Cyprium Partners, a Cleveland-based private equity firm, announced it has made a non-controlling investment in Top 40 distributor BDA (asi/137616). Terms of the investment were not disclosed. Cyprium bills itself as a group of “non-control investors” that provides capital to privately held companies while allowing owners and management to retain their controlling interests.

“They are a very progressive company, and this is why we chose to partner with Cyprium,” said Jay Deutsch, CEO of BDA. “[Cyprium Managing Partner Mike Conaton] and his team share our commitment and market outlook, and we know this will further drive our value and opportunities. We plan on keeping both sides very busy over the next few years.”

BDA, which was co-founded in 1984 by Deutsch and Eric Bensussen, two years ago received $75 million in financing from American Capital, a publicly traded private equity firm.

Cyprium made a mezzanine investment, which is normally a hybrid of debt and equity financing. The company specializes in the middle market, investing anywhere from $10 million to $60 million in U.S. and Canadian companies with $8 million or more of EBITDA. Cyprium is currently investing in a dozen different companies ranging from industrial to consumer-facing.

“Cyprium is excited and honored to have the opportunity to invest in Eric and Jay’s company, the largest privately held advertising specialties and branded merchandise agency for enterprise clients in the United States,” said Conaton. “We look forward to supporting BDA’s aggressive growth through organic expansion and strategic acquisition.”

BDA recently opened a new office based in the UK to serve the European, African and Middle Eastern markets. The company also expanded its entertainment division last month.

The distributor ranks as the fourth largest in the promotional product industry, with $275 million in North American promotional product revenue last year.