TL;DR
Eighteen48 Partners has closed €175 million for the first tranche of its inaugural private equity fund, with a target of €350 million. The London-based firm supports European mid-market acquisitions sourced through independent sponsors and has deployed more than €200 million into the strategy since 2020. The increase comes as the independent sponsor model gains traction in Europe after a decade of growth in the United States.
Eighteen48 Partners, the London-based alternative asset manager co-founded by Julien Sevaux, Tarek AbuZayyad and Edward Clive, has closed €175 million for the first tranche of its inaugural private equity fund. The fund targets €350 million in total and will support mid-market acquisitions across Europe, raised exclusively through independent sponsors, dealmakers who find and negotiate acquisitions before raising the capital to complete them, rather than investing from a pre-committed fund.
The first closure was supported by a combination of eighteen48 clients, institutions, family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals. The firm has invested more than €200 million in transactions with independent sponsors since 2020, making this fund a formalization of a strategy the team has been executing for six years rather than a debut in the conventional sense.
How the model works
Independent sponsors occupy an unusual niche in private equity. Unlike traditional buyout firms, which raise a blind fund and then pursue deals, independent sponsors first identify a specific acquisition target and then approach capital providers to fund it. The model gives investors visibility into the exact terms of the deal before committing money, rather than relying on a general partner to deploy a fund over several years with limited oversight.
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For sponsors, the downside is that they enter into deals without guaranteed financing, a risk that limits the model to experienced operators with strong networks. For capital providers like Eighteen48, the opportunity is access to off-market transactions that never enter the competitive auction processes where most mid-market private equity deals are priced. Oliver Mayer, head of private equity at Eighteen48, described the structural advantages of these relationship-driven deals as a key driver of the company’s returns.
A model crossing the Atlantic
Independent sponsors have been a well-established feature of the US private equity landscape for more than a decade, but the model is relatively new in Europe. A combination of factors is driving adoption: experienced dealmakers leaving established companies to operate independently, family offices seeking more direct exposure to private companies, and a Broader reconfiguration of European capital markets. That is pushing investors toward more flexible structures. He The EU’s own efforts to reform its startup funding architecture have further normalized the idea that European companies need access to a broader range of capital providers, not just traditional fund managers.
According to private equity industry body IPEM, Europe now has a growing ecosystem of independent sponsors, with more such deals expected in 2026 as the broader fundraising environment for traditional blind fund funds remains challenging. Nearly 70% of European private equity professionals surveyed by the organization said they plan to deploy more capital this year, and 87% described 2026 as a good year for trading, the most optimistic sentiment in five years.
Eighteen48’s peers in the independent sponsor-focused segment include Kartesia, which manages almost €6 billion in private credit strategies, and Idinvest Partners, a pan-European mid-market investor. The distinction Eighteen48 draws is that it has been investing directly in deals with independent sponsors for six years before launching a formal fund, giving it a track record that most first-time fund managers lack.
the founders
Sevaux, a founding partner and CEO of the company, previously co-founded Stanhope Capital in 2004. He and his co-founders established Eighteen48 in 2019 as what they described as “state-of-the-art private investment office“, a platform that manages capital in public and private markets for families and institutions. The private equity fund is the first vehicle that Eighteen48 has raised externally, a move that reflects both the growth of its portfolio of deals with independent sponsors and the growing institutional appetite for exposure to the European middle market.
The fund’s target of €350 million is modest by global private equity standards, but substantial for the independent sponsor segment, where deal sizes typically range between €10 million and €150 million. If fully raised, it would make Eighteen48 one of the largest providers of dedicated capital to independent sponsors in Europe, a position that, if the The current momentum in European agreements He maintains, it could be appropriate.
Sevaux said that the background “formalizes a very differentiated strategyThe company has been operating for several years. In a market where most private equity firms compete for the same auctioned assets, Eighteen48 is betting that the deals no one else sees are the ones worth paying for.
