FS Search Fund
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FS Search Fund
Apply to Join
FS SearchFund was founded in 2026 by students at Frankfurt School to give them a rigorous grounding in the search fund model and in the succession dynamics of the German, Austrian, and Swiss Mittelstand. We prepare members to find, acquire, and lead established companies – and connect them with the owners, investors, and operators who make that possible.
ETA describes a path in which an individual raises capital to acquire one company and then leads it as chief executive. We teach the mechanics that underpin it: search capital, proprietary sourcing, valuation and structuring, and the first hundred days after closing.
A substantial share of DACH family businesses will change hands within the decade, many without an internal successor. We study how the search fund model can secure continuity of employment, culture, and regional strength – and build the relationships that make such transactions possible.
Seminars, reading groups, and case work on search funds and Mittelstand transactions.
Mentorship from acting searchers and simulated deal work that builds real capability.
A standing bridge between students, business owners, and the DACH investor community.
Four recurring formats across the term. Each one moves members a step closer to being taken seriously in a room of searchers, owners, and investors.
An acting search fund entrepreneur and an investor from the same side of the table, in a small room with a limited number of seats.
The working craft behind a transaction, taught in the order a searcher meets it.
Members work in small searcher teams across the term. Every second month each team puts its target thesis in front of the room and defends it.
A completed transaction taken apart step by step with the people who were in it – including the parts that nearly went wrong.
The club is being built from the ground up. Membership is open to all Frankfurt School students, across programmes and years.