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Today’s Rundown:

• Key bottlenecks of search funds

• Search fund recap 2024 and outlook 2025

• Search-as-a-service initiative

• 6 deal announcements

• 11 career opportunities

Buy & Build Europe: Launch of +300 Search Fund Investor / Angels database 

Weekly Highlights

• Ibrahim Abdel Rahim, managing partner at Barcelona-based search fund investor Moonbase Capital, shared his key bottlenecks of search funds:

  • Although the search fund market has shown consistent growth, its market size remains relatively small with a limited number of searchers and low number of suitable acquisition opportunities

  • Scaling investments effectively in this space requires patience and strategic alignments

  • While interest in search funds is increasing, a significant portion of Limited Partners (LPs), family offices, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are still unfamiliar with this niche asset class

  • The smaller ticket sizes characteristic of search fund investments demands a specific type of investor, and broader education is necessary to attract and engage them effectively

  • One of the recurring hurdles in the search fund ecosystem is sourcing small-to-medium enterprises

  • Conutry-specifiy challenges:

    • Germany: Many sellers are reluctant to transition ownership to younger entrepreneurs, creating resistance in the market

    • Spain: Increasing interest in search funds has led to market saturation, intensifying competition for attractive opportunities

    • Greece: The market size is notably limited, restricting the availability of viable targets

    • India: The lack of historical precedent for search funds poses credibility issues, making it more difficult for searchers to gain seller trust

• José Moreno, managing partner at search fund investor AIJ Global, shared his view on the search fund landscape, providing a recap of 2024 as well as an outlook of 2025:

  • Search funds still provide an attractive return-risk profile with an average IRR of 35% and average MOIC of 4.5x

  • Search funds are going global with 320 newly founded vehicles across 40 countries outside the US and Canada

  • The top sectors of search funds are software, tech-enables services and healthcare services

  • The median purchase price amounts to $11.7m with an average revenue of $7.8m and EBITDA margin of 24%

  • Successful search funds require strong business fundamentals and rigorous due diligence

  • His predictions for 2025:

    • The search fund sector will continue its growth due to rising influx of capital

    • Economic factors such as interest rate and competition for high-quality acquisitions will play a crucial role

    • Tech will become a game-changer for searchers from deal sourcing to post-acquisition operations

• Caprae Capital, a search fund investor and service provider, announced a 30-day free trial of search-as-a-service:

  • The initiative aims to encourage more aspiring entrepreneurs to explore acquisition entrepreneurship without upfront financial risk

  • Search-as-a-services offers advanced AI-driven tools and automation for lead generation, seller outreach, and market research as well as includes expert mentorship for sourcing, due diligence, and post-acquisition strategies

  • With $10 trillion worth of small and medium-sized businesses set to transition ownership in the next two decades, acquisition entrepreneurship presents a massive opportunity

Deal Announcements

• JTL, a Hg backed ERP SaaS, acquired Returnless, a return management solution (link)

• Armira, an investment holding focusing on direct equity investments, launches United Gamers Group, a order-to-build gaming computer rollup (link)

• IT Capital Partners, a small-cap PE specialized on IT services and software, acquired tecRacer, a AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and an Advanced Tier Training Partner (link)

• Lisa Stuhler launches Tilia Nachfolgekapital, a sector-agnostic search fund (link)

• Adam Fareed launches Thames Equity Partners, a healthcare-focused search fund (link)

• Odevo, a leading property management company for residential real estate in EU and USA, acquired Erste Hausverwaltung, a rollup of property managers (link)

Career Opportunities

• [PE-Asset] Interim CFO | Camino Search | London (apply)

• [PE-Asset] Corporate Strategy and M&A Lead | Spryker | Berlin (apply)

• [PE-Asset] Head of Corporate Development | Camino Search | London (apply)

• [PE] (Senior) Investment Manager | Fidelium | Munich (apply)

• [PE] Investment Manager | Graphite Partners | London (apply)

• [PE] M&A / Origination Manager | Tim Wagner Personalberatung | Hamburg (apply)

• [PE Asset] M&A Manager | PER | Hamburg/Munich (apply)

• [PE Asset] M&A Manager | Sweco | Frankfurt (apply)

• [PE] Investment Associate | GENUI | Switzerland (apply)

• [Rollup] M&A Associate | Constellation Software | DACH (apply)

• [PE] Investment Analyst | Tim Wagner Personalberatung | Hamburg (apply)

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