FS Search Fund
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Half a million German companies change hands by 2027. More than 230,000 have no successor inside the family – and are too small for private equity to touch.
We train Frankfurt School students to be the ones who buy them, run them, and grow them.
Search capital is raised from investors; the searcher spends 12–24 months sourcing and screening acquisition targets.
A single company is acquired, financed through a disciplined mix of investor equity and acquisition debt.
The searcher assumes the CEO role, retains the existing team, and stabilises the business under new ownership.
Value is compounded over three to seven years ahead of a sale or a long-term hold of the company.
One or two searchers raise capital from 10–15 private investors and family offices to fund a 24-month search for a company at €0.5–2m EBITDA.
The searcher carries the search alone – own capital and bank debt such as KfW succession financing, or a flexible equity partner.
Programme-based formats – Novastone Capital Advisors among them – in which searchers are guided through the process inside an existing platform.
Our founding thesis: why ETA fits the DACH Mittelstand, drawing on Stanford GSB, IESE, and the KfW Nachfolgemonitor.
An examination of the succession gap across German, Austrian, and Swiss family enterprises.
Capital structures used in search fund transactions, from seller notes to senior debt.
A vehicle for buying yourself a job at the top. You raise money from a small group of investors, spend up to two years finding one profitable company, buy it, and then run it as CEO. The discipline is called Entrepreneurship through Acquisition – ETA.
The person who does all of it. Usually a graduate or young professional who convinces the investors, finds the company, negotiates the deal, and then walks in on day one as the new managing director. One role, the whole arc.
Four phases: raise, search, buy, run. In practice that means pitching investors, then hundreds of cold calls and letters to owners in the Mittelstand, then financial modelling and contract negotiation, and finally the P and L of a real company on your desk.
Rarely banks. Mostly former entrepreneurs, many of them ex-searchers themselves, alongside family offices and specialist funds. They sit on your board and take the calls at 11pm – the mentoring is worth as much as the cheque.
Because product-market fit is already proven. You inherit paying customers, a trained team, and cash flow from month one, instead of spending three years testing whether anyone wants the thing at all. Less romance, far better odds.
PE buys many companies and steers them from a desk in Frankfurt. VC bets on high-risk tech. A searcher buys exactly one solid, unglamorous, profitable business – niche software, industrial services, specialist manufacturing – and moves to where it is.
Most searchers bring an MBA or a few years in consulting, IB, or PE. But the share starting directly out of university is growing, almost always in a two-person team where the pair covers each other's gaps. The club exists to help you find that person.
No. Investors fund the search, including your salary, and then the purchase itself. You contribute time and conviction, and earn equity in the company you buy – vesting over your tenure and against return hurdles.
Membership is open to all Frankfurt School students. Owners, searchers, and investors interested in collaborating are equally welcome to write to us.