Michael Levine (Toronto-Canada)

Michael co-founded Spruce Grove Capital ("SGC"), a traditional search fund with the mission to provide succession and growth capital to bootstrapped founders. SGC successfully acquired Cardata in 2021, one of the largest providers of reimbursement software and services to businesses with employee-owned fleets. After acquiring the business and assuming operational roles, SGC tripled annually recurring revenue and completed a majority recap with Wavecrest Growth Partners and MassMutual Ventures in 2023.

Prior to co-founding SGC, Michael worked on the M&A team at Lynx Equity, where he sourced and analyzed acquisition opportunities, negotiated and structured deal terms, performed financial and operational due diligence, and conducted industry research and analysis. Lynx Equity is a private equity firm that buys companies comparable in size to those targeted by search funds. Michael worked on five deals that ranged in purchase price from $4M–$10M. In addition, he worked directly with Lynx’s COO to oversee 13 portfolio companies that ranged from $100K to $3.2M in EBITDA across a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, and digital. Michael’s role in these companies included monitoring financial performance, assisting with growth initiatives, and assisting with the preparation of annual budgets.

Prior to joining Lynx, Michael worked as a Financial Analyst at BDO Canada on their Valuations team. In this role, he advised on over 10 transactions and partnered with legal counsel on litigation support and economic loss quantification.

Michael received a BSc in Molecular Biology from Queen’s University and an MBA from the University of Toronto.