# LatAm Search Fund Primer

The Latin American numbers nobody else counts.

A study of the Latin American search fund market published by a backer that has funded searchers there since 2017, covering activity since the region's first fund in 2008. It counts 169 funds that began raising, 84 that completed the search, 59 acquisitions, 25 searches that ended without a deal and 27 that never raised, with 48 still searching at the end of 2024. It puts the region's returns at 3.1 times and the internal rate of return at 28 percent, reports a median of 36.5 percent debt in deal value and 8.2 percent in earn-outs, and shows solo searchers rising to 78 percent of the 2023 to 2024 cohort against 41 percent six years earlier.

- Category: Education & Programs
- Pricing model: Free
- Where it fits: Learn & Choose Your Path
- Website: https://spectrainvest.com/estudo/latam-search-fund-primer-2/
- Last verified: 2026-09-09

## At a Glance

If your search is in Latin America, this is the study to read first, and the United States figures are the ones that do not apply.

## What It Costs

Free, and published as a full web page rather than a gated download, so every figure is readable without an email address.

## Best For

A searcher or investor working in Latin America who needs regional numbers rather than United States ones

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: The only regional dataset of its kind read here: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru counted separately
- Pro: Reports the searches that ended without a deal and the funds that never raised, which most studies leave out
- Pro: Breaks returns down by solo against partnered searches and reports where the losses were
- Con: Published by a firm that backs the funds it counts, which is disclosed on the page but is still its own market
- Con: Read here through the browser rather than the downloadable file, so the figures are the ones the page carries
- Con: Counts to the end of 2024 with three exits added from the first half of 2025, so the edges are uneven

## What Searchers Say

Published alongside legal guides to Brazilian and Mexican search funds by the same firm, and cited on other backers' reading lists in the region.

## Sources

- https://spectrainvest.com/estudo/latam-search-fund-primer-2/

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/latam-search-fund-primer