Strickland Brothers Secures Investment from Audax Strategic Capital

Strickland Brothers did not arrive with a pitch deck fantasy. It arrived with a pit, a clock, and a promise. Ten minutes. Stay in your car. Transparency instead of theater. That discipline turned a Winston-Salem, North Carolina startup into one of the fastest-growing independent quick-lube operators in the country, and on January 2, 2026, the company poured premium fuel on that engine with $360M in committed financing.

The story still starts where it should. Justin Strickland, founder and CEO, could not get a bank to believe. His grandfather C.W. “PawPaw” Strickland did. A tobacco sharecropper mortgaged his home for $35,000, not as nostalgia, but as risk capital. Every location still carries PawPaw’s Bench, not as branding, but as a reminder that trust compounds when you honor it.

Today, Strickland Brothers operates 250+ drive-thru locations across 27 states. Customers never leave their vehicles. Oil changes average ten minutes. No appointments. No waiting rooms. Just speed with visibility. That operational clarity is why Princeton Equity Group backed the business in 2021, and why this latest capital stack is built for motion, not decoration.

Golub Capital stepped in with a $270M senior credit facility, structured for working capital and acquisitions, led by Spyro Alexopoulos. Audax Strategic Capital added a structured equity investment, with Kumber Husain and David Wong supporting a non-control approach that keeps founder leadership intact. This was patient, precise money designed to scale a machine that already runs hot.

Execution has been the throughline. Under COO Aaron Jansen, the company doubled locations while maintaining unit economics that reward both corporate and franchise operators. With CFO Aaron Sage joining through the LOF Xpress Oil Change acquisition, the balance sheet now speaks fluent M&A. Jazmin Davis, SVP of Ops, brings field discipline from some of the most demanding brands in automotive services. This is a team built to move at speed without slipping.

The market helps, but it does not carry you. An aging vehicle fleet, premium synthetic adoption, and a fragmented quick-lube landscape create opportunity, not guarantees. Strickland Brothers wins because it treats time as inventory and trust as margin. Every bay is a throughput decision. Every customer sees the work. That visibility turns oil into loyalty.

There is a reason this brand keeps showing up on the Inc. 5000 and Franchise Times Fast & Serious lists. It is not because oil changes are exciting. It is because consistency at scale is rare, and rare things attract serious capital. Princeton Equity Group partner Phil Piro understands that math, and this financing gives the company real runway to consolidate without losing its center.