CORE Transformers doesn’t negotiate. It doesn’t care about your IPO roadshow, your fantasy football lineup, or whether you’re halfway through a rewatch of The Sopranos. When the power cuts, everything freezes. Transformers aren’t sexy, but they’re the quiet muscle of modern life. And when the lights threaten to blink out, speed and reliability aren’t nice-to-haves, they’re survival. That’s the lane CORE Transformers has claimed, and now with fresh equity from Emerald Lake Capital Management, they’re ready to double down.
CORE Transformers, founded in October 2021, planted its roots in Seneca, South Carolina with a 130,000 square foot facility designed to move serious weight. We’re talking shop space tuned for precision, warehouse depth stacked with inventory, and specialized testing infrastructure that can run from 75 kVA through 5000 kVA and beyond. Thousands of transformers are in stock, ready to ship, because downtime isn’t an option in commercial, industrial, renewable, or datacenter markets.
The leadership isn’t learning this on YouTube. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Randall Maddox built this industry brick by brick, from Sunbelt Transformer to Maddox Industrial Transformer, before stepping in to launch CORE and moving from President to CEO in December 2024. Co-founder and Chief Production Officer Heath Blundell is cut from the same steel, bringing 25 years of transformer operations with stints running national ops at Sunbelt and co-founding Maddox alongside Maddox. Chief Marketing Officer Winston Krauss came aboard in December 2024 with two decades of digital strategy and ten-plus years embedded in electrical markets. Chief Revenue Officer Mitch Garland drives growth. Director of Finance Misty McEntyre keeps the numbers wired clean.
This is where Emerald Lake enters. Led by founder and Managing Partner Dan Lukas, the Santa Monica-based firm has $1.6 billion under management and a sharp eye for capital-efficient, defensible businesses in industrials and services. Their investment in CORE isn’t a casual handshake, it’s a calculated bet on growth in a market swelling fast. Transformers worldwide are projected to climb from $68 billion in 2025 to nearly $129 billion by 2035. The U.S. market is pacing at 7 percent CAGR through 2030. That’s momentum you can’t ignore.
So what’s next? Beyond expanding inventory, upgrading equipment, and scaling testing capabilities, the partnership is about positioning CORE as the name to call in North America when speed and precision matter most. From a company that went from two parked cars outside its shop to a lot at full tilt in under two years, this moment isn’t about catching up, it’s about taking the lead.
At its core, pun fully intended, this is more than a funding deal. It’s recognition that the backbone of modern power doesn’t just need to hold. It needs to move faster, stronger, smarter. And CORE Transformers is wiring itself in as the essential player making sure it does.
