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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Home Services

Brian Kwait

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at Odyssey Investment Partners

New York, NY

BK
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Why they matter

As Odyssey's CEO and co-founder, Kwait personally drove the Service Champions home-services rollup from acquisition through its 2026 Blackstone exit.

Background

Brian Kwait is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Odyssey Investment Partners, a New York-based middle-market private equity firm he helped launch in 1998 by spinning it out of the hedge fund Odyssey Partners, where he was a principal from 1989 to 1997. He grew Odyssey from a single $750 million fund into a platform managing roughly $5 billion across five funds, and previously worked in Bear Stearns' Corporate Finance Group and as a CPA at Ernst & Whinney. He holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Wharton.

Notable deals

  • 2021
    Led Odyssey's acquisition of Service Champions, a West Coast residential HVAC and plumbing platform (Bell Brothers, Moore Home Services, ASI, Adeedo!, ProSkill) that became Champions Group
  • 2025
    Portfolio company Protective Industrial Products (PIP) completed its $1.325B acquisition of Honeywell's Personal Protective Equipment business under Odyssey's ownership
  • 2026
    Announced sale of Champions Group (formerly Service Champions) to Blackstone's BXPE strategy, with Odyssey and management retaining a minority stake; Kwait publicly commented on the deal

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Co-founded Odyssey Investment Partners in 1998, spun out of the hedge fund Odyssey Partners; now CEO after growing the firm to ~$5B AUM across five funds.
  • Wharton MBA, University of Michigan BBA; started career as a CPA (Ernst & Whinney) before Bear Stearns corporate finance.

Current focus

  • Sits on the boards of IEM, Levata, Mercalis, ProPharma, Protective Industrial Products, Service Champions/Champions Group, and The Planet Group.
  • Just closed the sale of Champions Group (home services rollup) to Blackstone (Feb 2026), retaining a minority stake alongside management — signals continued conviction in the space even after monetizing.

What he cares about

  • Buy-and-build platforms in fragmented, localized service and industrial niches (HVAC/plumbing, PPE/safety products, staffing).
  • Long-hold partnerships with founder-led management teams; several PIP relationships (e.g., with the Milot family) go back 25+ years.

Recent moves

  • 2025: PIP completed a $1.325B acquisition of Honeywell's PPE business, roughly doubling PIP's scale.
  • 2026: Exited Champions Group to Blackstone while keeping skin in the game — a template worth understanding for any home-services thesis.

Sensitivities

  • Recently divested a marquee home-services asset (Champions Group) — may be cautious about competing head-on in a new rollup vs. exploring a co-investment or platform-sharing angle.
  • Odyssey is fundraising/deploying its next fund; timing and availability may be tight post-close.

Questions to ask

  1. What made Champions Group exit-ready for Blackstone now, and what does Odyssey's retained stake signal about the next growth phase?
  2. What underwriting lessons from the HVAC/plumbing rollup would he apply to a new home-services platform?
  3. Beyond HVAC/plumbing, which home-services verticals does he see as under-consolidated and worth a fresh platform build?

Outreach draft

Subject
Home services rollups — post-Champions Group perspective
Hi Brian, Congratulations on the Champions Group exit to Blackstone — a great outcome for a platform you built from the ground up at Odyssey. We're evaluating a new home-services rollup thesis and would value your perspective, given your experience taking Service Champions from a single acquisition to a multi-brand residential services leader. Would you be open to a 20-30 minute call to discuss what you learned about underwriting local service platforms, integration pitfalls, and where you still see white space in the sector? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

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