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 base is permanent: no fund clock, no forced exits, and the option to stay as long as the business keeps compounding.
Permanent Capital
No fund clock. Decisions run on business time, not fundraising time.
Operators First
We have run companies, carried payroll, and made the hard calls. That is the seat we invest from.
Skin in the Game
Our own capital, on the board, in the room when it gets hard.
Spain & the U.S.
Native in Spanish succession and banking. Fluent in the American playbook.
When you have to sell in five years, you manage for the exit. When you never have to sell, you manage for the business. Permanent capital gives us that choice. That is the firm we built.
We invest early, structure carefully, and stay.
We invest from search through ownership and
beyond.
Our structure protects the operator, not just the deal.
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. What we care about doesn't change: a good business, a clean structure, and an operator we trust.
The Equity Gap, Closed
When the cap table comes up short at closing, we fill the gap: conservative leverage, seller notes, earn-outs, rollover. Structures everyone can live with for years.
Direct & Club Investing
We participate alongside family offices and aligned partners in search-style acquisitions. Minority or control positions, depending on governance. Same homework, same standards, whatever the ticket size.
Operators who invest.
Not investors who advise.
We've run companies. We've carried payroll. We've made
hard calls.
That operational reality shapes how we structure, invest, and govern.
Operators First
We don't just provide capital: we roll up our sleeves. From day-one operational cadence to board-level governance, we support searcher-entrepreneurs as partners who have actually run SMEs. Our involvement goes far beyond writing a check.
Patient Capital
Our capital has no return date.
We make decisions on fundamentals, and the
business sets the pace.
Few Deals, On Purpose
We invest in a limited number of deals where our involvement creates real value. Quality of governance and alignment matter more than deal volume. We'd rather walk away than close a badly structured deal.
Two Markets, One Team
We grew up inside Spanish succession, banks, and boards, and we've run and backed companies in the US. Same judgment, both sides of the Atlantic.
Your operational partner
across the entire journey
From the first conversation through acquisition, ownership, and exit, we're in the trenches with you, not just on the cap table.
Fit & Focus
Clear alignment on what makes a great business, and where we do not compromise. Roles and governance are defined before momentum takes over.
LOI to Due Diligence
Deep analysis of real risks: revenue quality, margin durability, customer concentration, working capital traps, and key-person dependencies.
Financing & Structuring
Cap table design built for durability, not just closing. Equity gap solutions, seller notes, rollover, and bank financing structured to support the operator.
Post-Closing Cadence
Establishing a clear operational rhythm: monthly KPIs, cash discipline, team priorities, and first operational improvements.
Active Ownership & Exit
Continuous board-level involvement. We support strategic decisions, operational scaling, and capital allocation, and bring transactional expertise when it's time.
Companies we've built alongside operators
Different sectors, same test: a durable business, run well, owned by people who act like owners.
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 →Operators first.
Investors second.
Our team combines executive management, M&A expertise, and operational discipline, with the proximity and commitment of a partner, not a fund.
Manolo Moreno
Manolo has led PE-backed companies in the US and Spain, including inside the
Alpine Investors ecosystem, through good years and hard ones. He built Santa Marta to be the owner he
wishes he'd had: patient, and with real skin in the game. MBA, UCLA
Anderson.
He invests the way he operated: few bets, clean structures, held for years.
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 is the reason our
companies close their months on time and their numbers mean what they say.
Strategic judgment
on the cap table
Not a fund. Not a capital pool.
A partner who
has done the job and stays.
Patient Capital, No Exit Pressure
No fund lifecycle behind us. Decisions follow the business, not a distribution calendar.
Operational Focus & Structuring
Deep experience in cap table design, financing coordination, and post-closing operational cadence. We add value beyond capital, especially when structure and closing execution are critical.
Clear Governance Judgment
Visibility and decision rights that function under pressure. We invest in minority or control positions depending on structure, with a clear view on governance that protects all stakeholders.
Aligned Partners We Work With
Searchers and sponsors. Family offices. Accelerators and platforms. Long-term investors who would rather build a relationship than rush a transaction. Early conversations 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 and is now growing rapidly in Spain.
Unlike traditional PE, search funds are led by a single operator-entrepreneur who will run the company day-to-day after acquisition. There's no portfolio of dozens of companies. The searcher is fully dedicated to one business, which creates deep alignment between capital and management.
In some cases. The most important thing is defining the role early to maintain a clean cap table and clear governance. We're flexible on position but rigid on structure.
Yes, with the right searcher or team. Early alignment is often the best predictor of long-term success. We value the relationship more than the deal.
Yes. We bridge the equity gap when necessary to close the acquisition and preserve the right structure. We've done it across multiple deal types.
We look for SMEs with recurring or stable revenue, defensible market positions, low customer concentration, and willing sellers, typically in business succession scenarios. Industries vary: we focus on business quality, not sector labels.
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've operated SMEs ourselves and bring practical, day-to-day knowledge, not just theory.
Yes. Spain has one of the fastest-growing search fund ecosystems in Europe. The wave of business succession (thousands of SME owners retiring without successors) creates a natural pipeline for searcher-led acquisitions. Top business schools like IESE and IE are producing searchers every year.
Competitive processes where speed replaces discipline. Aggressive leverage. Unclear governance. If the fundamentals do not hold, we walk away.
Use the contact form below or email us directly at manolo@gsantamarta.com. We respond to every serious inquiry, typically within 48 hours. Early conversations are welcome, even before you have a target.
Practical thinking for
searchers & long-term
investors
Lessons and playbooks from the front lines of search fund investing in Spain and beyond.
Top Search Fund Investors in Spain
Search Funds in Spain: A Practical Guide
How to Win the Seller's Trust in Spanish Business Succession
Working Capital Traps in SME Acquisitions
Seller Notes & Earn-Outs: When They Help and When They Don't
The First 100 Days: An Operator's Playbook
Write to us. A person answers.
If you are building or acquiring an enduring company, we should speak.