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Álvaro Gironella and Álvaro Echeverría first met in 2007 at Boston College during a university exchange program, and have remained closely connected ever since. Over nearly two decades, they have followed parallel and highly complementary careers across investment banking, corporate leadership, and entrepreneurship. Today, they reunite to launch Adarve Partners, a Spain-based SF focused on acquiring and growing a single high-quality SME in the Iberian Peninsula, under a long-term, hands-on ownership model.
Adarve Partners is backed by a diversified group of experienced investors, including specialized SF investors from the United States, Spain, and other international markets, alongside family offices and former successful searchers. The investor base includes Alza Capital Partners, Ambit Partners, Aurica Search Capital, Inseta Partners, Ibérica Partners, JB46, Kinderhook Partners, Relay Investments, Spectra Investments, TTCER, and Valmaris Private Investors, reflecting strong institutional and entrepreneurial support for the partners’ approach.
Álvaro Gironella brings more than 12 years of international experience across investment banking, strategy, and business development. After completing an MSc in Finance at Imperial College London, he began his career at J.P. Morgan in Madrid and London, advising large corporates and financial institutions on complex financial transactions and strategic decisions. He later earned an MBA from INSEAD and joined Sodimac (part of the Falabella Group), the leading home improvement retailer in Latin America, where he held senior regional roles leading strategy, financial planning, and business development across multiple countries. His background combines strong financial rigor with senior-level exposure to scaling and managing large, complex organizations.
Álvaro Echeverría brings over 15 years of experience spanning investment banking, venture building, and fintech entrepreneurship. He began his career at Credit Suisse and Blackstone Advisory Partners in London before joining Rocket Internet, where he co-founded Linio Chile and supported the launch of Lendico. He later founded Klimb, a B2B fintech focused on SME working capital, which he scaled across Chile, Peru, and Mexico over nearly a decade. Having led a business through growth, international expansion, and challenging market cycles, he brings a seasoned operator’s perspective grounded in real-world execution and resilience.
The strength of Adarve Partners lies in the deep complementarity and long-standing trust between its two Principals: one shaped by institutional finance and strategic leadership in large corporates, the other by the realities of founding, scaling, and operating a business as an owner. Together, they seek to acquire a profitable, cash-generative SME with recurring revenues and low capital intensity, ideally in B2B or services sectors, where their direct involvement as committed, long-term operators can drive the company’s next phase of growth while preserving its core identity.
