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Lineage Partners has successfully completed the first close of its inaugural fund, raising 70% of its €20M target to date and officially becoming the first institutional fund based in Germany dedicated to supporting the European search ecosystem.
Lineage supports the next generation of succession entrepreneurs by merging technology with entrepreneurial expertise. The first close has attracted strong interest, with participation from unicorn founders, search entrepreneurs, family offices, PE and VC investors, and operators from firms such as Acurio Ventures, Armira, Cherry Ventures, Flix, Forto, Henry Lamotte, Hg, Maxburg Capital Partners, Personio, Pitch, Project A, Vanguard, and others.
Carlo Schmid, Founder and Managing Partner, brings extensive entrepreneurial and investment experience to the firm. He previously spent several years building Cherry Ventures, one of Europe’s leading early-stage venture funds, where he helped scale the firm from €150M to over €1B in AUM, investing in and actively supporting more than 20 early-stage companies. Carlo now leverages his deep expertise in scaling businesses, value creation, and financing to support searchers and succession entrepreneurs. His entrepreneurial background includes managing a family business with over 80 employees (which successfully transitioned to a family successor) and co-founding a health beverage company that raised capital, established a new product category, and achieved profitability.
Lineage Partners invests industry-agnostic, strongly believing in Searcher/company fit, while emphasizing technology as a core driver of future value creation. The firm is committed to identifying and backing top searchers in finding businesses that will benefit from technology enablement, strongly believing that companies across all sectors will undergo significant digital transformation in the coming decade. Lineage positions itself as the technology partner on the cap table. The firm’s core focus is on building and strengthening the search fund ecosystem in Europe. Occasionally, the fund will invest outside of Europe, provided there are European ties within the search team. Their hands-on approach includes taking lead investment roles, securing board seats, and providing robust support through their platform, network, and community.
Already fully operational, Lineage Partners has supported over a dozen searchers over the past year across Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK, and the USA. These include Konkordia Unternehmensnachfolge, Endurion Capital, Azmar Capital, Peak 35, Vericor Capital, Lynx Trail Capital, Pineway Capital, Funke Unternehmensnachfolge, and others currently being finalized.
If you are currently raising your SF, have an equity gap, or are in the early stages of deciding whether to pursue a search, feel free to reach out to Carlo directly at carlo@lineage.partners. He is excited to hear from you!
