Searching for Excellence

Winterthur Search Fund invests in promising entrepreneurs who want to acquire, grow and sell a company in the ICT industry.

 

We help finance the search, facilitate the acquisition, empower our Searchers to build a great business, and help them exit successfully.

Search Funds are the alternative to a start-up for those with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Winterthur Search Fund offers investors access to a high-performing alternative asset class.

According to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship, Search Funds have yielded historical IRRs of 32.6%, an annualized rate of return more than double private equity funds.

 

We invest globally, with a focus on information and communications technology (ICT) sectors in emerging and developing markets.

About Search Funds

Search Funds are alternative investment vehicles established to raise a pool of capital to help an aspiring entrepreneur locate, acquire and operate a single privately-held small to mid-size company. The investment model originated in 1984 at Harvard Business School and was popularized at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Rather than pursuing start-up ventures, talented graduates from top-tier programs have teamed with Search Funds to achieve their goal of owning, operating and growing a company.

While becoming increasingly popular, Search Funds are still a relatively unknown asset class among most investors in private equity. Search Funds target companies that are substantially smaller than the ones a typical private equity firm would. In addition, the goal is to own and operate the business post-acquisition, preserving its legacy and building on an already solid foundation.

Search Funds are differentiated from venture capital in that the companies purchased are already profitable and have been in business for years, and sometimes decades.

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The Search Fund Lifecycle

From launch through exit, we serve all our searchers and investors through excellence in mentoring, support, operations and achievement.

  • "A successful searcher has heart, hunger, hustle and humility – plus raw horsepower.”

    – Brian O’Connor, founder of NextGen Partners