Backing enduring businesses and entrepreneurial leaders.
We invest in searchers, operators, and buy-and-build platforms in Spain and the United States, from traditional search funds to long-term and permanent holds. Our capital is permanent: no fund clock and no forced exits.
Permanent Capital
No fund clock and no forced exits.
Operators First
We have run companies, and we invest from that experience.
Skin in the Game
Our own capital, and a board seat in about half our positions.
Spain & the U.S.
Spain and the United States are our core markets.
We invest early, structure carefully, and stay.
We invest from search through ownership and beyond.
The Whole Search Fund Journey
We invest across the full journey: traditional and self-funded search funds, succession-driven acquisitions, and ETA structures, with conventional exit horizons or long-term holds depending on the opportunity.
The Equity Gap, Closed
When the cap table comes up short at closing, we fill the gap: conservative leverage, seller notes, earn-outs, rollover.
Direct & Club Investing
We participate alongside family offices and aligned partners in search-style acquisitions. Minority positions, 5% to 15%, with governance agreed up front.
Our mandate, in numbers.
So you can tell in one read whether we fit your cap table. If we do, send the opportunity.
- Ticket size
- Sized to each dealEvery position is sized to the opportunity and the cap table, within our stake range. Tell us what you need and we will tell you quickly whether we fit.
- Stake
- 5% to 15% of the opportunityUsually 8% to 15%. Always above 5%, never above 15%. We are a minority investor, not a control buyer.
- Where we invest
- Equity gaps, search phase, buy-and-builds, fundsEquity gaps most often. Search capital less often, but considered. Buy-and-builds as a minority co-investor. Selectively as LP in funds.
- Governance
- Board seat in about half our positionsAdvisory committee in a couple more. The role is agreed before we commit, not after.
- Capital
- Permanent, no fund clockNo forced exits. We can stay as long as the business keeps compounding.
- Geography
- Spain and the United StatesOur core markets. We also invest in the rest of Europe and North America, case by case, with a local partner we trust. In the US we invest directly and through partners such as Mosaic ETA.
- Business profile
- Sector agnostic, with preferencesRecurring or stable revenue, low customer concentration, willing sellers, often a succession.
- Response
- Within 48 hoursEvery serious inquiry gets a yes, a no, or the questions we need answered first.
The pages on search funds, the equity gap, buy-and-builds and co-investing go deeper on each case.
Operators who invest.
We have run companies. That experience shapes how we structure and govern.
Operators First
From day-one operational cadence to board-level governance, we support searchers as partners who have run SMEs.
Patient Capital
Our capital has no return date. The business sets the pace.
Few Deals, On Purpose
We invest in a limited number of deals. We would rather walk away than close a badly structured one.
Two Markets, One Team
We know Spanish succession, banks and boards, and we have run and backed companies in the US.
Your operational partner
across the entire journey
We work with you from the first conversation through acquisition, ownership and exit.
Fit & Focus
Alignment on what makes a good business. Roles and governance are defined early.
LOI to Due Diligence
Analysis of the real risks: revenue quality, margin durability, customer concentration, working capital traps, and key-person dependencies.
Financing & Structuring
Cap table design, equity gap solutions, seller notes, rollover, and bank financing, structured to support the operator.
Post-Closing Cadence
A clear operating rhythm: monthly KPIs, cash discipline, team priorities, and first operational improvements.
Active Ownership & Exit
Board-level involvement in strategic decisions, operational scaling, and capital allocation, and transaction support when it is time to exit.
Companies we have invested in
We are also invested in searchers who are still looking for their company.
SM Agro
Farmland across Spain, run like the business it is: professional operations, disciplined costs, and ownership measured in decades.
Torrelaguna
A real estate platform spanning short-term rental hospitality and industrial assets across Spain. Managed with modern tools, owned for the long haul.
Pentatel
Turnkey audiovisual production for corporate and institutional clients across Spain. Recurring mandates and clients who come back year after year.
Itegra
Digital claims platform for Spanish sports federations. Purpose-built to streamline injury reporting and policy administration for federated athletes, from first notice to close.
Cartondis
Industrial corrugated packaging with four decades of operational history. Three production plants across Spain and a customer base built on reliability and repeat business.
Essential Services Platform
A buy-and-build platform consolidating a highly recurring, essential-services industry across the Iberian market.
Mosaic ETA
Through Mosaic ETA, we back underrepresented searchers across the US acquiring industrial and services businesses. Our operator-first thesis, applied to the American market.
Want to join us?
We're always glad to meet searchers, operators, and founders who care about lasting businesses in Spain and the US.
Say hello →Who we are
Our team combines executive management, M&A, and operational experience.
Manolo Moreno
Manolo is the founder of Grupo Santa Marta. He has led private equity-backed companies in the US, within the Alpine Investors ecosystem, and has been a founder and CEO in Spain. He started Santa Marta to invest in operators with patient capital, alongside the people doing the work. MBA, UCLA Anderson.
Santiago Prieto
Twenty years of M&A and more than fifty closed deals across industries.
Partner at Socios Corporate Finance, advising buy-side and sell-side mandates for SMEs and mid-market
companies in Spain.
He has seen every way a deal can fall apart, and most of the ways to save one.
That judgment runs through our diligence and our structures.
Inmaculada Hernández
Finance and operations leadership across hospitality and healthcare: budgets,
controls, reporting, and the processes that keep a company running well.
She keeps Santa Marta
itself running with the same discipline we ask of the companies we back.
Strategic judgment
on the cap table
We co-invest in minority positions, with permanent capital.
Patient Capital, No Exit Pressure
Permanent capital, with no fund clock and no forced exits.
Operational Focus & Structuring
Experience in cap table design, financing coordination, and post-closing operational cadence.
Clear Governance Judgment
We invest in minority positions of 5% to 15%, with governance agreed up front.
Aligned Partners We Work With
Searchers and sponsors, family offices, accelerators and platforms, and other long-term investors. Early conversations are welcome.
Common questions
from searchers & partners
A search fund is an investment vehicle where an entrepreneur (the searcher) raises capital to find, acquire, and operate a single privately held company, typically an SME with stable cash flows and growth potential. The model originated at Stanford and Harvard.
Unlike traditional PE, search funds are led by a single operator-entrepreneur who will run the company day-to-day after acquisition. There is no portfolio of dozens of companies. The searcher is fully dedicated to one business, which aligns capital and management.
In some cases. We define the role early to keep a clean cap table and clear governance.
Yes, less often than equity gaps, but we consider it with the right searcher or team. The same mandate applies: a position between 5% and 15% of the opportunity, governance agreed up front, and permanent capital with no fund clock.
Yes, and it is what we do most often. When the cap table comes up short at closing we take a position between 5% and 15% of the opportunity, usually 8% to 15%, with each ticket sized to the deal.
We look for SMEs with recurring or stable revenue, defensible market positions, low customer concentration, and willing sellers, typically in business succession scenarios. We are sector agnostic.
We help establish the first 100-day operational cadence, set up KPI dashboards, support hiring decisions, and provide board-level guidance on strategy and cash management. We have operated SMEs ourselves.
Yes. Spain is the largest search fund market outside the United States and Canada, according to the IESE 2026 international study. Business succession creates a natural pipeline for searcher-led acquisitions, and business schools such as IESE and IE produce searchers every year.
Competitive processes where speed replaces discipline, aggressive leverage, and unclear governance. If the fundamentals do not hold, we walk away.
Use the contact form below or email us directly at manolo@gsantamarta.com (gsantamarta.com is our mail domain; the website is gruposantamarta.com). We respond to every serious inquiry within 48 hours. Early conversations are welcome, even before you have a target.
We size each ticket to the deal and the cap table, for 5% to 15% of the opportunity, usually 8% to 15%. We take a board seat in about half of our positions and sit on the advisory committee in a couple more. Spain and the United States are our core markets. We also invest in the rest of Europe and North America, case by case, with a local partner we trust. In the United States we invest directly and through partners such as Mosaic ETA.
A one-page teaser or short deck, your CV or the team behind the platform, the cap table and round size with the ticket you are asking from us, your timeline to close, and whether a data room exists. With that, we reply within 48 hours with a yes, a no, or the questions we need answered first. See what to send.
Practical thinking for
searchers & long-term
investors
Guides and research on search fund investing in Spain and the US.
Top Search Fund Investors in Spain
Search Funds in Spain: A Practical Guide
IESE International Search Fund Study 2026: What the Numbers Say
Why Most Roll-Ups Fail (and What the Disciplined Few Do Differently)
Search Funds in the US vs Spain: One Model, Two Playbooks
What No Fund Clock Changes for a Searcher
What to send, and what happens next.
Put the basics in the first email and we can triage it in one read.
What to include
- A one-page teaser or a short deck. The business, revenue and EBITDA, and why it is for sale.
- Who you are. Searcher CV, or the team behind the platform or the fund.
- Cap table and round size. Total equity, what is committed, what is open, and the ticket you are asking from us.
- Timeline. Where you are (search, LOI, due diligence, closing) and the date you need an answer by.
- Materials. Whether a data room exists and when we can get access.
What happens next
- Within 48 hours. Manolo replies with whether it fits our mandate and what we need next.
- First call. The business, the structure, and the role you want us to play on the cap table and the board.
- Decision. If it fits, we move to the materials and to the rest of the cap table. If it does not, we tell you why.
Or email a teaser to manolo@gsantamarta.com. gsantamarta.com is our mail domain; the website is gruposantamarta.com.
Write to us. A person answers.
If you are building or acquiring an enduring company, we should speak.
Prefer email? manolo@gsantamarta.com. gsantamarta.com is our mail domain; the website is gruposantamarta.com. Serious inquiries get a reply within 48 hours.
Calle Núñez de Balboa 116, 28006 Madrid, España