Novastone Capital Advisors
At a Glance
The default conversation for a non-US search, and a real alternative to raising your own fund for operators who value structure over autonomy.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees: search-fund and acquisition economics negotiated per the model's conventions.
- Best For
- Operators who want the searcher path inside a structured program, and anyone searching outside the United States
- Track Record
- 31 portfolio companies across 11 countries, over $500M of portfolio enterprise value, and a team of 23.
- Lane
- Employed
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- In the Round
- Says it leads or anchors, so it is a call to make early.
- It syndicates each acquisition itself, drawing capital from individuals, family offices and other funds, which is anchoring the ACQUISITION rather than taking a unit of a search. A separate sentence about its own fund being anchored by an outside firm is about its fund and not about a searcher's round.
- Based
- Zurich.
- Invests
- Across Europe, the United States and Canada, in its own words.
- Buys
- Companies earning $2M to $7.5M and worth $10M to $50M, where full control can be bought outright.
- Before A First Call
- An application, taken throughout the year, then a published eight-step selection: a profile with a one-way video recording, an orientation call, an assessment center interview and a thesis preparation call before a panel. Every participant must bring one to three focus industries and relevant experience in them.
- First-Time Operators
- States a bar that a first-time operator has to clear, usually having owned a profit and loss.
- How Long The Search Runs
- A search phase of up to 24 months, which its program describes as a research project beginning once the program documents are signed and the SPV is launched.
- 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
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A genuinely international program in a US-centric ecosystem, with closings on three continents
- The program model removes the raise: NCA provides structure, support, and capital access
- Succession framing fits the European and Asian owner conversations searchers actually have there
Cons
- Program terms and searcher compensation are not published
- A structured program trades autonomy for support, like every employed-adjacent model
- US searchers focused on domestic Main Street deals may find the fit indirect
What Searchers Say
Named across European ETA coverage far more often than in US searcher discussion, which tracks the geography rather than the quality. Its own news copy now says Novastone Partners and announces a first close of a North America fund anchored by an institutional backer, so a rename may be in progress and the US footprint is growing; read the name on whatever page you land on.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how employed searcher (salary model) capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A recruiting process more than a fundraise: you are applying to a program.
- A case or deal exercise and a panel with the partners who would back you.
- A salary and committed capital, in exchange for most of the equity.
What It Weighs
- Whether you can operate, since the firm is hiring a CEO.
- Fit with the firm's playbook and the cadence its portfolio runs at.
- Why you would trade ownership for a salary and a built-in backer.
How to Prepare
- Know the firm's thesis and portfolio cold. Investors
- Weigh salary and equity against owning outright. Path Economics
- Bring a real deal, underwritten end to end. Underwrite a Deal