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Istria Capital Partners has announced the final closing of its second fund, reaching its €50M target size, and adding several institutional and international investors to its traditional base of Spanish family offices. This vehicle will continue to back top searchers globally, with a focus in Europe, providing hands-on support.
Simón Bores and Ignacio Olavarría launched Istria I in 2018, a €20M fund, through which they acquired 32 operating businesses across 13 countries in Europe, North America and Latam. Among their portfolio figures companies such as Logiscenter, Infonetica, CarPro, Teclena, Motion VFX and Water Direct. In recent months, the fund executed its first two exits, both in Spain: CTAIMA, the most successful outcome for a SF in Europe to date, and Bike Ocasión.
Simón Bores commented: “In 2018, we defied conventional wisdom by launching the 1st European Fund of SFs at a time when SFs were still in their infancy in Europe. Since then we have backed more than 130 SFs and invested in more than 40 acquisitions. This second fund is a further step in our mission to help European search entrepreneurs build great businesses.”
Istria’s second fund already has a portfolio of 75+ active SFs and has invested in 12 acquisitions. In 2024, they have already backed about 20 SFs such as LDue Capital, Ayete Partners, Aspeon Partners, Sailly Transmission, Gaman Succession, Cedo Capital, Solferino Capital, etc.; and recent acquisitions include Tacna (Mexico), Saepio Information Security (UK), Flying Eye (France), Monforte Education Group (Italy), Kofre Tecnologia (Brazil) or Leaseir Medical Light (Spain).
Istria reinforced its team last year by bringing on Lenka Kolarova as senior VP of investments and Matthew Good as CFO, and will likely continue to expand their team to scale up the hands-on support and services they offer to their entrepreneurs.
