A $70bn technology investor taking a stake in a company acquired by a Spanish search fund in 2020 is the clearest signal yet of where this asset class now sits in the exit landscape.
Hg has completed its first transaction in Spain, acquiring a stake of close to 50% in the group formed by the merger of the compliance software companies Ctaima and E-coordina. For the search fund ecosystem the identity of the buyer matters as much as the deal itself.
The two companies specialise in software for contractor management, health and safety, ESG and compliance. The combined group has been valued at around €160m, against EBITDA of between €7m and €8m — a multiple above 21x, high but not unusual for software assets. The investment was made entirely with equity, structured through a capital increase alongside a share purchase, and will support growth in Europe and Latin America.
The process began several months earlier when Baluarte Capital, the Spanish search fund that owned Ctaima, hired Lincoln International to find a new investor. It attracted several technology funds and the industrial group Alcumus before Hg's proposal prevailed.
Baluarte Capital acquired Ctaima in 2020. Four years later its partners, Lorenzo Zavala and Luis de Santos, remain involved in both capital and management alongside Íñigo Martínez, founder of E-coordina.
That continuity is the point. A recurring question from investors new to this asset class is who buys these companies at the end. The answer, increasingly, is exactly the same set of institutional buyers that acquire any other quality asset in the mid-market — and the searchers who built the business stay on through the transition. Hg manages over $70bn and is among the most established technology investors globally; its entry into the Spanish market is a positive development for the region generally, and a useful data point for anyone assessing exit risk in search fund portfolios.