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1/ In 2017, you were among the earliest investors in Tre Cime Capital, the first search fund launched in Italy. What convinced you that this still-niche and largely unproven model in Europe at this time was worth betting on, and what in your background led you there?
I learned about Search Funds during my MBA at Chicago Booth. My finance professor, Luigi Zingales, had written a book that positioned search funds as a “third way to capitalism” and meritocracy, even if you are not born into a wealthy family or with tech talent. I considered a couple of times launching a search fund myself but judged it was too early. I knew this model would eventually arrive in Italy, and Italy was the perfect market for it. It took a bit of a VC mindset and a “break-the-rules” culture to embrace and ride the wave that was about to come.
Tommaso contacted me via LinkedIn, and we later met for a coffee in Milan. It took me all of five minutes to decide to invest and support him. He had already secured 80% of the cap table, and he was the first founder I met who I genuinely believed had a real chance of succeeding. I wanted him to succeed because I knew others would follow, and, selfishly, there’s always value in being early and recognising potential before the crowd does. I backed him, helped localise the cap table, and later reinvested when he completed an acquisition. Looking back, I’m very pleased with that decision.
2/ In the years that followed, you became one of the most active private investors in search funds in Italy. How has the model evolved up to 2024?
Before launching ETA I, I had personally invested in nearly 20 search funds across Italy, the UK, Spain, and France, as well as in several direct acquisitions, including UK-based roll-ups. I also invested in an ETA vehicle managed by another GP to gain exposure to international opportunities that I could not access directly.
The traditional search fund model is now more accepted and understood, thanks also to the educational and ecosystem-building efforts we carried out with Eureka! and the Graduate School of Management at Politecnico di Milano. The model now is proven to work in Italy too, with more than 40 search funds launched and close to 20 acquisitions completed. For aspiring young ambitious entrepreneurs there is no excuse: this is really a viable option. What is still missing is the supply side of capital in Italy. The model is still not fully understood and while some institutional investors have started to embrace it, there is ample room for high net worth individuals and family offices to get involved.
3/ In 2025, you partnered with Eureka! Venture, an independent asset management company specialized in VC and PE funds, and launched ETA Fund. What inspired this partnership, and why is now the right time for institutional investment in search funds?
I already knew Stefano Peroncini, Eureka! Venture founder and CEO from years before. We met at an event I had contributed to co-organize together with NOVA, the Italian association of professionals who completed an MBA abroad where the success story of the first Italian exit in search funds was discussed and celebrated. The curious thing was that both Stefano and I were in venture capital at that time. It was funny to have two VC guys at a search fund event. Furthermore I had experience in raising a fund and knew how difficult it was. As I was considering putting more structure behind my private investments, it was clear that an Italian closed-end fund promoted in cooperation with an Italian regulated investment entity was the way to go. We started a deep-dive process which resulted in the launch of ETA I.
4/ How would you describe the core investment thesis behind ETA Fund, and how has your 25+ years of experience across M&A, private equity, venture capital, and consulting shaped the design of the fund? Do you prefer searchers with consulting or banking backgrounds, or those with operational experience? What qualities do you believe are most critical for success in this model?
The original investment thesis was 70% Italy and 30% Europe. As of today, we are 95% Italy as the market has matured quickly and we intentionally decided to be the cornerstone investor for Italian searchers eager to embrace ETA. The choice has been easy and immediate given the very high quality of Italian searchers and a large number of attractive acquisition targets in the SME market. We anticipate some rebalancing in favor of the non-Italian portfolio component but we are very pleased with the deals we see coming.
On the searchers’ background, we try not to have prejudices. In general, we prefer searcher pairs rather than solo searchers given the roller-coaster of the ETA process.
Soft skills are definitely the most important part of the equation: ambition, integrity, coachability, willingness to listen and learn, resiliency and … yes grit and hunger.
5/ What is your assessment after the first year of activity, and what kind of portfolio would you like to build over the next 2–3 years?
We are very pleased with what we have done. Fundraising and investing is not always easy. We currently have 24 searchers in our portfolio and two acquisitions (Stilef, acquired by Atlas, and Tanks International, acquired by Solferino Capital). More recently, we have backed searchers at Eterna Capital, Alpha Nova, Etrus, Tosium, Nephos, Artemide, and Vitis. Depending on the fund size, we believe we may back up to 40 searchers and about 20 portfolio companies.
We expect the fund to be fully deployed in the next 2-3 years.
6/ Research from Politecnico di Milano School of Management highlights strong early performance in Italian SFs, with Tikedo as a standout exit in 2023, and the number of searchers has surged in the past two years. What do you think is driving this momentum?
In the Italian market, Tikedo at the moment still represents an exception. There was a second exit, but the outcome, although good and known by industry insiders, has not been publicly disclosed. More successful exits will drive increased attention to and capital flowing into the asset class. We are very bullish on the opportunity.
With more than 10 search funds launched in Italy during the first five months of 2026, the country has become one of the most active—if not the most active—markets in Europe. At least five searchers in our portfolio are currently in advanced due diligence and are expected to complete acquisitions by the summer or during Q3. We are also seeing the emergence of roll-up strategies and committed-capital structures in the market. This is a clear sign of vitality and dynamism, which bodes well for the continued evolution and maturation of the ecosystem. It is entirely possible that Italy will soon reach 8–10 acquisitions per year, as the search fund ecosystem enters a phase of accelerated growth.
7/ Less than one-third of capital in Italian SFs comes from domestic investors. Is this evidence that Italian capital is still structurally conservative, or does it suggest that local investors simply don’t yet trust the asset class? What would need to happen for that to change meaningfully?
Italian investors still don’t know the asset class and are skeptical about giving capital to someone who has never managed a company before and who needs to pay him/herself a salary for 2 years to find a company to buy. It’s a very unusual value proposition for a country which tends to be pretty conservative in capital allocation choices (as is the case in many other European countries), but we think within three years the situation will be pretty different.
More successful exits (to be publicly celebrated) will certainly attract new investors, as has already happened in Spain, which is probably at least three to five years ahead of Italy.
8/ Italy—and Europe more broadly—faces a looming SME succession crisis. Are SFs actually a scalable solution, or just a marginal fix for a structural problem too large for the model to absorb? And realistically, how many SMEs in Italy are truly “SF compatible,” once you strip away the theory? Which sectors are genuinely worth the hype today, and which are overplayed?
Search funds (and funds like ETA I) are a very real and structural solution to a structural problem. We hope to see more Italian funds like us in the market. It’s great though to see international investors filling the gap that Italian investors are currently leaving open.
Sector wise, it depends on the searchers’ background. Engineers may be better suited for niche manufacturing while professionals with business backgrounds may be better suited to business services but the market is huge and still has significant room for growth.
When we started analyzing the market to understand what the investable universe for searchers in Italy could be, we relied on Eurostat data, which provides consistent figures across European countries based on revenues and number of employees.
In Italy, there are 2.2 million family-owned businesses, of which approximately 130,000 have between 10 and 50 employees—likely the primary target segment for searchers (with a further 22,000 firms in the 50–250 employee range). Some estimates suggest that 4–5% of these firms face a succession problem each year (likely an underestimate), implying a target market of roughly 6,000–8,000 businesses annually.
In terms of sectors, we see significant opportunities in B2B models within growing verticals that are fragmented, where capex requirements remain reasonable and working capital can be kept lean. Italy is not rich in software/SaaS companies (which are now also less sought after in some other advanced economies due to perceived AI-related risks), so searchers must look toward less fashionable businesses. However, we see ample opportunity in areas such as education, HVAC, packaging, maintenance and environmental services, IT services, food and healthcare, as well as in “Made in Italy” and export-oriented sectors.
There is no shortage of opportunities. The key is understanding not only what to acquire, but also how to buy—and potentially pursuing a buy-and-build strategy, which is particularly well suited to Italy, where businesses are often too small and consolidation and scale should be top of mind for every searcher.
