AI Industrial Partners continues to grow Gryphon
AE Industrial Partners continues to scale up its investment in its various engineering and IT services units, which include Belcan, CDI, and Gryphon Technologies.
Gryphon Technologies, a US firm headquartered in Washington DC with a headcount of 1.1k (our estimate) has acquired a small firm, PGFM Solutions. PGFM is headquartered in Sewell, NJ, services the US Navy and the Coast Guard for its shipbuilding programs, and provides cybersecurity services (including risk assessment) and traditional system expertise such as control systems, electromagnetic compatibility, and integrated bridge systems. PGFM is a small firm with an estimated headcount below 20.
This is a tuck-in acquisition for Gryphon that will complement its core capabilities for the naval and aerospace industries.
Reading the strategy of AE Industrial Partners for Belcan, CDI, and Gryphon can be challenging. Initially, Gryphon was to merge with the government service unit of CDI. However, AE Industrial Partners seems to have changed its strategy: there is no reference to CDI Government Services anymore in the communication of AE and the positioning of Gryphon is now engineering services to the defense and naval industries.
In parallel, the positioning of Belcan and CDI has also evolved. Belcan is mostly an ER&D vendor servicing the aerospace industry, with some activity in manufacturing engineering, and also in government IT services.
The positioning of CDI Corp is a bit more complex to understand: its main staffing business remains its core business by far. It still has engineering staffing and services capabilities, mostly serving the US government and the energy, chemicals, and infrastructure sectors.