Michael Rakiter

Michael Rakiter is a seasoned private equity investor who currently serves as Principal, Discovery at Trivest Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm that invests exclusively in founder- and family-owned businesses. He joined Trivest in September 2023 and works on the firm's Discovery Fund strategy, which targets smaller lower-middle-market platforms (roughly $1M–$4M EBITDA) in fragmented industries. In that role he is responsible for analyzing investment opportunities, identifying strategic acquisition targets, and monitoring existing portfolio companies.

Prior to Trivest, Rakiter spent nearly a decade (September 2014–September 2023) as a Partner at Delos Capital, a New York City lower-middle-market private equity firm focused on partnering with family- and founder-owned businesses. There he completed numerous control transactions across a broad range of industries, including industrials, building/construction materials, and environmental services. Before Delos, he was a member of Rothschild's New York-based Restructuring Group, where he advised debtors, creditors, and private equity sponsors on restructuring transactions (he began his career there as an Analyst and later returned as a Senior Associate in restructuring).

Earlier in his career he worked as an Associate at Cerberus Capital Management, focusing on middle- and large-market private equity as well as distressed and special-situation opportunities across the technology, business services, and consumer sectors, and as Vice President of Portfolio Management at Syncora Holdings / Syncora Guarantee, a bond insurer, where he focused on the restructuring of distressed credits and capital planning.

Rakiter earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance, with honors, from the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business (2007). He is based in the Miami area.

• Invests in established, cash-flow-positive operating companies, not early-stage startups — the "angel / seed round" framing in the source stub does not match his actual practice.
• At Trivest's Discovery Fund, targets founder- and family-owned businesses in fragmented industries with strong potential to scale through a "buy-and-build" add-on acquisition strategy.
• Pursues majority/control buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth investments rather than minority venture stakes.
• Trivest's stated qualitative criteria (which frame his mandate): fragmented markets, strong management, sustainable competitive advantage, attractive cash-flow characteristics, leading market share, diversified customer base, and reasonable growth prospects.
• Deep background in restructuring, distressed, and special situations (Rothschild, Cerberus, Syncora), giving him a value/downside-protection orientation alongside growth.