Episode 3 of the Curious Kiwi Capitalist Podcast

15th August 2019

My guest for this show is Alexander Simmons. Alex is the founder of Voyager Equity a search fund. Search funds are completely new to New Zealand with no fund yet launched but with some interest from Kiwi searchers overseas. In Australia they have gained traction in the last couple of years with at least two funds succesfully acquiring businesses. Alex is the first Australian search fund to get investment for "search capital", the traditional first tranche of investment in a fund. The other two funds self-funded their search and then got "acquisition capital" the second tranche of investment.
I have to admit I am very intrigued with this type of investment fund and have been involved with encouraging prospective Kiwi searchers in 2019. My hope for young searchers and retiring mid-market business owners is that this investment type takes off over the coming decade.
In this show we'll discuss search funds in New Zealand and Australia including:

* what is a search fund?
* search and acquisition capital
* the search capital step-up and "Stanford terms"
* search fund investors
* research on search fund returns
* searcher vesting
* search funds vs private equity
* investment parameters
* what prospective searchers ask Alex the most
* search fund accelerators and business schools



Show Notes

About Alexander
Alexander Simmons founded Voyager Equity earlier in the year, and it is the first search fund that has raised "search capital" in Australasia. Others have raised acquisition capital, an achievement in its own right, but no one till Alex had raised the first part of a traditional search fund. This makes Alex a real trail blazer in Australasian search funds.
Alex is English, who started his career at Bestport Ventures LLP a UK private equity firm that invests in growth capital and small buyout opportunities in the UK. He moved to Australia where he worked for Partners in Performance to get hands-on operational experience including in New Zealand. He started up his search fund Voyager Equity in 2019.
He has an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Oxford. INSEAD has one of only a few search fund courses in the world.
Links
Voyager Equity Alex's search fund website.
“Search Fund Primer 2016”, Stanford Graduate School of Business.
"International Search Funds – 2016 Selected Observations", IESE, June 2016 in IESE Search Funds
Search Funds in New Zealand: what are they and a way forward (my views in a previous article)
Relay Investments
Harvard Business School Jim Sharpe in this case who I know is a supporter of Kiwi Harvard grads doing search funds.
Search Fund Accelerator (Timothy Bovard, Boston)
Second Squared Australian Search Fund Accelerator
"Perspectives on Search Funds". A podcast series featuring all things related to search funds and entrepreneurship through acquisition. Hosted by Brian O’Connor, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Managing Partner of NextGen Growth Partners.