TL;DR
Eighteen48 Partners has closed EUR 175 million in the first tranche of its first private equity fund targeting EUR 350 million. The London-based firm supports acquisitions in the European mid-market through independent sponsors and has committed more than €200 million to the strategy from 2020. The growth comes as the independent sponsor model gains traction in Europe after a decade of growth in the US.
London-based alternative asset manager Eighteen48 Partners, founded by Julien Sevaux, Tarek AbuZeyyad and Edward Clive, closed €175 million in the first tranche of its first private equity fund. The fund is targeting a total of €350 million and will support mid-market acquisitions across Europe, which will find and negotiate acquisitions before raising capital to complete them, rather than only independent sponsors, dealmakers and investing from a pre-committed pool.
The first closure was supported by a mix of existing ones Eighteen48 clients, institutions, family offices and ultra high net worth individuals. The firm has committed more than €200 million to independent sponsorship operations since 2020, making the fund a formalization of the team’s six-year strategy rather than a debut in the traditional sense.
How the model works
Independent sponsors occupy an unusual place in private equity. Unlike traditional buyout firms that raise a blind pool fund and then look for deals, independent sponsors first identify a specific buyout target and then approach capital providers to finance it. The model allows investors to see the exact deal terms before handing over money, rather than relying on a general partner to deploy funds over several years with limited control.
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The trade-off for sponsors is that they do deals without guaranteed funding, which limits the risk model to experienced operators with strong networks. For capital providers like Eighteen48, the opportunity is the exit off-market transactions they will never enter the competitive auction processes through which most middle market private equity deals are priced. Oliver Mayer, head of private equity at Eighteen48, described the structural advantages of these relationship-based deals as a key driver of the firm’s revenues.
A model that crossed the Atlantic Ocean
Independent sponsors have been an established feature of the American private equity landscape for more than a decade, but the model is relatively new in Europe. A combination of factors is driving the adoption: experienced dealmakers are leaving established firms to operate independently, family offices are seeking more engagement with private companies, and A wider restructuring of European capital markets this drives investors to more flexible structures. The The EU’s efforts to overhaul its start-up financing architecture They have further normalized the idea that European companies need access to a wider 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, and more deals of this type are expected in 2026 as the broader fundraising environment for traditional blind-pool funds remains challenging. Some 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 deals, the most bullish sentiment in five years.
Eighteen48’s peers in the independent sponsor-focused segment include Kartesia, which manages around €6 billion in private credit strategies, and Idinvest Partners, a pan-European mid-market investor. What makes Eighteen48 different is that it invested directly in deals with independent sponsors for six years before starting a formal fund, giving it an experience that most first-time fund managers lack.
Founders
Sevaux, co-founder and CEO of the firm, previously co-founded Stanhope Capital in 2004. He and his co-founders founded Eighteen48 in 2019.a new generation private investment office“, is a platform for families and institutions that manages capital in the public and private markets. The private equity fund is Eighteen48’s first externally raised vehicle, which will enable both independent sponsor line growth and increasing institutional appetite For exposure to the European middle market.
The fund’s €350 million target is modest by global private equity standards, but significant for the independent sponsor segment, where deal sizes typically range from €10 million to €150 million. If fully raised, it would make Eighteen48 one of the larger providers of private equity for independent sponsors in Europe. Current momentum in European deals holds, can prove in time.
Sevaux said the fund “formalizes a highly differentiated strategy” firm has been around for several years.In a market where most private equity firms are competing for the same auctioned assets, Eighteen48 is betting that deals no one has seen are worth paying for.
