ALZA Capital Partners
At a Glance
Worth a call for a searcher outside the United States who wants a backer with a portfolio that spans several markets.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees. No fee is charged to a searcher; what the firm publishes about its own side is in the row.
- Best For
- A searcher who wants a backer with a large, dated portfolio across Latin America and Europe rather than one market.
- Track Record
- Sixty-seven operating companies dated by year, with more than five hundred million dollars of combined annual revenue and more than five thousand employees on its own count.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- Based
- No address published anywhere on its site.
- Invests
- Thirteen countries on its own count, among them Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- Buys
- Profitable and resilient companies across nine named industries, with no size band published anywhere.
- Before A First Call
- A contact form with a topic list covering search fund fundraising, an equity gap, an invitation and a service, which routes a message without stating a condition on who may send one.
- First-Time Operators
- Nothing about prior experience as a condition anywhere. Its own story is that its founders raised a search fund and ran a twenty-two month search before starting this firm, which is a description of the path rather than a bar on it.
- How Long The Search Runs
- No length on the search and nothing about what happens if it ends without a deal, on the pages this review read. Ask what the clock is before you sign anything.
- Published Terms
- No check size, stake or fee on the pages this review read. Most firms on this shelf publish none, so ask early rather than late.
- What A Searcher Gets
- Not published on the pages this review read. It is the figure a searcher most wants and most of this shelf does not print it, so ask before the first call rather than after.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Counts its operating companies, countries, industries, revenue and employees on one page
- Dates every company in the portfolio and gives many of them their own links
- Its founders ran a search fund themselves before raising this one, and the page says so
Cons
- No check size, cap-table share or fund size published anywhere
- The portfolio mixes operating companies with search funds without saying how many of each
- Its login wall sits on every page, though the pages behind the nav are readable
What Searchers Say
One of the larger Latin American search backers by its own count, and the numbers here are the ones its portfolio page publishes.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how traditional (investor-backed) search capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A first conversation on your background and why search, before any deal.
- A deep dive on your plan: industries, criteria, and how you will source.
- Backing for the search itself, then a fresh underwrite when you bring a live deal.
- A board seat and governance once you close.
What It Weighs
- Whether you will finish a two-year search, not only start one.
- The quality of your thesis and target criteria.
- How you will behave on a cap table over a long hold.
How to Prepare
- Bring a sourcing thesis, not a blank slate. Buyer Profile Builder
- Know which firms lead versus follow, and on what terms. Investors
- Make your operator case on one page. Buyer Profile Builder