational continuity. For Argano and Trinity Hunt Partners, the acquisition adds critical integration IP to support an AI-forward transformation strategy. As enterprises navigate increasingly complex technology architectures, the ability to seamlessly connect disparate systems remains foundational infrastructure—making integration expertise a strategic asset worth acquiring.