GenNx360 Capital Partners Announces Investment in Aeron Defense
Portfolio Company News - February 04, 2026
GenNx360 Capital Partners (“GenNx360”), a New York City-based private equity firm investing in middle-market industrial and business-to-business services companies, announces its partnership with Ventus Industrial Partners, a private equity firm specializing in the defense sector, to form Aeron Defense (“Aeron”) and complete the acquisitions of General Tool Company (“GTC”) and Magna Machine Company (“Magna”).
Founded by leading figures from the defense and private equity industries, Aeron’s mission is twofold: to support the US effort to scale the naval shipbuilding supply chain and the broader defense industrial base across key military programs, and to become the employer of choice within the defense sector through a differentiated workforce engagement model and employee-centric philosophy.
GTC and Magna, now subsidiaries of Aeron, are Cincinnati-based manufacturers of large-scale, high-precision, metal and composite assemblies for mission-critical applications across a wide-range of rapidly growing aerospace and defense platforms. The companies share a deep history of partnership dating back to their mutual founding in 1947. Their combination under Aeron Defense reconnects two complementary businesses with shared values and a focus on serving the growing needs of the defense supply chain.
Bill Kramer, GTC President and CEO, will continue to provide leadership to the Company post-closing. "Since our founding, we have been a client-centric organization, focused on providing differentiated engineering, machining, fabrication and integration solutions. The customers we partner with and the products we produce play a critical role in keeping our country safe. GenNx360 and Ventus bring thought leadership, deep operational expertise, and financial resources that will enable us to accelerate our growth and provide additional value to our customers,” Bill Kramer stated.
Ron Blaylock, Founder & Managing Partner of GenNx360, stated, “This investment is the result of a proactive investment thesis our team developed in the broader aerospace and defense sector. Aeron Defense represents an exciting platform in an attractive vertical with tremendous whitespace and demonstrates GenNx360’s continued momentum. We are enthusiastic to partner with a strong management team, led by Bill and Scott Kramer, who have built a truly differentiated organization.”
Reece Zakarin, GenNx360 Vice President, added, "We have been impressed by the robust set of capabilities and long-standing customer relationships that the Kramer family have built. We look forward to partnering with them to execute upon this next stage of organic and acquisition-supported growth, under Aeron Defense."
GenNx360’s Aeron Defense team includes Ron Blaylock, Founder & Managing Partner; Pratik Rajeevan, Principal; Reece Zakarin, Vice President; and Jon Langenfeld, Associate.
Winston & Strawn served as legal counsel to GenNx360.