Vivace Announces Growth Investment from Cerberus

This press release was originally published by Cerberus on August 14, 2024.
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Since its founding in 2006, Vivace has combined highly specialized engineering, design, and manufacturing capabilities to develop mission-critical propulsion tanks for leading commercial and government customers across key U.S. spaceflight, hypersonics, and launch vehicle markets. The Company is based in the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility outside of New Orleans and is a key supplier to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which will land numerous missions on the lunar surface as part of the larger Artemis program.

The partnership with Vivace is led by Cerberus’ Supply Chain and Strategic Opportunities platform, which invests in companies that are addressing critical national shortage areas to drive innovation, promote resilient infrastructure, and increase security for the United States and its allies. Cerberus is an experienced investor in the aerospace industry, bringing to bear extensive operating, technical, and government expertise to help position portfolio companies as key partners to customers on large, complex programs.

“This transaction represents an important milestone in our efforts to advance cutting-edge products and services to support many of the nation’s most advanced spaceflight programs,” said Dave Cochran, Co-Founder and President of Vivace. “We are excited to be working with the Cerberus team and to benefit from their deep domain and operational expertise as we build upon our reputation as a trusted long-term partner to world-class aerospace companies and to the U.S. Government.”

Steve Cook, Senior Managing Director at Cerberus and recently appointed Chairman of Vivace’s newly formed Advisory Board, added:

“Amid the rapidly growing investment in spaceflight and hypersonic missions, there is a critical need for sophisticated tank and pressure vessel engineering and manufacturing capabilities. With proven product lines and an outstanding foundation of technical excellence, we believe Vivace is well-positioned to bolster the tank and pressure vessel shortage. We look forward to continuing to support Vivace as it takes the next step in its journey to serve programs of national significance.”

Vivace today also announced the appointment of Luke Wright as Director of Operations. Mr. Wright most recently served as a senior engineering and operating executive at global industrial conglomerate Textron, and he brings nearly two decades of experience in managing complex development and production programs manufacturing critical defense systems for U.S. Government customers.

Mr. Cochran continued:

“Luke is a talented leader and an important addition to our team. His broad operating and functional experience in large-scale manufacturing businesses will help further solidify Vivace’s operational infrastructure as we enter our next phase of growth.”

About Vivace International
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Founded in 2006 and based in NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana, Vivace provides mission-critical product development, engineering, and management services for U.S. spaceflight systems, hypersonics, and launch vehicle markets. Its products include flight hardware, ground support equipment, development hardware, tooling, and engineering services. From concept development through detailed design, analysis, manufacture, and test, Vivace develops high-performance, efficient solutions and delivers them on time. Learn more at vivace.com.
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About Cerberus
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Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a global leader in alternative investing with approximately $65 billion in assets across complementary credit, real estate, and private equity strategies. We invest across the capital structure where we believe our integrated investment platforms and proprietary operating capabilities create an edge to improve performance and drive long-term value. Our tenured teams have experience working collaboratively across asset classes, sectors, and geographies as they seek to achieve strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors. For more information about our people and platforms, visit us at www.cerberus.com.