What a Search Budget Is Actually Made Of

Most of a search budget is one line. Knowing which line, and how long it has to last, is the difference between a raise that holds and one that runs out.

There is a plausible-looking number for a search budget circulating in every corner of this market, and it is not very useful on its own, because the figure that matters is not the total. It is the share of the total that is your salary, and the number of months the whole thing has to cover.

The totals, and the spread

IESE Business School's International Search Funds 2024, data through 31 December 2023, reports that among international search funds raised in 2022 and 2023 the median amount raised was $456,000, with a minimum of $150,000 and a maximum of $830,000.

That spread is the first thing to notice. A factor of more than five between the smallest and largest raise in the same two-year window tells you there is no standard budget, only a set of choices that add up differently.

The largest of those choices is whether you search alone. IESE reports a median of $420,000 for solo searches and $632,000 for partnered ones, in the same cohort.

The line that dominates

IESE reports that reported compensation over a two-year period accounts for about 44% of the total raised by single searchers, and about 60% in partnerships.

Everything else you will spend money on, which is to say sourcing tools, travel, professional fees on deals that do not complete, and the administration of the fund itself, comes out of the remainder. For a solo searcher that remainder is a little over half the raise. For a partnership it is around two fifths.

On what that salary actually is, IESE reports that annual searcher salaries in Europe ranged from $35,000 to $127,000, with a median of $90,000. In Latin America the range was $48,000 to $230,000 with a median of $94,000. The study notes that compensation questions draw a relatively low response rate, so treat these as indicative of the shape rather than as a benchmark.

How long it has to last

This is where budgets fail, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement.

Among international funds that acquired a company, IESE reports a median search length of 21 months, with 12% closing in under 11 months, 37% between 11 and 20 months, 35% between 21 and 30 months, and 16% taking 31 months or more. Note the population: that distribution describes searchers who bought something. Searchers who ran out of time before buying are not in it.

Stanford's 2026 study reports a median of 20 months of searching among companies acquired since 2020. Stanford's 2026 primer notes that acquiring a company can take anywhere from two months to four years.

So a two-year budget covers the median, but not everyone. The 16% who took more than 30 months all ran past it, and so did some of the 35% who took between 21 and 30 months. That is at least one successful searcher in six, and likely more, before counting anyone who did not buy at all.

The raise itself takes time too

IESE reports a median of five months to raise a search fund, from a median of 16 investors, among international funds in 2022 and 2023.

Five months is a meaningful part of the year before your search formally begins, and it is unpaid. That is worth building into your own planning rather than discovering.

Sources. IESE Business School, International Search Funds 2024: Selected Observations, ST-658-E, September 2024, data through 31 December 2023; fundraising figures at page 11 and Exhibit 3; acquisition timing at Exhibit 7. Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2026 Search Fund Study: Selected Observations, case E-967, July 2026, data through 31 December 2025; search length at page 6. Stanford GSB, A Primer on Search Funds, 2026 edition, case E958; search duration at Part V.

These articles are published for information only. They describe how the search fund model is commonly structured and what published research reports about it. They are not advice, not a recommendation, and not an offer or invitation to invest in or to fund any search fund. Figures are drawn from the sources named in each article and are reported as at the data cut-off stated. Archimax has not verified the underlying data. Anyone considering taking or providing search capital should take their own legal, tax and financial advice.