For Investors
Financing the next generation of Swiss ownership
Saha offers long-term investors disciplined access to the cash flows of established Swiss SMEs, each financed independently with a defined path to repayment. We are building it with family offices first, and for institutions as the track record matures.
A large and enduring flow of successions
Around 168,000 Swiss SMEs face an ownership transfer by the end of 2030. Most of these successions will take place in one form or another. The question is by which route, with what care, and on what terms.
Saha concentrates on established companies with roughly 10 to 100 employees: profitable, rooted in their markets, and usually led by people who know them intimately. Yet only around 2% of planned successions involve financial investors, and those best placed to take over, managers and capable family successors, rarely have the capital to acquire the business.
The constraint is not a shortage of good companies. It is the absence of a financing route that allows the right successor to become the owner. Saha is built to provide that route, and to offer investors disciplined access to a segment that institutional capital rarely reaches.
Two ways to participate
The first is at the level of each company. Every succession is financed by a Swiss bank, a loan from the seller, junior capital from long-term investors, and equity from Saha and the successor. The junior capital ranks behind the bank, provides a regular cash return, is supported by the company's own cash flows and secured on its shares, and is repaid within a defined horizon. The initial transactions are suited to family offices; a pooled vehicle will follow as the track record develops.
The second is Saha itself. Saha holds between 20% and 80% of every company it backs, earns from its role in each transaction, and participates in profits once a company has repaid its loans. As successors progressively acquire a larger share of their company, Saha's capital is returned without the sale of any business, while Saha retains a lasting stake of at least 20% in each.
What must be true for this model to work
We think clearly about our own assumptions. For Saha to succeed, the following must hold:
Price discipline
We pay prices the company can sustain, and we decline when a seller's expectations exceed them. A transaction that only works at a stretched price is not one we pursue.
Financing that holds under stress
Every transaction must repay its lenders within a defined horizon, not only in the base case but through several difficult years. We test this before agreeing a price.
A sufficient pool of capable successors
The model depends on people able to lead these companies. We support insiders and capable family successors first, and outside leaders only after a period alongside the owner.
Sound tax and legal foundations
The structure must be agreed in advance with the tax authorities and the bank, and then applied consistently to every transaction. Establishing it once is what makes smaller transactions viable.
A lean centre
Support must add value without adding overhead. Our technology carries the routine work, so that a small central team can stand behind many companies.
Early transactions matter disproportionately
The first successions set the standard for sourcing, transition quality and reputation. Getting them right matters more than completing them quickly.
Built to scale without compromising care
Saha does not assemble its portfolio one bespoke transaction at a time. It is building a single way of working, applied to every succession, so that each transaction becomes more efficient to prepare, quicker to complete and better supported than the last.
Every company stands on its own, and there is no debt above the companies. A difficulty in one business remains contained within it, and the risk capital in each transaction is repaid by the company itself.
A single framework
Legal, financing and tax foundations prepared once and applied to every transaction.
Ring-fenced companies
Each succession is held in its own structure, with no borrowing at the level of Saha.
Selection on capability
Successors chosen for their ability to lead, with financing that does not depend on personal wealth.
A protected entry price
Price and exclusivity are agreed with the owner before preparatory work begins.
AI-supported transition
Readiness assessment, knowledge capture, due diligence and the financing file, prepared with our own tools.
AI-supported operations
Monthly reporting, cash forecasting and early warning after closing, shared with the bank and investors.
What we will not finance
Discipline means being explicit about boundaries:
Distressed turnarounds
Businesses requiring immediate restructuring or financial rescue are outside our model.
Transactions without a capable successor
Where no one is realistically able to lead the company after the owner, there is no fit, however attractive the figures.
Prices the company cannot sustain
Where a price only works if everything goes to plan, we decline. The company must be able to repay its financing through difficult years as well.
Capital-heavy or declining niches
Businesses whose investment needs constrain free cash flow, or which operate in structurally declining markets without long-term viability.
By design, not by delay
Saha is pre-close. The founding team is in place, the financing structure is being finalised with a Swiss bank, and the first conversations with owners are underway. We have not yet completed a transaction; we are building for the first successions, not for mass deployment. They will validate the model, the transition work and the operating discipline. Everything that follows depends on getting them right.
Why Saha is different from a traditional fund
Most acquisition vehicles are built around a finite fund life: buy, improve, exit within a set horizon. That structure creates an inherent tension between short-term performance and long-term business health.
Saha is permanent capital. We invest alongside the people who lead each company and remain for the long term. There is no exit clock and no forced sale. Capital is returned through the companies' own cash flows and as successors acquire a larger share of their business, not through a sale to a third party.
Interested in learning more?
We are in discussion with a small number of family offices and long-term investors. If the model resonates, we welcome a private conversation, in which we share full documentation.