David Hare

David Hare is a Principal at Kian Capital Partners, a Charlotte, North Carolina–based lower-middle-market private equity firm with roughly $1.1 billion of capital under management. He joined the firm in January 2018 as an Associate and has been promoted twice since — first to Vice President and, most recently, to Principal in January 2024. In his current role he is active across the full investment cycle: origination, structuring, due diligence, execution and portfolio monitoring, and he also mentors the firm's more junior professionals.

Before Kian, Hare worked as an Analyst in the investment banking group at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt financings and equity issuances for public and private companies within the Technology, Media & Telecom group. Earlier in his career he was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the financial services assurance practice.

Hare holds a Master in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Accounting and Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from the College of Charleston. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.

Note on the stub data: the figures describing David Hare as an "Associate" doing "Seed Round" "Angel" investing are out of date and inaccurate. Kian is an institutional private equity firm investing growth equity and structured capital in established, profitable companies — not early-stage startups — and Hare's current title is Principal.

• Invests in established lower-middle-market companies, not startups — generally companies with ~$10–100M of revenue and ~$3–15M of EBITDA.
• Deploys "flexible and creative capital" as either majority or minority owner, through subordinated debt and/or preferred or common equity.
• Transaction types: buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth financings, with typical equity checks around $15–40 million.
• Core sectors: essential services and value-added distribution (with historical activity in consumer, business services and specialty manufacturing).
• Targets founder/owner-operated businesses, aiming to be the company's "first institutional partner" — Kian has been named a "Founder-Friendly Investor" by *Inc.* Magazine for several consecutive years.
• In Hare's own words on the firm culture: *"Over the past five years, we have successfully maintained our culture while nearly doubling our size — a testament to the tone that our leadership sets forth."*