Headquartered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Smarte Carte has been revolutionising self-service solutions since 1970, providing its customers with convenient products like luggage solutions, secure storage, mobility, and massage chairs across more than 3,400 locations worldwide.

Visit smartecarte.com

Overview

Within the air travel sector, Smarte Carte provides its services at over 300 airports globally, including 98 of the top 100 airports in the U.S. The company's products can also be found in amusement parks, fitness clubs, shopping malls, ski resorts, and U.S. post offices.

Smarte Carte has a leading position as an airport concessionaire across North America and select international markets, as well as a diversified suite of unique products and services that it deploys in attractive, highly diversified retail customer locations.  

Greg Hart, former Chief Operating Officer for United Airlines, joined as a non-executive director in 2017 to help enhance operations and guide the company’s future growth.

Why we invested

We invested to grow company’s global footprint, especially in Europe through our established track record in the airport sector with Belfast City Airport and TCR. 

Recent developments

We expanded the company's international footprint through the successful start of operations at London Heathrow Airport, Dublin Airport, Oslo Airport, Darwin International Airport, and others. In addition, we executed synergistic bolt-on acquisitions including Aviation Mobility, a provider of legally mandated mobility equipment for special assistance passengers at airports, and Feel Good Chairs, a leading concessionaire of vended services at retail shopping locations.

We supported the company to broaden its relationship with the United States Postal Service to provide lockers to c.1,000 post offices as part of a larger-scale rollout that includes other infrastructure service offerings across the national USPS footprint. During our partnership, Smarte Carte has invested in the development of new product offerings to accelerate growth with both existing and new customers and technology improvements to enhance the customer experience and better manage operations, as well as navigated a transformational period during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain profitability and position for, and deliver, growth as travel rebounded. 

We also introduced the company to the infrastructure lender market and achieved several successful rounds of financing on attractive terms.