Legate Partners
At a Glance
The clearest operator-heavy option for a searcher who values having been in the seat over having an office to visit.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees. No fee is charged to a searcher; what the firm publishes about its own side is noted in the row.
- Best For
- A traditional searcher who wants backers who have sat in the chair, and does not need to know where a firm is registered before talking to it.
- Track Record
- Sixty-plus searchers backed, thirty-plus companies invested in and twenty-plus years of search investing, by its own count, with a portfolio page of thirty-three logos. The return multiples beside those figures are named to individual partners and belong to their own companies.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- Based
- No address published anywhere on its site.
- Invests
- Seven-plus countries, by its own tile, with a portfolio whose links reach the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Mexico.
- Buys
- Companies with a long history of stable cashflows in growing industries, preferring recurring revenue and work that does not require the searcher to learn highly technical skills.
- Before A First Call
- No condition. A searcher writes to a named principal whose printed role is searcher recruitment, diligence and relations, at any stage of the journey in its own words, or meets the firm at the three conferences its calendar lists.
- First-Time Operators
- A profile rather than a bar: it says it looks for distinctive intellectual horsepower, grit and a track record of extreme success. Achievement is not experience, and nothing requires having run a company.
- 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.
- After The Close
- Nothing about the years after closing on the pages this review read, whether a hold period, a first-year plan or a board role. Ask how long it expects to own the company before you sign.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Both partners are former search fund chief executives, which is rarer among backers than it sounds
- States plainly that it will meet a searcher at any stage rather than only once a deal exists
- Says what it looks for in plain terms, including a preference against highly technical businesses
Cons
- No address of any kind published on any page, only an email address
- Its strongest numbers are returns attributed to individual partners' own companies rather than to the firm
- Publishes nothing about check size, stake, the searcher's economics, or how long a search may run
What Searchers Say
Named as a backer on the published rosters of eleven separate searchers, more than any other firm absent from this shelf when that count was taken. Read whole on its four live pages; its sitemap lists three more that are unlinked template drafts with placeholder text, and a guessed portfolio address lands on one of them. Its portfolio is thirty-three logos with empty alt text under four headings, fourteen of them companies the acquisitions record here already holds.
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