NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 7, 2026--
Star Mountain Capital, LLC (“Star Mountain”), a specialized private investment firm focused on delivering systematic alpha and low market-correlated, tax-advantaged returns from the inefficient lower middle-market, is pleased to announce that it has been named one of GrowthCap’s Top Private Credit Firms of 2025.
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GrowthCap’s annual awards highlight firms that demonstrate exceptional lending expertise, organizational excellence and the ability to serve as long-term, solutions-oriented partners to private businesses. Honorees are selected based on GrowthCap’s evaluation of investment capabilities, firm culture, track record and commitment to responsible stewardship within the private credit ecosystem.
“We are honored to be recognized by GrowthCap as one of the leading private credit firms in the United States,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “This recognition reflects our team’s dedication to delivering value-added financing solutions to established lower middle-market businesses and providing consistently strong partnership to management teams and investors.”
GrowthCap’s 2025 review emphasized the importance of consistent performance, differentiated sourcing networks and collaborative, borrower-aligned capital solutions. These are areas that Star Mountain has strategically focused on for over fifteen years. Star Mountain’s platform is designed to support high-quality private businesses with flexible debt and equity capital, while leveraging technology, data analytics and a deep bench of operating partners to help drive long-term success.
“Our focus remains on being a thoughtful, long-term capital partner,” Mr. Hickey added. “We continue to invest meaningfully in our team, technology and infrastructure to help deliver scalable, value-enhancing solutions across a wide range of industries. We believe our 100% U.S. full-time employee profit-sharing model and active community engagement through the Star Mountain Charitable Foundation strengthen our culture and support our mission.”
About Star Mountain Capital
With ~$4.5 billion in AUM (committed capital including debt facilities as of 12/31/2025), Star Mountain specializes in providing data-driven investment solutions across two core strategies:
Star Mountain’s investors include public and private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Employee-owned and sharing profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees, the firm prioritizes alignment of interests to maximize value for stakeholders.
Since 2010, Star Mountain has completed over 100 direct platform investments and 50 secondary/fund investments in the North American lower middle-market. The firm has been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies and a Best Place to Work by Crain’s New York Business and Pensions & Investments.
For more information, visit www.starmountaincapital.com.
Legal Disclaimer:
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by third-party rating agencies, companies, or publications should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future results or performance. They should not be considered as an endorsement, recommendation, or referral of Star Mountain Capital or its representatives by any client or third party. Rankings published by media and industry organizations are based on information provided by the recognized advisor. Additionally, readers should understand that past performance is not indicative of future results. Award descriptions and selection methodologies may vary.
Awards and Recognition Disclosure:
Star Mountain Capital’s awards and recognitions are based on third-party evaluations and criteria, which may be subjective. These honors do not imply a guarantee of future performance or an endorsement by current or past clients.
Ranking Methodologies:
Star Mountain Capital Has Been Named one of GrowthCap's Top Private Credit Firms 2025.
A weekend BASE jumping accident in a Utah canyon killed two people, one of them a daredevil athlete best known for performing onstage with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl, authorities said.
The sheriff's office in Grand County, Utah, confirmed one of the dead was Andy Lewis, an extreme athlete known for feats in BASE jumping, a dangerous sport that involves parachuting to the ground after jumping from a tall fixed object such as a building, a bridge or a desert cliff overlooking a deep canyon.
The victims had been conducting a tandem jump in which two people are harnessed together, according to a social media post by Aerial Arts Moab, an acrobatics company that described Lewis as “co-owner and best friend.”
Lewis also owned BASE Jump Moab, a business that offered tandem jumps to inexperienced customers who would be harnessed to a guide wearing the parachute. Promotional videos on the company’s website show pairs of people stepping off the edges of towering cliffs and briefly plummeting before their parachutes open.
In BASE jumping circles, Lewis had a huge following and a reputation for pushing the envelope — leaping into tighter spaces or deploying his parachute later than his peers would dare, said John McEvoy, a BASE jumping instructor in Twin Falls, Idaho, who has jumped with Lewis.
“He had an incredible level of athleticism and skill that was developed over years of practice,” McEvoy said. “But then he would take an incredible amount of risk.”
Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins confirmed the other person who was killed was Danny Joe Kregle, a 68-year-old father and grandfather who was described by a family member as an accomplished businessman.
“Danny had a wonderful sense of humor and was always looking for ways to make people laugh,” relative Sydney Laverty told The Times-Independent. “One of his greatest joys was performing magic tricks alongside his granddaughter.”
Lewis was also a prominent figure in the niche sports of slacklining and tricklining, which combine elements of high-wire walking with aerial acrobatics — sometimes at perilous heights.
He went from obscure athlete to overnight celebrity when he appeared onstage in Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Dressed in a Roman toga, Lewis bounced and executed tricks on his inch-wide line like it was a trampoline while Madonna sang behind him.
“My phone actually rang itself to death three days in a row,” Lewis said soon afterward in an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late night show.
Emergency responders were dispatched Sunday to a report of people injured in a BASE jumping attempt at Mineral Bottom, a remote desert area near the Utah-Colorado line, according to the sheriff's office.
Though there's no official tally of BASE jumping deaths, a list compiled by the website BASEaddict.com shows 540 total fatalities worldwide since 1981 — including 30 people killed last year. Prominent deaths include BASE jumper Dean Potter and his climbing partner, Graham Hunt, who were killed in 2015 while attempting a wingsuit flight in California's Yosemite National Park.
A study focused on BASE jumping in Norway, published in a medical journal in 2007, estimated that BASE jumping carried risks of injury or death five to eight times greater than skydiving.
Lewis openly acknowledged the sport’s inherent danger.
“It’s weird to think about how many people are dead, because it’s like a normal thing,” Lewis told documentary filmmaker Ella Warnick in an interview published last year.
Tandem BASE jumping carries additional risk because it straps together two people, one of whom generally lacks experience, under a single parachute, McEvoy said. But because they involve novices, they also tend to be the most low-risk, basic types of jumps.
“Within BASE, it’s a very controversial topic,” McEvoy said. “There’s a lot of people who say it's the stupidest thing in the world and others arguing: `No, we’re giving people the experience of their lives.'”
No one immediately returned phone, text and Facebook messages left Monday for BASE Jump Moab.
Lewis won four straight world championships in competitive slacklining from 2008 through 2011. Lewis set a Guinness World Record for slackline surfing, swaying his feet side to side in a rocking motion that mimics surfing, while keeping his balance above China's Diaoshuilou waterfall in 2011.
In 2014, he walked a slackline suspended between two hot air balloons more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above the Nevada desert.
FILE - Andy Lewis appears during Madonna's halftime performance at the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, Feb. 5, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - U.S. slackliner Andy Lewis of Calif. balances on a slackline in Bangkok, Thailand, July 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
