We build enduring businesses, one acquisition at a time.
A GCC-origin acquisition company pursuing the search fund model, identifying, acquiring, and growing a single exceptional business, then repeating the architecture fund by fund.
Alnilam.
Search funds are one of the most successful acquisition structures in Western private markets, yet they barely exist in the Gulf. Alnilam was founded to change that — to launch, professionalise, and prove this asset class in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC, and to open it to investors who want real, operator-led exposure to the region.
Our practice is Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition: a focused pool of capital, a deliberate search, the acquisition of one exceptional company, and hands-on operation of that company to compound its value over a long horizon. It is an approach built on conviction rather than diversification, on stewardship rather than leverage.
We begin in Saudi Arabia, where a generation of founder-led businesses is approaching succession and where domestic capital is hungry for structured, operator-led private investment. That same opportunity has been largely inaccessible to international investors — fragmented, opaque, and hard to underwrite from afar. We bridge that gap: local relationships and diligence on the ground, institutional-grade structure and governance around the deal, and a single, transparent vehicle for global capital to participate in one of the world's most consequential private markets.
What is a search fund?
A search fund is a purpose-built investment vehicle that raises capital to back one or two entrepreneurs in their search for a single, exceptional business to acquire and lead. It is not a portfolio of bets; it is one deliberate act of ownership.
Born in academia and refined over decades, the model aligns a searcher, a focused capital base, and a community of investors around a single thesis. The searcher becomes the operator. Capital becomes stewardship.
A model backed by data.
Search funds are among the most studied acquisition structures in finance. Stanford GSB has tracked the asset class since its inception — and the results are striking.
Source: Stanford GSB Search Fund Research, selected data.
Aggregate pre-tax IRR for search funds vs. indicative long-run annualized returns for public-market alternatives.
The GCC opportunity.
The Gulf sits at a generational inflection: a large, founder-led private market entering succession, rising demand, and deepening capital. The conditions in which the search fund model thrives.
A model with four decades of study.
The search fund is not a new idea. It was first conceived at Stanford in 1984 and has been tracked by academic researchers ever since, making it one of the most studied acquisition structures in finance.
The model is born
The first search fund is conceived at Stanford, establishing a vehicle to back a first-time CEO in acquiring and operating one company.
First formal study
Early academic study begins tracking the asset class, codifying the structure and its outcomes for the first generation of searchers.
Stanford GSB reports
Stanford Graduate School of Business publishes the first in a series of recurring studies measuring aggregate returns across completed funds.
The model matures
The data set grows past 100 funds, and the model's return profile is recognized as among the strongest in private capital at its scale.
A global asset class
Stanford GSB's latest study tracks more than 250 funds, and the model has spread from the US to Europe, Latin America, and the Gulf.
The evidence base.
“Aggregate pre-tax IRR of 35.3% and a 5.4x pre-tax multiple of capital across more than 250 tracked search funds.”
“A recurring series establishing the search fund as a distinct asset class and documenting its return and survival characteristics over time.”
“Research tracking the model's migration beyond the US, with growing activity across Europe and emerging markets.”
“A body of work on the community of investors backing first-time CEOs and the operating support that drives outcomes.”
“Sector studies sizing the Gulf healthcare market and the large share of founder and family led businesses approaching succession.”
How the capital structure works.
A search fund is not one check. It is two distinct pools of capital, sequenced around a single transaction, with a step-up that rewards the investors who backed the search early.
Search capital
A capped pool funds the runway: a focused search of roughly 18 to 24 months to find one exceptional, founder-led business.
Acquisition capital
Committed by investors at the outset and drawn at close, this pool funds the purchase of the single target company.
Step-up & equity
Search investors receive a step-up on their capital at acquisition, and the operator's equity vests through ownership and performance.
Beyond the headline numbers.
The headline return is striking, but the detail is just as telling: the typical search, the typical target, and the typical hold all point to a disciplined, repeatable structure.
Indicative ranges drawn from published search fund research. Individual outcomes vary.
Why the model is compelling
Concentration of conviction
Rather than spreading risk across many small bets, the search fund concentrates capital and attention on one business the operator truly understands — and can genuinely improve.
Aligned ownership
The searcher becomes the CEO. Incentives between operator, investors, and the acquired company are fused — decisions are made by the people who carry the outcome.
Succession solution
For founders seeking a worthy successor and families facing transition, the model offers liquidity without abandonment — a buyer who will protect what was built.
Asymmetric upside
Acquired at a sensible multiple, grown with operating discipline, and held with patience, a single great business can compound into a generational asset.
Search → Acquire → Grow
Each fund follows a disciplined arc. Four chapters, one acquisition, a lifetime of stewardship.
Capital is raised around a thesis.
Investors commit to a focused pool funding the search itself — the runway to find the right business.
The market is mapped with intent.
One business is chosen and bought.
The searcher becomes the operator.
The Foundry.
We do not build a portfolio of funds at once. We launch search funds one at a time — each vehicle shaped around its own thesis, each targeting a single acquisition. NAHDA is only the first.
A future vehicle targeting one durable industrial or business-services company with defensible contracts and recurring revenue.
A future vehicle backing a single education platform serving the Gulf's young, fast-growing population.