Stellus Capital Management, LLC (“Stellus”), a leader in middle market direct lending, announced today that its affiliates provided senior debt financing and an equity co-investment in support of Summit Park’s acquisition of Curion Holdings, LLC (“Curion” or the “Company”).

Curion is a leading, full-service provider of product testing and consumer quantitative and qualitative insights research which enable brands across a variety of end-markets to understand their target audiences and determine consumer sentiment of product qualities. The Company's holistic capabilities, established over its 30-year history, support clients through the entire product development process, including market validation, acceptance testing, product optimization, and benchmarking and category reviews.

“We are excited to partner with the Curion team and appreciated Stellus’ ability to work quickly and efficiently to support the transaction,” said Michael York, Partner at Summit Park, adding, “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Stellus team as we grow the Curion platform.”

Gavin Roseman, Managing Director at Stellus, added, “The Curion management team, led by Sean Bisceglia and Keren Novack, has transformed Curion into a leading consumer insights solution provider to premier brands across a range of end markets. We look forward to supporting Summit Park and management as they pursue growth strategies.”

About Stellus Capital Management

Stellus was founded in 2012 and formed in conjunction with the spin-out of the Direct Capital Unit of the D. E. Shaw group. Stellus’ senior team helped create the Direct Capital Unit in 2004 and has been investing together in the middle market for 18 years. Since 2004, the Stellus team has deployed approximately $8 billion into more than 300 middle market companies, developing a broad and deep expertise in this segment of the private investing market. Stellus currently has approximately $2.6 billion in assets under management, with offices in Houston, TX, the Washington, D.C. area, and Charlotte, NC. Learn more at www.stelluscapital.com.

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