PRESS RELEASE: Inspiring entrepreneur Paige Kohalmi creates first female-led Traditional Search Fund in Australia | Bringing an alternative to creating business success!
Greenstorm Capital was established in 2021 by Paige Kohalmi, to fulfil her life-long dream of entrepreneurship, through the acquisition of a high quality Australian business. Bringing to the mix excellent operational capability and experience, energy and enthusiasm, Paige is in the last stage of her capital raise for her Search Fund and is looking for the final investors to join her cornerstone investor, WayFinder Capital, and others, in this exciting investment opportunity.
Paige has gained her business skills working initially in her family’s import and distribution business, moving on to various operational roles, gathering skills that encompass technology-led business transformations and operational efficiencies, marketing, HR and finance expertise.
Paige completed her MBA from Macquarie University in 2019, where she first heard about the emerging asset class of Search Funds. Search Funds are an investment vehicle through which an entrepreneur raises funds from investors, in order to search for and acquire a company in which they take an active day-to-day leadership role. More than an alternative asset class, Search Funds represent a growing global community of like-minded investors who back talented entrepreneurs into mid-tier, profitable businesses with a strategy to scale up.
The Search Fund model was developed in the 1980’s in the US to facilitate investors to financially support and mentor an entrepreneur to locate, acquire, manage and grow a privately held company.
In Australia, Search Funds are relatively new with the first traditional fund launched in 2019. The concept is fast gaining traction. The Search Fund concept can also benefit a business owner that may not have a succession plan resulting in the business simply folding when the owner retires. Greenstorm Capital looks to connect with an owner to transition the business into the next phase of growth while respecting the owner’s legacy.
Similar to Private Equity and Investment industries, entrepreneurship through acquisition and the search fund community has been largely male-dominated, with the latest Stanford research reporting less than 10% of search funds in the US and Canada are female-led. Paige aims to develop additional female representation in the search community and in CEO roles more broadly, with the first traditional search fund in Australia led by a female entrepreneur.
If you’re looking to sell your business, would like to join the investor group or for further information about Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, visit greenstormcapital.com.au or contact Paige at [email protected]
