We understand the Independent Sponsor journey because we have lived our own version of it. In 2020, we stepped away from an established platform to build something of our own. We backed ourselves, brought together quality investors around our proposition and set out to build a firm and a reputation that would endure, from the ground up. We know what it means to put your own name behind an investment thesis, to earn credibility one decision at a time and to be judged on what you actually deliver. We know, too, how directly today's decisions shape the business you are trying to build tomorrow.

We thought this letter might help you get to know Opera better – who we are, how we think and what you could expect from working with us.

Whether you’re considering becoming an Independent Sponsor or looking for a partner for your next deal, choosing who will invest alongside you is one of the most consequential decisions you will make. It is a choice that will influence both your next investment and the firm you build over time. Having backed teams since 2010 and because we see so much of the European Independent Sponsor market, we have a clear view of what makes the model work – and what makes a partnership work.

We believe there has never been a better moment to invest in the European lower mid-market. Founder successions, corporate carve-outs and consolidations of fragmented industries continue to grow in scale and quality, and Independent Sponsors are naturally positioned to lead them. Our focus is businesses with €2–10 million of EBITDA. They are at sufficient scale to have established local positions and real strategic options, yet small enough that active ownership can still materially change outcomes. They are often too small or specialized to attract larger funds, so valuations tend to be more reasonable. We are drawn to B2B services, where the product or service genuinely matters to the customer. We invest across DACH, the UK & Ireland, Iberia, Italy and the Nordics. But we are not the local hero - that is your edge. Your network, sector expertise and ability to find an opportunity before everybody else does are exactly what we are looking for.

We look for the same standards in our partners that we ask of ourselves: integrity, accountability and meaningful own capital behind your convictions. We value deep expertise over broad claims, intellectual honesty over salesmanship and ambition that extends beyond the deal in front of us. Above all, we back sponsors with an edge – in a sector, a geography, a strategy or a particular type of situation – who know how to turn that edge into value. You may have left a larger private equity firm to build something yourself. You may already have several investments behind you. Or you may be converting years of expertise in one corner of the market into deals on your own terms.

More than fifty partnerships and hundreds of portfolio companies across the European landscape have given us pattern recognition without making us formulaic. We have seen different sponsor models, economics, sectors and approaches to value creation – and, importantly, different outcomes. In practice, that means stress testing assumptions without overburdening a deal and recognizing that you know your opportunity better than we do. You lead on sourcing, thesis creation and the direction of the business. We bring market perspective and capital. Together, with our collective knowledge and experiences, we build conviction.

We invest both our own capital and that of our investors, including pension funds, charitable foundations and family offices, combining entrepreneurial capital with an institutional framework. We are creative and pragmatic, and we avoid positions adopted simply because that is how things were done in the past. We prefer long-term relationships across multiple deals to one-off transactions, and our engagement model is designed so that alignment grows with every deal we do together.

Every transaction, management and investor relationship matters. Your reputation compounds – positively or negatively – with every deal. Ours does too. That shared stake is the foundation of every partnership we build. You don't need a deal in hand to talk to us. The best partnerships often begin with a conversation long before they begin with a deal.