Liberty Search Ventures
At a Glance
A useful co-investor to know once you have a lead: it fills 5 to 10% of the round and brings board support, but it is not the anchor that assembles your cap table.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees: traditional search-fund economics, typically 5 to 10% of a search fund's capital commitments ($0.5M to $1.5M), co-investing alongside lead institutional backers.
- Best For
- Traditional searchers assembling a cap table who want an active co-investor and board member alongside a lead fund
- Track Record
- Founded 2019 as Liberty Search Ventures and Liberty Partners since, in its partners' biographies. A portfolio page of 122 entries, eighty search partners and forty-two companies, every card a link out; four board seats and one exit named beside the partners; neither a fund size nor a tally of what it has backed.
- The vehicle page states the role and the size in its own words: 5 to 10% of the capital commitments, and $0.5M to $1.5M per investment. Read the first of those carefully, because it is the number most often misread. It is a share of a search's COMMITMENTS and not a share of the deal, which is a far smaller figure than it looks. The portfolio's Load More button posts to the site's own admin endpoint with a page number, which serves all 122 entries in seven pages; an earlier read had called the rest unreachable because it tried the query string and the REST index instead. Every card links the entry's own site and most print the name only in a logo, so the list is countable and identifiable by link. Founded 2019 by its team page; no fund size, no count of its own and no returns anywhere. Read at: The vehicle's page, the parent home page, the about, team and portfolio pages, and the portfolio pagination endpoint the site itself calls.
- Lane
- Traditional, Employed
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- In the Round
- Says it joins a round somebody else prices, so bring it a lead.
- Based
- New York.
- Invests
- No investing scope on the pages this review read, so ask whether it will look at a search where you are.
- Buys
- Its search page names no company criteria at all. The firm's direct private-equity page states $1M to $10M+ of EBITDA up to $50M of enterprise value in healthcare, B2B, financial and professional services, which is what Liberty buys itself rather than what a searcher it backs must find.
- Before A First Call
- Solo or duo teams, which is the only shape it names. It asks for intellectual curiosity, emotional intelligence and self-starting, and sets no other published condition.
- First-Time Operators
- Four traits it looks for, intellectual curiosity, emotional intelligence, passion and self-starting, and no fifth about having run anything.
- 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
- Typically $500K to $1.5M per investment, holding 5 to 10% of a search's capital commitments.
- 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
- Says it serves on the boards of several portfolio companies and supports its searchers through to the exit.
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A dedicated search-fund vehicle inside a broader PE firm, focused only on traditional deals
- Backs the full arc from search through exit, with board involvement
- Co-invests alongside the large institutional search funds, so it slots into a syndicate
Cons
- A co-investor rather than a lead, so you still need a lead investor in the room
- Publishes no fund size, no count of its own and no returns, and its portfolio page sets most company names as images, so the 122 entries are countable and identifiable only by the link each carries
- Terms and process not published, the category norm
What Searchers Say
Presents as a traditional search-fund co-investor sitting beside the large institutional backers; a newer, quieter name than the anchor funds, with limited independent community signal so far. Its team page calls the firm Liberty Partners, formerly Liberty Search Ventures, founded in 2019, and names an operator-in-residence program beside the search fund lane.
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