Insights from: Iberia - Searcher, Operator & Investor, Tiago Paixão of Zinc Capital, TECLENAJUNCOR & CONDE

In September 2019, Tiago Paixão and his partner began searching for a business in Portugal. Six months later, COVID brought the process to a standstill. Then, unexpectedly, the deal they thought had disappeared came back to the table.

We caught up with Tiago Paixão, co-CEO of Teclena Juncor and co-founder of Zinc Capital, to explore the journey from search fund to industrial distribution platform. After acquiring Teclena in 2020, Tiago and his partner built a buy-and-build strategy across Portugal and Spain, ultimately creating a broader platform through acquisitions, integration, and disciplined execution before a strategic sale to Dexa.

Tiago has experienced almost every stage of the ETA journey: fundraising across the US and Europe, acquiring during the pandemic, raising debt in an undeveloped market, merging businesses, expanding across borders, executing an exit, and returning to the ecosystem as an investor through Gallium Growth.In this episode, we cover:

• Why Tiago and his partner believed the search fund model could work in Portugal at a time when the ecosystem was still in its early stages.
• How COVID unexpectedly reopened the door to their first acquisition — and why timing and luck matter alongside preparation.
• The challenges of financing a search fund acquisition when more than 15 banks were approached and a near-final debt offer was withdrawn.
• How to manage sellers, investors, lenders, and advisors simultaneously when a transaction is moving under intense time pressure.
• The logic behind Teclena Juncor’s buy-and-build strategy, built around scale, complementarity, and becoming a one-stop shop for industrial customers.
• What the team learned from merging companies, locations, systems, processes, and cultures in Portugal before expanding into Spain.
• Why moving from command-and-control leadership to autonomy, incentives, KPIs, and accountable management was central to building a scalable business.
• What the strategic sale taught Tiago about timing, alignment, and creating value for buyers, investors, employees, and founders.
• Why aspiring searchers should research the model deeply, speak to people who did not succeed, and be certain they are ready for a life-changing commitment.