Siris Forms October Capital Led by Baker With Services Focus

Technology-oriented private equity firm Siris is starting a new firm, October Capital, that will be led by Frank Baker to focus on investing in services, according to a statement provided to Bloomberg News.

The West Palm Beach, Florida-based firm said it will hone in on three critical areas: services that support the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure, physical security and financial infrastructure, which is changing with the adoption of digital assets.

“We’re going to invest in the service companies that bring these technologies to life, allowing the rubber to hit the road, so that they can be deployed and used across enterprises,” Baker said in an interview.

The changes reflect the next steps for Siris, which was started in 2011 by Baker along with Peter Berger and Jeffrey Hendren. Baker will become October Capital’s chief executive officer and managing partner, the firm said in the statement.

The three co-founders will continue to actively manage Siris’ legacy funds and portfolio companies but won’t raise a new fund together going forward, Baker said in an interview. That means Siris will still be involved in deals such as Belgium printer IT company Agfa Gevaert NV merging its digital printer solutions business with Siris-backed industrial printer company Electronics for Imaging Inc., a transaction announced last month.

“We’re proud of what we’ve built together at Siris and excited to support Frank and the October Capital team as they pursue this next chapter,” Berger and Hendren said in an emailed statement.

Baker said he will be the sole control person of the firm’s next fund, October Capital II, which could start fundraising at the end of 2027.

“Our strategy has changed,” Baker said. “At Siris, we did hardware, we did software, we did services and we had a value orientation. October is only services.”

He noted that services accounted for $3 billion of Siris’ $9.5 billion in deployed equity capital since its founding, generating some of the firm’s best outcomes.

“We’re obviously living in a time where there are massive new technologies like AI, blockchain and digital assets that are literally transforming the world,” Baker said. “Our view is the best place to invest around these mega-tech trends is in the services layer.”

October Capital has already made three investments. This year it closed an acquisition of a services provider to the energy industry called Takkion, which it expects to benefit from rising power demand and data center expansion. It also signed a deal to buy EQ Retirement Solutions as well as loan servicing platform Lenvi.

Baker, 53, began his career in the mergers and acquisition group at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He has served on several company boards, most recently becoming a director at IBM this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

He is being joined at October Capital by a team of 16 investment professionals, including managing directors Dave Calamai and Seth Harward and two principals, Kevin O’Brien and Grant Weisberg, according to the statement.

Baker said it was hard to find a name for the firm that wasn’t already taken. He ended up borrowing the name from telecommunications executive Ron Lemay, who called his family office October Capital. Baker worked with Lemay on the sale of Japan Telecom about 20 years ago when he was at Ripplewood Holdings, a firm that predated Siris.