Cerralvo Capital
At a Glance
The strongest published case on this shelf for a searcher outside the United States, and the weakest published case for knowing what the deal would look like, since the page describing its model is missing from its own site.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees, and none are published: no check size, no stake, no fee. An investor portal behind its site confirms an externally funded vehicle rather than personal capital.
- Best For
- A searcher outside the United States, particularly in Latin America or southern Europe, who wants a backer whose published book is already international rather than one making an exception.
- Track Record
- Fifty portfolio companies published with a country and a chief executive named for each, seven of them marked exited.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The deal only
- Based
- No address published on any page, including contact and privacy.
- Invests
- Its published book spans Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Israel, India and the United States.
- Buys
- A promise rather than a criterion, that it will identify an elite business and structure the right deal, beside fifty published portfolio companies with a country and a chief executive each. THE PAGE THAT WOULD CARRY ITS MODEL IS GONE. A Leading Strategy link in every footer and a home-page button both point at a page that no longer exists. That is why stage, terms and criteria are unanswerable here rather than merely unpublished.
- Before A First Call
- A contact form and an address for general enquiries, plus a separate portal for existing investors. Its internship page does set conditions, asking for MBA students from strong schools, but those are conditions on an INTERN and not on a searcher, and filing them here would be the person-and-company confusion this file already records four times.
- First-Time Operators
- A tone and a compliment: a values list running from ownership mentality to enjoying the journey, and a description of partnering with world-class talent. Neither is a condition on what a searcher has run before.
- 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
- Fifty portfolio companies published with country and chief executive named, which is a checkable record rather than a count
- Genuinely international across three continents, which is rare on a shelf where most firms publish a United States address and nothing else
- Founded and run by someone who searched and then ran two companies, so the operating experience is first-hand
Cons
- No address published on any page, including contact and privacy
- The page that would carry its investing model, linked from the footer of every page and from a home-page button, returns a 404 and is absent from its own sitemap
- Publishes nothing about the stage it funds, its terms, or what a searcher must bring, so the relationship has to be established by asking
What Searchers Say
Named on the backer rosters of several independent searchers. Its internship program is a summer placement for MBA students and is not a salaried search program; its conditions apply to interns rather than to searchers.
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