2026 Stanford Search Fund Study: Selected Observations
July 27, 20262026 | Case No. E967 | Length 30 pgs.
The 2026 Search Fund Study reports on the financial returns and key characteristics of search funds formed in the United States and Canada since 1984. This report updates the previous 2024 study with data through December 31, 2025. The report also introduces data on 67 long duration enterprises.
Among the study’s key findings:
- The number of search funds continues to grow, with the number of newly launched core search funds staying at historically high levels in 2024 and 2025.
- About half of search funds launched between 2021 and 2024 successfully acquired a company. Since the first report in 1996, the aggregate acquisition rate for search funds has been 58%.
- Acquiring a company typically takes around 20 months. The median purchase price for acquired firms in 2024–25 was $16 million.
- The top industries targeted by searchers in 2024–25 were services, software, and education.
- Search funds’ performance has consistently outperformed the S&P 500. The aggregate public market equivalent (PME) across all search funds is 2.88. As of December 31, 2025, all search funds generated an aggregate IRR of 33.9% and a ROI of 4.75x.