Centre Partners and Altivare Acquire Freight Broker Navajo Expedited

What happened

Centre Partners and Altivare Capital Partners have completed their acquisition of Navajo Expedited, a truckload freight broker headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. The two private equity firms announced the closing on September 10, 2026. The transaction was partially funded out of Centre Strategic Solutions I, a new vehicle Centre raised to back independent sponsor transactions in the North American lower middle market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The seller

Navajo Expedited was founded in 2018 and was previously part of Navajo Express, a Denver-based over-the-road and dedicated carrier that runs 300 units, according to FreightWaves. It brokers dry van and temperature-controlled truckload freight for food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and industrial shippers, including time-sensitive and specialized lanes, through a network of more than 8,000 vetted third-party drivers. The buyers describe its customers as blue-chip.

The company runs its own technology for pricing, carrier onboarding, compliance, dispatch, and equipment tracking, along with driver vetting and fraud prevention. Founder and CEO Brandon Bodine, who has more than 15 years in freight logistics, has led the business since 2018, and its core leadership group worked together across several freight businesses before it. "We have invested early in automation because it makes us more reliable for shippers and easier to do business with for carriers," Bodine said.

The buyer

Centre Partners, founded in 1986, is a middle market private equity firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles that invests across consumer, business services, and healthcare, with more than 90 transactions behind it. Its earlier services deals include Quick Roofing, acquired in January 2024, and TruTemp, a field services platform it launched in September 2025 with an investment in Maynor Service Company. Centre will also support Expedited through its Operating Partner program of more than 50 executives.

Altivare, founded in 2024 and based in New York, is a lower middle market private equity firm focused on logistics, business services, and industrial companies. Its managing partners are William Sirignano, who spent 11 years at Blackstone Credit, and Nathaniel Bristol, who spent 18 years in Goldman Sachs investment banking, where his coverage included transportation and logistics.

Bruce Pollack, managing partner at Centre, said the company has "a compelling platform to accelerate market share gains through organic growth and strategic acquisitions." Bristol said Altivare looks forward "to working alongside Brandon and the broader Expedited team to invest behind the business, broaden its capabilities and pursue both organic and strategic growth opportunities."

Carrier vetting in freight brokerage after Montgomery

On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that federal law does not preempt state negligent-hiring claims against a broker over the carrier it selects, a case brought against C.H. Robinson. FreightWaves placed the Navajo Expedited deal within a growing trend of consolidation across freight brokerage following that ruling.

The buyers' announcement puts vetting first. Its subheading cites continued investment in the company's "proprietary driver-vetting, pricing automation and fraud-prevention technology," and Pollack credited agentic AI "that is already improving driver vetting and load execution." Owners weighing a sale can read our guide to selling a logistics company.

What this means for freight brokerage owners

Navajo Expedited shows that a brokerage built inside a carrier's corporate family can be bought on its own by two private equity firms, with its founder still running it. And carrier vetting now sits on both sides of that kind of sale: it is the exposure Montgomery opened for brokers, and it is the capability these buyers named first when they described what they had bought. For a freight brokerage owner, that makes the carrier-selection process, how carriers are screened, documented, and onboarded, one of the first things to have ready to show a buyer.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with freight brokerage businesses in Florida.

Own a freight brokerage business with $5M–$100M in revenue? We’re glad to give you an honest read on what it’s worth and who would buy it — no pitch, no pressure. Get a free valuation.

Source: Centre Partners - https://www.centrepartners.com/news-article/centre-partners-completes-acquisition-of-navajo-expedited-a-technology-enabled-freight-logistics-platform