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Albatross Partners, a SF founded by Briano Castelli, Juan Pablo Meneses, and Peter Kelly, has raised nearly €700k to acquire a high-potential Italian company. The trio is backed by a mix of international and Italian investors, including Search Capital Partners, ONEtoONE Asset Management, Cabiedes Inversiones, Secways, TMB3 Fund, Inderhabs Investments, B&W Mittelstand, Nidum Capital, Stephan Morgan, Léon Bartolomé, Tobias Mohr, Paolo Guida, Caroline Leopold-Metzger, Baudoin Lescuyer, Pablo Meneses, Germano Fiss, Antonia Longrois, Giovanni Toffolutti, and Michele Spangaro.
With combined experience across multiple industries in both family-owned businesses and global enterprises, the three principals bring complementary strengths, ensuring all aspects of growth are covered. This approach minimizes the need for external hires and creates a balanced, hands-on leadership team.
Briano has been actively involved in family-owned businesses in pharmaceuticals and hospitality. At the same time, he built a 10-year career in luxury retail and cruise (MSC) with turnaround mandates, developing a strong interest in change management.
Juan Pablo built his career in finance within manufacturing companies, from large holding groups to his family-owned business in Colombia. Beyond finance leadership, he was closely engaged with operations, from site visits at paper mills to managing supplier relationships.
Peter studied medical science before a 10-year career in MedTech, where he held roles across sales, warehouse operations, clinical support for surgeons, and product management for a national implant and robotics portfolio.
The fund’s mission is to acquire and operate a single Italian business in a growing B2B sector with a proven model, strong customer value, solid cash flows, and a motivated seller open to partnering on succession. Their goal is to complete an initial transaction with an EV upwards of €15M.
Briano Castelli commented: “Albatross Partners’ three-principal structure was intentionally designed to maximize the potential to scale an Italian business. It provides the flexibility needed to pursue local market leadership while exploring alternative avenues of growth, such as internationalization. Many Italian SMEs, preferring control over external capital injections, have not pursued these growth strategies in the past, despite their suitability.”
