Private equity firm GPB Capital Holdings LLC acquired a majority stake in Manchester, NH-based professional employer organization Surge Resources. The transaction closed Oct. 30.

Surge targets small and medium-sized businesses located in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine. New York-based GPB will provide capital as well as strategic and operational assistance to help Surge expand its presence in New England.

The acquisition follows GPB’s acquisition in January of Jacksonville, Fla.-based PEO MatrixOneSource, its first foray into the PEO sector.

Surge provides PEO services to more than 150 companies with approximately 2,700 employees. The acquisition “creates a PEO platform in New England for GPB Capital to integrate ‘tuck-in’ acquisitions going forward,” said GPB Capital Founder and CEO David Gentile.

“The addition of Surge, along with MatrixOneSource, will help drive towards our goal of a creating a national PEO platform which can offer a robust suite of human resources and administrative services to small- and medium-sized, growth-focused companies at a time when employment regulations continue to evolve and increase in complexity,” said Abhaya Shrestha, managing partner at GPB Capital responsible for the firm’s business services strategy.

PEOs are part of Staffing Industry Analysts' "Workforce Solutions Ecosystem" — SIA's method for defining the industry, including the various players that provide contingent workers and support companies that both use and supply those workers. An updated version of the ecosystem was released in October.