Riviera Partners, a leading retained search firm specializing in placements of executive leadership in engineering, product and design talent, today announced that it has closed a minority investment of $25 million led by the growth equity teams at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and ROCA Partners. The financing will be used to fund Riviera Partners' continued geographic expansion, strategic acquisitions, enhancements to its Sutro proprietary recruiting platform, and to add expert staff to meet the increased demand for its services.

"Technological advancement is the most important driver of company growth and value creation," said Will Hunsinger, CEO of Riviera Partners. "Riviera places technology leaders that power this transformation for companies of all sizes, enabling them to deliver products and services that serve customers better than ever before. We have the most experienced, data-driven recruiting team in the industry, a powerful platform that speeds the process, and the best candidate relationships. Our partners choose Riviera because of our proven track record, and they are confident that by working with us, they'll make a great hire."

Riviera regularly places the most sought-after, proven tech leaders in the most interesting companies with the greatest potential. These executives are able to build products and services that deliver unparalleled value. The firm works with companies at all stages, and with roughly half of the "Tech Unicorns" -- privately held startup companies valued at over $1 billion. Riviera has completed thousands of searches for A-List clients such as Asana, Dropbox, GitHub, DoorDash, Hulu, Pinterest, Uber and others.

Through sophisticated, machine learning algorithms, Riviera Partners identifies specialized, highly-qualified candidates that fit an organization's needs from 600,000 professionals in the most important tech geographies. Riviera can often provide a short list of exceptional candidates in 30 days and has a track record of over 95% success rate.

"Kayne targets high growth companies that bring game changing software, processes and analytics to industries that are often behind the technology curve. In the same way that advanced analytics changed the game of baseball, we believe that Riviera's proprietary technology and processes are changing the way executive recruiting is done. We are thrilled to become an integral part of helping them grow during this exciting time," said Nishita Cummings, partner, Kayne Partners Fund.

In addition to its headquarters in San Francisco, the firm is rapidly expanding in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Bozeman. It now has over 90 team members across the nation, and regularly works with the tech industry's most accomplished venture capital, private equity and growth equity firms as well as CEOs of growing companies.

"We are excited to partner with the Riviera team given their collaborative, results-oriented culture and commitment to providing best-in-class service to their clients. With this growth investment, Riviera can continue to enhance its technology platform, which enables its recruiters to deliver superior service and outcomes for its clients," said Ravi Sarin of ROCA partners.

Alantra served as Riviera's financial advisor to Riviera Partners on the transaction.

About Riviera Partners

Riviera Partners is a key driver of innovation for today's most influential companies by expertly placing executive talent in the crucial areas of software engineering, product management and design. By combining nearly two decades of recruiting expertise with a proprietary platform that uses machine learning to score and predict the best candidate for a company's specific needs, Riviera is the go-to talent partner for leading venture capitalists and technology innovators. Learn more about what Riviera Partners can do for your business at www.rivierapartners.com

About Kayne Partners

Kayne Partners, the dedicated growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., is a leading provider of capital and connections to privately held, high growth, enterprise software and tech-enabled service businesses in North America. The Kayne Partners team has invested over $500 million in platform investments and add-on acquisitions together across four funds. Kayne Partners seeks to partner with driven entrepreneurs and provide capital to high growth companies at a transformative point in their life cycle in the following industries: security & compliance, supply chain & logistics, financials, industrials, healthcare, and media & telecom. For more information, visit https://kaynecapital.com/growth-equity/

About Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P.

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., founded in 1984, is a leading alternative investment management firm focused on niche investing in upstream oil and gas companies, energy and infrastructure, specialized real estate, growth equity and both private credit and diversified liquid credit. Kayne Anderson manages $30 billion in assets (as of March 2019) and employs over 350 professionals in five core offices across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.kaynecapital.com

About ROCA Partners

ROCA Partners is a Los-Angeles-based private equity investment firm focused on providing leading technology-enabled services and healthcare services companies with flexible capital and operational resources to accelerate growth. www.rocapartners.com