GreatAmerica Acquires Franchise Financing Firm IRH Capital

by Joe Panettieri • Jan 26, 2022

GreatAmerica Financial Services, which works closely with MSPs and channel partners, has acquired IRH Capital LLC, a provider of financing to franchises. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is technology M&A deal number 106 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals for 2022, 2021, and 2020 listed here.

At first glance, the GreatAmerica-IRH deal has nothing to do with the technology industry. After all, IRH typically provides financing to franchises in the restaurant sector. Names like Domino’s Pizza come to mind. Still, we wonder if the GreatAmerica Franchise Finance Division will ever dip its toes into the IT services franchise market.

After all, GreatAmerica has expansive experience supporting VARs, MSPs, office equipment dealers and other types of channel partners. Moreover, the company runs Collabrance, a master MSSP that provides cybersecurity services to MSPs.

Meanwhile, IRH Capital has provided financing to franchises for 20 years. That acquired business will now become “the cornerstone” of the GreatAmerica Franchise Finance Division, the buyer indicated. IRH principal Keith Rabin will lead the new division, reporting to GreatAmerica Senior VP and GM Brian Bjella.

GreatAmerica Business Background

The overall GreatAmerica business, backed by more than 600 employees, positions itself as the largest independent, family-owned national commercial equipment finance company in the U.S. with over $2.4 billion in assets and life-to-date finance originations of $13.5 billion.