WAD Capital
At a Glance
The employed lane's transparency benchmark: even if you never search Benelux, its published terms are the yardstick to hold the US programs against.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Employment economics, published: a monthly management fee for 12 months (stepping down after), 100% acquisition financing, and up to 20% CIR equity vesting in thirds.
- Best For
- Operators in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Luxembourg who want the employed path with the lane's most explicitly published terms
- Track Record
- Cohorts of 10 to 20 CEOs-in-residence searching for up to 24 months.
- 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.
- Based
- Brussels.
- Invests
- Within about 300km of Brussels.
- Buys
- European SMEs at 1 to 5 million euros of EBITDA in fragmented B2B services, energy transition and healthcare, in founder-succession deals, with digital-first businesses, startups, distressed assets and real-estate-focused businesses all ruled out by name.
- Before A First Call
- A CV and an investment memo at the application, then a sector thesis presented to its investment committee before the search begins. It describes the fit as mid-career or senior executive experience with profit and loss responsibility.
- 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
- Up to 24 months, though it says most close in six to twelve. At 18 to 24 months without a close it reevaluates with you whether to continue or conclude the search together.
- Published Terms
- Finances 100% of the acquisition.
- What A Searcher Gets
- A monthly fee through the search, and up to 20% of the equity vesting in thirds.
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes what the rest of the lane will not: fee structure, equity ceiling, and vesting schedule
- 100% acquisition financing removes the personal-capital gate entirely
- A 300km-of-Brussels focus concentrates local succession deal flow
Cons
- Geography rules it out for a US search entirely
- Up to 20% equity is the ceiling, not the norm, and the fee steps down after month twelve
- A cohort of 10 to 20 CIRs competes inside one compact regional market
What Searchers Say
A newer European program; its published-terms transparency is the differentiator practitioners point to against the vaguer cohort models.
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