The Study in One Paragraph
The report, International Search Funds 2026: Selected Observations, by Juan Naranjo, Ann-Sophie Kowalewski, Peter Kelly, and Jan Simon, covers all 492 known core search funds formed outside the United States and Canada, across 48 countries, with data through December 31, 2025. International search funds returned an aggregate 2.8x ROI and 30% IRR, up from 2.0x and 18% in the 2024 edition. 73% of concluded searches ended in an acquisition, against 58% in the US and Canada. And for the first time, more search funds launched outside the US and Canada in a year than inside them.
Seven Findings That Matter
1. Record growth, and the international market passed the US in launches
A record 96 new search funds launched in 2024, and the 82 launched in 2025 exceeded new launches in the US and Canada for the first time. Acquisitions also set a record: 46 in 2025, and 71 across 2024 and 2025, a third of all 216 international acquisitions ever recorded. The model debuted in eight new countries, including Norway, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia.
2. Spain leads every market outside the US and Canada
Spain counts 98 search funds and 56 completed acquisitions, the most of any country in the international sample. Mexico follows with 59 funds and 30 acquisitions, then Brazil and the United Kingdom. Put differently: roughly one in four international search fund acquisitions in history has been a Spanish company. European searches acquired at a 78.5% rate, against 69.8% in Latin America.
3. Returns rose, because the asset class is maturing
The jump from 2.0x to 2.8x is not luck. IESE links it to longer holding periods and a wave of exits: over half of all successful international exits, 21 of them, happened in the last two years. Exited funds returned 4.0x and 39% IRR; companies still operating show 2.9x and 33%. Equity value in these companies, the authors note, typically grows most after year three or four. The patience is where the money is.
4. The average still hides a wide spread
The honest number is the median: the median acquisition returned 1.1x investors' capital, while the best reached 23.8x. Strip out the top three funds and ROI falls to 2.6x, IRR to 25%. That is the same power law Stanford shows in the US. Investors who back search funds are not buying an average. They are underwriting people and deals, one at a time.
5. Searchers are older and more experienced
The median new searcher is 34, five years older than a decade ago. Only 60% of the newest cohort holds an MBA, against 71% across the whole study, and far fewer launch straight out of school. Private equity, general management, and operations backgrounds are rising. This matters: the model is drawing operators, not just graduates.
6. Partnerships acquire more often, and lose less
Partnered searches acquired at 77.5%, against 69.9% for solo searchers, and solo searches showed higher odds of capital loss. IESE is careful to say the data supports no general preference, and home-run outcomes looked similar. But if you are deciding between searching alone and with a partner, the baseline numbers lean one way.
7. The new frontier is long-term holds
The report's closing section names an emerging model: Long Duration Enterprises, sometimes called Long-Term Holds, alongside committed capital vehicles. IESE identified 13 recently launched international LDEs, with about twice that many entrepreneurs fundraising for one. Data is still too early for return figures. But the direction is clear: more of the ecosystem wants to own good companies for longer.
What the Deals Look Like
The median international search fund acquisition: a $12 million purchase price, $8 million in revenue, a 26% EBITDA margin, and 50 employees, bought at 5.7 times EBITDA, against 6.3 times for the US and Canada. In 59% of cases more than two-thirds of revenue was recurring. The most common acquisitions in the last two years were in manufacturing, technology, and services.
And the reasons deals die have not changed. Among recent searchers, the top reasons for walking away after an LOI were adverse discoveries in due diligence (59%) and valuation disagreements (41%). Searchers who acquired signed their first LOI by month six, averaging 4.6 LOIs; those who ended without a deal averaged 8.2. Getting to a serious first LOI early goes with better outcomes.
What We Take From It
Three things, as an investor that backs searchers in Spain and the United States.
- Spain's lead is earned, and it is getting crowded. 98 funds is a real ecosystem, with all the competition for good targets that implies. The searchers who win here will be the ones with genuine local networks and the patience to earn a founder's trust, which we wrote about in how to win the seller's trust.
- The returns story is a time story. Rising ROI tracks longer holds, and value creation concentrates after year three. That is the case for patient capital in one chart, and the reason we built Santa Marta without a fund clock. We wrote the long version in what no fund clock changes.
- Long-term holds are no longer a niche idea. When IESE names them in its conclusions, the model has arrived. We already invest that way: traditional search funds when the plan is a conventional exit, and long-term holds when the business deserves to compound for longer.
One caution worth repeating: these are survey-based figures on core search funds only, and the authors themselves warn against extrapolating to self-funded searches or other models. Read the averages as direction, and underwrite every deal on its own.
"The numbers rose because the companies were held longer. In this asset class, patience is not a virtue. It is the return."