Bonderman’s Wildcat Family Office Bulks Up Its Wager on U.S. Car Washes

(Bloomberg) -- David Bonderman’s Wildcat Capital Management invested in Rapid Express Car Wash, adding to a portfolio of similar deals that has made the $4.5 billion family office one of the largest car-wash backers in the U.S.

Houston-based Rapid Express manages 17 sites in central and south Texas and is developing an additional 25, according to a statement from both companies. Wildcat previously invested in Club Car Wash, which has locations in states including Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and Express Wash Concepts, which is based in Ohio. 

The three companies combined represent the fifth-largest U.S. car wash platform, with more than 130 sites. Collectively, they plan to more than double their number of locations over the next two years.

“Wildcat continues to pursue its strategy of partnering with the highest quality, development driven operators in different regions of the country,” Drew Tarlow, managing director at Wildcat, said in the statement.

The car-wash business has seen a flurry of deals. Earlier this month, Mammoth Holdings acquired Shine-N-Go Car Wash. In December, private equity firm Percheron Capital agreed to buy a majority stake in Caliber Car Wash. 

Some Wall Street firms have an optimistic view of the business model. Morgan Stanley on Tuesday upgraded Mister Car Wash, which operates more than 360 U.S. locations, based on its view that service-based companies will perform well in 2022.

Bonderman, 79, is co-founder of private equity giant TPG Inc, which debuted as a public company last week. He’s worth $6.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bonderman set up New York-based Wildcat in 2011 to manage his own fortune and cater to a small group of friends and relatives. 

It’s overseen by Len Potter, who previously managed private equity investments for George Soros, and has invested in hedge funds, fertility clinics and tech firms. It held $772 million in U.S. equities at the end of the third quarter, including mobile games platform Skillz Inc. and e-vapor RLX Technology Inc.

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