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 its FAQ sizes at 10 to 20 and its releases count at seven, eight and ten, with fifteen or more residents supported at once by its own hiring page. Nine acquisitions across eight platforms between October 2025 and June 2026, each paired with its resident on the firm's own pages. A first fund close of 67.5 million euros with a European cornerstone investor, toward a 130 million target.
- 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 with at least a 10% margin and ten to a hundred or more staff, in fragmented B2B services, energy transition and healthcare, in founder-succession deals. Digital-first businesses, startups, distressed assets and real-estate-focused businesses are ruled out by name, and its own deals have closed as low as half a million.
- 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, eight to fifteen years of it, and fluency in two European languages; applications for its 2026 cohort are open on its own navigation.
- 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, holding about 80% beside the resident's 20%. Up to 500,000 euros of search capital per resident and one to two million euros of equity per deal, by its own pages, and a seller may reinvest up to 8% of the price.
- What A Searcher Gets
- A monthly fee through the search, and up to 20% of the equity vesting in thirds: at closing, through the hold, and on an exit at or above a 35% IRR.
- After The Close
- Describes the first nine to fifteen months after the acquisition as a deliberately unhurried observation period.
- 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 European program whose published-terms transparency is the differentiator practitioners point to against the vaguer cohort models. Read whole across ninety-one addresses: nine acquisitions across eight platforms since October 2025, each paired with its resident on the firm's own pages, a first fund close of 67.5 million euros with a European cornerstone investor, and a residents roster of fourteen.
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