Just a few months after the launch of Norrsund Investments, led by August Svedenstedt and Carl Bergström (Sweden’s first traditional SF), Peter Håkansson has founded Gryning Capital, becoming the first solo SF in the country. He is backed by a group of Nordic and international investors, including family offices with extensive experience in ownership transitions and entrepreneurs who have bought and run companies themselves. Among them are evolutiq, Forti SF Partners, Cabiedes Capital, Secways, Archipelago Ventures, Bovensmann Stiftung, Pitlane Capital, Legacy Search Fund, Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez Alemán, LeFonds Capital, Itaca Capital, Investmentbolaget CAMP-B, Scott Lee, Zentropy, Helena Ahlström, Gallium Growth, Parallax Equity, Superhero Search, Operators Group, and Wepac Automation.

Peter Håkansson has a strong background in strategy, consulting, and business development. He spent nearly four years at Accenture in Sweden, working on strategic and operational projects across multiple industries and leading teams of up to 20 people, before joining Credit Suisse in Zurich as an Associate Relationship Manager. He later spent two years at Samsung’s Global Strategy Group in Seoul, where he developed growth strategies, explored GenAI opportunities, and led go-to-market initiatives across several business areas, including mobile, fintech, and medtech. His experience combines strategic analysis, operational execution, and international exposure across Europe and Asia. He holds an MBA from IESE Business School.

Peter is looking to acquire a profitable Swedish company with €1–5M in EBITDA. While he is sector-agnostic, he has a preference for B2B products and services, manufacturing, industrial technology, and specialist distribution. His ideal target has an established market position and an owner approaching retirement or another ownership transition who wants to ensure the business’s long-term continuity. Although his primary focus is Sweden, he will also explore opportunities elsewhere in the Nordic region.

Rouven Behge joined NCA’s Operator-Led Buyout Program in 2024 with nearly two decades of experience in the logistics industry across more than 20 countries, including leading a €60M logistics P&L through a successful turnaround. After an approximately two-year search, Rouven has completed the acquisition of Meyer Transporte, a specialist logistics company based in Finnentrop, Germany. He will work alongside the Meyer family to preserve the company’s legacy while building on its strong foundation for long-term growth. The enterprise value is around 4x EBITDA and below €10M. Part of the family will remain as a minority shareholder. UniCredit supports the debt financing. Newton Equity Partners is one of the institutional funds that backed the deal.

Founded in 1965, Meyer Transporte provides materials logistics and waste management services supporting infrastructure construction and modernization. The business is characterized by a highly diversified customer base, strong repeat business, and a margin-first operating model that has consistently delivered EBITDA margins of more than 25%. Last year, the company reached around €7.5M in revenue, with EBITDA of more than €2M.

“Erhard and Dennis have successfully built one of the most well-rounded logistics businesses I have seen in my career,” said Rouven. “I’m excited to combine my experience, respect and new energy with the company’s existing strengths, niche know-how and strong alignment with customer needs. There is tremendous potential, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to develop the business further while continuing the legacy they have built.”

“My first priority is a smooth transition that preserves Meyer Transporte’s customer relationships, operational know-how and high service standards,” he added. “From there, we’ll focus on strengthening the commercial organization and developing processes and capabilities across sales, operations and finance. The goal is not to change what already works well, but to build on those strengths and create the foundation for sustainable growth.”

His ambition is to further establish the company as the preferred partner for infrastructure logistics and waste management in its core regions.

DD: Rödl & Partner / Legal: Rohde Baier / M&A: IOM Advisory

Yale Case. By: Mark Agnew and A. J. Wasserstein

A new longitudinal study from Yale takes a closer look at a dimension of the ETA journey that is rarely measured: how searchers actually feel as they go through the process of finding and acquiring a company.

The study follows 83 searchers planning to launch in 2026, with eight additional quarterly measurements planned over the next two years. The first report provides a fascinating snapshot of where these searchers stand at the very beginning of their journey, and establishes several hypotheses about how their sentiment could evolve as reality starts to test their expectations.

1/ Searchers start the journey remarkably confident

The most striking finding is perhaps the level of optimism among the cohort. On average, searchers estimate their probability of successfully acquiring a company at 78%, with a median of 80%. More than four in ten believe their chances are between 81% and 100%, while only three searchers put their probability at 40% or below.

This confidence is not limited to acquisition expectations. Self-efficacy averages 8.4 out of 10, while confidence in closing an acquisition stands at 8.1. Partner and family support is even higher, at 8.7 out of 10, and reported mental health averages 7.8.

At the same time, exhaustion is surprisingly low, averaging just 1.9 on a six-point scale.

In other words, these searchers are not entering the process already overwhelmed. They are starting with what the authors describe as significant “emotional capital.”

2/ But are they too optimistic?

The researchers point out an interesting tension. An individual searcher believing they have a 78% chance of completing an acquisition may be perfectly rational based on their own circumstances, experience and preparation. But when the entire cohort is considered together, that level of confidence appears considerably more optimistic than historical market outcomes would suggest.

This creates one of the central questions of the longitudinal study: what happens when this confidence meets the realities of the search?

The authors expect the journey to resemble an emotional roller coaster, with sentiment potentially changing as searchers face unsuccessful conversations, broken deals, difficult sellers, financing uncertainty and the cumulative fatigue of sourcing.

The baseline study therefore provides the starting point, but perhaps the most interesting findings are still to come.

3/ Money is surprisingly far from the top motivation

Another interesting finding concerns why people choose ETA in the first place.

Wealth creation ranks only fourth among the main motivations, cited by 16% of respondents. The most common motivation is operating and running a business, at 36%, followed by independence and autonomy, at 24%, and learning and personal growth, at 17%.

This suggests that, at least at the beginning of the journey, becoming an owner-operator and gaining greater autonomy may be more important to many searchers than the financial outcome itself.

4/ Who are the 2026 searchers?

The cohort is predominantly male, with 80% male and a median age of 33.5. Eighty-one percent have an MBA, and 43% have backgrounds combining consulting and investment, while 40% come from management or operating roles.

There is also considerable entrepreneurial and M&A experience: 54% have previously been entrepreneurs and 43% have prior M&A experience.

Yet the study finds surprisingly little difference in baseline sentiment depending on background. Previous M&A experience, search structure, geography and professional background do not appear to materially change measures such as confidence, stress or expected acquisition probability.

The implication is intriguing: there may not be a particular type of searcher who starts the journey feeling better prepared emotionally than others.

5/ Personality may matter more than circumstances, at least initially

The researchers also examined personality and grit in a subsample of participants.

Searchers appear to be a particularly sociable, disciplined and resilient group. Their average grit score is above published adult norms, while 88% of those completing the grit measure score above the published adult average.

But the more interesting finding is not simply that searchers are gritty.

Extraversion is positively correlated with both expected acquisition probability and closing confidence, while emotionality is associated with higher stress and lower mental health. By contrast, grit and conscientiousness show surprisingly weak relationships with the sentiment measures.

The authors are careful not to suggest that personality should be used to select searchers. There is no outcome data yet, and personality has only been measured at the starting point. Instead, the findings raise a more interesting question: will personality continue to explain how searchers feel once the actual events of the search begin to accumulate?

6/ The real test is still ahead

This is ultimately what makes the study particularly interesting.

The baseline cohort starts in a very strong emotional position: high confidence, high self-efficacy, strong family and partner support, good mental health and low exhaustion. But the researchers predict that these variables will not remain stable.

They expect stress and exhaustion to increase, particularly among searchers with limited financial cushions. Confidence and expected acquisition probabilities may soften. Partner and family support could become more dispersed. And, perhaps most importantly, the authors expect events to gradually become more important than personality in explaining how searchers feel.

They also predict that risk understanding, currently an extremely high 8.4 out of 10, may be one of the first measures to decline as searchers encounter the practical realities of broken deals, seller behaviour, financing and search fatigue.

The study therefore offers much more than a snapshot of 83 searchers. It establishes a baseline against which the next two years of the ETA journey can be measured.

The most interesting question is no longer how searchers feel when they start searching, but what happens to that confidence once the search starts searching back.

The next waves of the study should provide a rare longitudinal view of the emotional journey behind ETA, from the optimism of launch through the inevitable ups and downs of sourcing, diligence, broken deals and, ultimately, acquisition or failure to acquire.

Read the full case in: https://som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2026-09/Searcher-Sentiment-During-the-ETA-Journey-Baseline-Findings-from-a-Longitudinal-Study.pdf

Diego Zainos and Eduardo Sánchez Mejorada are Chemical Engineers from Universidad Anáhuac, with MBAs from Chicago Booth and IESE Business School, respectively, two institutions with strong track records in the SF model. They have known each other for more than 25 years and have long shared the ambition of building something together. Their complementary experience across strategy, operations, and finance led them to launch Protum Capital, with the aim of acquiring and operating a great business in Mexico. They are backed by Cerralvo Capital, Relay Investments, Vonzeo Capital, Spectra Investments, Istria Capital, Valmaris Private Investors, CompuSoluciones, Ventus Capital Partners, Mazal Capital, Alexander Kirn, Till Bossert, Brian O’Connor, Alfonso Blohm, Jose Pablo Fernandez, Gerardo Aboumrad, and Benjamin Estrella.

Diego Zainos is an investment professional with a strong background across PE, VC, and investment banking in Mexico and the US. He began his career at Advent International and Grupo Financiero Banorte before joining Alvarez & Marsal and then spending three years at Linzor Capital Partners. He subsequently joined IGNIA Partners as an Associate, gaining further experience in private equity and portfolio companies, including as a Board Observer at Farmashop and UTEL Universidad. Most recently, while pursuing his MBA, he gained further investment experience as a Summer Associate at PSP Partners.

Eduardo is a Mexican investment and strategy professional with a background spanning management consulting, PE, and entrepreneurship. He began his career at Sora Capital as an Analyst before joining Bain & Company, where he spent more than two years as an Associate Consultant and was promoted to Senior Associate Consultant. He subsequently took a two-year career break to pursue an MBA at IESE Business School, before returning to Bain in 2024 as a Consultant. Eduardo also co-founded Tich Mexico, giving him early entrepreneurial experience alongside his professional career.

They are looking to acquire an established Mexican business with EBITDA above US$1M, margins of at least 15%, and an enterprise value of up to US$30M. They favor businesses with recurring or repeatable revenues, low capital intensity, manageable operational complexity, and durable competitive advantages, particularly in fragmented and non-cyclical industries. While industry is secondary, they place significant importance on the quality and long-term potential of the business, as well as on finding owners who are open to a transition through succession, retirement, or a liquidity event and who value having a committed, hands-on partner to take the business into its next phase.

Colca Capital Fund III completed in early September the acquisition of Giga Uno, a leading integrator of intelligent enterprise content management (ECM) solutions in Spanish-speaking Latin America, with Paolo Bossano stepping in to lead the company. No financial details were disclosed, but investors backing the deal include Pitlane Capital, Ventus Capital Partners and Iberica Investment Partners, among others. Summit Ridge Capital Partners provided a senior secured loan to support the buyout.

Giga Uno is a technology company specializing in enterprise content and process management solutions. As a Master Reseller of OnBase, it helps organizations centralize, manage, and automate their business information, content, cases, and processes through a single integrated platform. Its solutions are designed to improve operational efficiency, streamline workflows, and give organizations greater visibility and control over their information. For almost 25 years, Giga Uno has earned the trust of leading companies across Latin America in financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, and industry. Today, it is the leading ECM practice in Spanish-speaking Latin America, with headquarters in Bogotá, offices in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Panama, the largest certified engineering team in the region, and a presence in nine countries.

This is a textbook example of a search fund acquisition: an established company providing mission-critical solutions, with recurring revenue, strong customer relationships, and an experienced operator stepping in to lead its next chapter.

DD: Deloitte / Legal: Hogan Lovells, Garrigues, Alta Legal and Bustamante Fabara

The SF ecosystem has changed dramatically over the past few years. It has grown in size, visibility, and professionalism, with more searchers, investors, and specialized EIR platforms entering the market. But alongside this maturation, a new trend is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: everything seems to be happening faster.

Raising a traditional SF, which historically could take several months, is increasingly becoming a matter of just a few weeks for some searchers, with some reaching 200–300% oversubscription. Are investors conducting proper due diligence on searchers, and vice versa? And when an attractive acquisition opportunity appears, there is often a growing expectation to move quickly from the initial conversation to an LOI, from the LOI to due diligence, and from due diligence to closing. In some cases, processes that traditionally had clearly defined stages are being compressed in an effort to avoid losing the deal to another buyer.

There are obvious advantages to moving quickly. A searcher who raises capital faster can start searching sooner. A buyer who makes decisions quickly may have a better chance of winning an attractive opportunity. Sellers may also prefer buyers who can execute without unnecessary delays. In M&A, being slow can be expensive. But there is an important difference between being efficient and simply moving fast.

1/ Are we starting to skip steps?

One potential consequence of this acceleration is that processes that exist for a reason can increasingly be perceived as obstacles rather than safeguards.

Investor commitments and capital calls are a good example. We are starting to see some searchers request commitments from their investors before sending them the full due diligence memo, or request funding before their investors have even received or reviewed key documents such as the SHA.

Does everyone really need to move faster to avoid losing a deal? Should due diligence necessarily be shorter just because another buyer is interested? A SHA should not be rushed simply because the searcher needs the money in the account to reassure the seller that they will be able to close the acquisition.

Sometimes, we have the impression that an investment decision is becoming a race against the clock. The problem is not that things are moving too quickly. The problem arises when speed starts replacing process.

2/ The FOMO effect

Of course, there is a cultural element to this acceleration. As SFs have become more popular, searchers are constantly exposed to stories of peers who raised their capital in record time, found a company within a few months, and completed an acquisition shortly thereafter. And this inevitably creates a comparison effect.

If another searcher raised €450k in 2-3 weeks, why should I take 2-3 months? If someone else acquired a company 6 months after starting their search, why is my search taking more than two years? If another transaction closed only a few weeks after the LOI, why is mine taking longer? The problem is that every search and every acquisition is different.

One company may have a straightforward ownership structure, while another may involve multiple shareholders. One business may be perfectly prepared for a transaction, while another may require months of work. One due diligence process may confirm the investment thesis almost immediately; another may uncover issues and red flags that require significant additional analysis. Comparing timelines without considering these differences can therefore be misleading.

And it is not just searchers who can experience FOMO. As more and more players enter the market, some investors (particularly those that have raised significant funds or want to maintain their “leadership” position) may feel increasing pressure to deploy capital and commit to a greater number of searchers and acquisitions. They may also start experiencing FOMO about missing out on a promising searcher or an attractive acquisition opportunity, as the amount of capital available in the ecosystem continues to increase. And many newer investors may feel pressure to back a number of searchers quickly, in order to ensure that they start receiving their first investment opportunities within 12–18 months. As a result, they may sometimes be less diligent when assessing which searchers they choose to back

3/ A SF is not a race

Perhaps the ecosystem needs to remind itself of one fundamental principle: the objective of an SF is not to find a company quickly. It is to find the right company.

This is particularly important because of what makes the SF model different from many other forms of investing. The searcher is not simply buying an asset; they are committing to operating that business for many years.

Spending a few additional weeks getting to know your investors before accepting them into your cap table, or taking the time to understand a business, speak with customers, assess the quality of earnings, evaluate working-capital requirements, or get to know the management team when an opportunity arises can create significantly more value than closing the transaction a few weeks earlier.

An acquisition does not become a good acquisition because it was completed quickly. Similarly, adding investors or accepting board members without properly checking their references can negatively affect your journey. In fact, the opposite may sometimes be true: the greater the pressure to close, the greater the need for discipline.

4/ The paradox of professionalization

The SF ecosystem is more professional than ever. Searchers have more experience. Investors understand the model better. There are more specialized advisors, more data (such as Search Funds News! ), better tools, and increasingly standardized processes. AI and technology are reducing the time required for sourcing, financial analysis, screening, and communication. All of this is positive and should allow the ecosystem to eliminate unnecessary friction. But professionalization should ultimately mean doing things better, not simply doing them faster.

Perhaps the next stage of maturity for the SF ecosystem is not to raise a fund in 2–3 weeks instead of 2–3 months, or to close an acquisition in 60 days instead of 120. Perhaps it is to understand which steps can genuinely be accelerated without increasing risk, and which ones should not be rushed.

Sometimes, time is not friction. It’s protection.

ONEtoONE Asset Management, the asset management arm of ONEtoONE Corporate Finance Group, has launched ONEtoONE Fund II, its second fund focused on SF and the acquisition of established SMEs, with a target maximum size of €60M.

With this new vehicle, the manager expects to invest in more than 100 SFs and participate in the acquisition of around 25 SMEs, primarily located in Europe, through transactions led by top-tier professionals and focused on profitable, cash-generative companies with significant value-creation potential. Specifically, it will target companies with EBITDA of between €2M and €6M, operating in defensive sectors, with resilient business models and opportunities to drive growth and consolidation.

Another key element of ONEtoONE’s strategy is to facilitate the ownership transition of established companies, while preserving business continuity and supporting a new phase of development.

The vehicle will build on the strategy developed by the manager through its first fund, a €35M vehicle launched in 2022, which is now in the final stage of its investment period after having invested in more than 80 searchers to date. Some of the most recent SFs they have backed include CEON2 Capital, Perrenis, Marmore Capital, Cenia Partners, Fahrenheit-68, Walco, Trolega, Hexagon Transmission Capital, Alpha Nova Capital, Dorim Transmission, Tesela Capital, and Origo Capital.

The first fund, ONEtoONE Great Searchers, has invested across 12 countries and participated in the acquisition of 17 companies in Spain, France, Italy, the UK and Portugal, across sectors including food, technology, agriculture, healthcare and business services. Businesses acquired include, among others, Odontys, Renocare, Oxi Group, Tanks International, La Sala, Grup Nextclima, Phoenix Aerospace, Saepio, and Allya. The fund also completed a successful exit in 2025 through a share buyback by Crop Salsa.

After a career in investment banking and private equity, Derrek Drozdyk has launched Cypress Bay Partners with the goal of acquiring, operating, and ultimately exiting a single lower-middle-market services business in the US. He is backed by a group of respected institutional investors across the United States, bringing deep leadership experience and significant resources, including WSC & Company, Martell Capital Partners, Heritage Holding, Trilogy, Shore Capital Partners, and Futaleufu Partners.

Derrek Drozdyk is an investor and operating executive with extensive experience in essential services and other fragmented industries, including HVAC, commercial docks and doors, pest control, event rental, pool cleaning and maintenance, and other route-based businesses. Prior to founding Cypress Bay, Derrek was an investor at Trivest Partners and Dynamic Core Capital Partners (formerly Dubin Clark & Company), where he was involved in more than 25 acquisitions involving businesses with EBITDA ranging from less than $1 million to more than $10 million, and helped build seven portfolio companies. He began his career in investment banking at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, now Truist, and is a graduate of the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.

Derrek is looking to acquire a profitable lower-middle-market business in the essential services sector, with revenues of approximately $5–30M and EBITDA of $1-6M. He is particularly interested in companies with recurring or mission-critical revenues, strong customer relationships, attractive market dynamics, and opportunities for further growth in fragmented industries. He seeks to partner with strong management teams and founders, pursuing majority or control investments while providing flexible liquidity solutions and preserving the strengths of the existing business and its culture.

For most searchers, the acquisition is the finish line of the search process. After 18-24 months of fundraising, sourcing, screening and negotiating, signing the acquisition agreement represents the moment when the search finally becomes a business. But from an investment perspective, the acquisition is not the finish line… it’s the starting point!

And while searchers and investors spend considerable time thinking about the entry valuation, financing structure and first 100 days, one question is often left for much later: Who will want to buy this company in the next 4-6 years?

Thinking about the exit does not mean running the company for the benefit of a future buyer. Rather, it means understanding what makes the business valuable, transferable and attractive, and using that knowledge to make better decisions from the very beginning.

The exit thesis starts with the acquisition

A searcher evaluating an opportunity typically asks whether the company has attractive characteristics: stable cash flow, a strong market position, recurring revenues, growth potential, a defensible competitive advantage and a seller willing to transact at a reasonable valuation.

But there is another question worth asking: What could make this company significantly more valuable to another buyer in 4 or 6 years? The answer can materially change the acquisition decision.

Two businesses with identical EBITDA today may have very different exit prospects. One may operate in a fragmented and consolidating industry, have recurring revenues, low customer concentration and a strong management team. The other may depend heavily on its owner, have a handful of major customers and limited opportunities for organic growth. Their current financial profiles might look similar, but their potential exit values may not be.

For a searcher, therefore, the investment thesis should not only explain why this is a good company to buy, but also why it could become an attractive company to own and eventually sell.

1/ It changes the way you evaluate targets and can also influence the sector you choose

Thinking about the exit can improve the screening process.

During the search, it is easy to become focused on the usual characteristics that make a company attractive today. But an exit-oriented analysis adds another layer, considering: Who could the future buyers be, what drives premium valuations, how attractive is the sector for M&A and PE investors, and what could make the company difficult to sell?

This exercise can reveal important differences: a company operating in a highly fragmented market may offer significant opportunities to consolidate competitors, another in a mature market may have excellent cash generation but limited growth and few natural buyers. Both could work as SF acquisitions, but they may offer very different paths to an attractive exit.

2/ It helps determine how much you should pay

The entry valuation is obviously critical, but focusing exclusively on the entry multiple can be misleading.

The real investment question is not whether you are buying “cheaply”, but whether you can create enough value to generate an attractive return.

That value can come from multiple sources: EBITDA growth, margin expansion, revenue growth, deleveraging, acquisitions and potentially multiple expansion.

The exit thesis helps searchers understand where that value could come from: relying primarily on multiple expansion is very different from having a credible plan to double EBITDA while reducing leverage. The acquisition price establishes the starting point for the entire investment. A great value-creation plan cannot always compensate for an excessive entry price. Understanding the potential exit therefore helps determine what the company is worth today.

3/ It shapes the value-creation plan from Day One

One of the biggest advantages of having an exit thesis before closing is that it forces the searcher to think about value creation much earlier, determining what the most likely future buyers will value: customer concentration should be reduced, recurring contracts should be increased, key employees should be retained and developed, financial reporting should be professionalized, processes should become less dependent on the owner, the company should become scalable…

The exit thesis becomes a roadmap for building the business.

4/ Build a company that does not depend on you

A searcher should build a company that can operate successfully without them, reducing key-person dependency by developing a strong management team, documenting processes and delegating decision-making. This is not only good operational practice but also essential exit preparation, as a business that is less dependent on its owner is more transferable, scalable and attractive to future buyers.

5/ Think about the future buyer’s due diligence

A useful exercise is to anticipate the questions a future buyer will ask during DD and address them well before the exit. By strengthening areas such as earnings quality, customer concentration, contracts, management, financial reporting, systems and compliance from the start, searchers can reduce future execution risk and ensure the company is better prepared for a successful sale. Exit preparation can effectively become continuous DD.

6/ Map the exit universe before you close

Searchers should create an exit map during the acquisition process by identifying potential buyer categories (strategic buyers, PE funds, entrepreneurs, family offices and consolidators) and understanding why each might want to acquire the business. The goal is not to predict the exact future buyer, but to ensure the company is built from day one to be attractive to a broad range of potential acquirers.

This can also create better alignment with investors, who are backing not only an investment thesis but, importantly, the searcher’s ability to create an attractive asset over time.

7/ Don’t confuse an exit strategy with an exit deadline

Preparing for an exit is not the same as planning to sell on a fixed timeline. Searchers should focus on creating optionality by building a business that could be sold when the right opportunity arises, whether that is earlier, later, or not at all (through a long-term hold and continued value compounding), rather than working toward an arbitrary five-year exit deadline.

The search process is generally explained sequentially:

Search → Acquire → Operate → Grow → Exit

But the process is better understood as a feedback loop:

Potential exit → Target selection → Acquisition → Value creation → Exit

Before acquiring a company, searchers should ask what could make the business significantly more valuable to the next owner, focusing not only on EBITDA growth but also on making the company more scalable, predictable, less risky and attractive to a broader range of buyers. You are not building a business to sell it; you are building a business that someone will want to buy.

PAG Transmission is a SF created by Paul-Arnaud Gros, focused on acquiring and operating a small to medium-sized business in Belgium. He wants to partner with business owners seeking succession or a long-term transition, with the ambition of preserving and growing what they have built. He has attracted investors including Innesto Partners, evolutiq, ONEtoONE Asset Management, Colca Capital, Newton Equity Partners, Cabiedes Capital, Spectra Investments, Gallium Growth, Sascha Bovensmann, José Pablo Fernández de Lara, and various colleagues from PwC.

Paul brings more than a decade of experience in M&A, strategy, and financial due diligence in Belgium. He spent more than 11 years at PwC Belgium, most recently as a Senior Manager in M&A Strategy & Operations, advising clients on M&A transactions, integrations, synergies, carve-outs, and operational and financial restructuring. He started his career in audit, working primarily with international companies in sectors including pharmaceuticals, retail, and FMCG, before moving into M&A in 2017. He has also shared his experience as a guest lecturer at Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management.

He is focused on acquiring and operating a Belgian SME, ensuring that valuable know-how, local roots, and human capital continue to thrive. He is looking for a profitable business with €1–5M of EBITDA, ideally with a strong market position, recurring revenues, and a solid track record. His areas of particular interest include B2B services such as field services (fire safety, pest control, HVAC, etc.), services to industry, and healthcare services.