Our Approach
Long-term ownership of durable businesses.
We acquire controlling interests in durable, privately held businesses and hold them for the long term.
Investment philosophy
We invest in well-run companies with room to grow.
We invest in well-run companies with specific, identifiable opportunities for improvement: a sales function not yet built, systems that have not kept pace with the company’s growth, pricing that has not been revisited in years. We provide the capital and sustained operational attention to pursue those opportunities, working alongside the management team in place.
A sound trade, a good manager, and commercial room to grow.
What we look for
Three dimensions of every opportunity.
Leadership
A capable manager running the business or prepared to assume leadership, committed to the flourishing of the people the company employs and serves, and open to the Vocaris formation program.
Durability
A business whose core work is physical, licensed, or relationship-based, serving demand that will persist and thrive in the age of AI. We look for established customer relationships, meaningful barriers to entry, and products or services that contribute to human flourishing.
Financial strength
Consistent profitability across multiple years, healthy gross margins, a conservative balance sheet, and identifiable opportunities to improve earnings through pricing, operational efficiency, and the development of a sales and marketing capability.
Where we look
We look for a situation, not a sector.
Businesses whose core work is protected from AI because it is physical, licensed or relationship-bound — and whose surrounding work is still done by hand.
Is the core durable and the periphery upgradable?
Will the work still need doing in ten years, and is the administrative layer around it still manual? Are there human or physical aspects of the business model that AI will not be able to replicate?
Is the core worth protecting?
Does the world get better if this company grows?
Where we are not the right buyer
- ×A leader who does not see the work as a calling, and does not want to. Everything else on this list is a business question. This one is about whether we would be building the same company, and no amount of capital settles it.
- ×Demand for the core product is genuinely declining.
- ×One customer above 40% of revenue, or three above 70%.
- ×Reimbursement or regulatory dependence that neither we nor you can influence.
- ×The key customer relationships are personal to the seller and there is no commercial function to carry them forward.
- ×Environmental exposure, or a facility lease that cannot be secured before closing.
- ×An asset-light balance sheet with nothing a lender can secure against.
Investment criteria
The company.
Ranges, not rules. A business that misses one line and is emphatic on the rest is still worth a conversation. A business that misses four is not.
Transaction structure
The terms.
Control is the base case, because control is what makes “we work intensively with your manager” real rather than advisory. Rollover is the term we ask for first and the one we least want to give up.
Why this is not sentimentality
People who believe the work matters run better companies.
Gallup compared the most and least engaged workplaces across 183,806 business units. One of the twelve questions it asks is whether the mission makes an employee feel their job matters. The gap between the top and bottom quartile:
+23%
Profitability
+18%
Productivity
−51%
Turnover
−63%
Safety incidents
−78%
Absenteeism
−32%
Defects
+70%
Wellbeing
Gallup Q12 meta-analysis, 2024. These are differences between quartiles rather than a promise of what we will produce, which is why we baseline engagement in the first hundred days and measure it every year after.
The manager stays. We work alongside him.
Long-term ownership
No fund clock. No scheduled sale.
Our structure includes no fund clock and no scheduled recapitalization. When a transition eventually makes sense, we underwrite to five pathways: an employee stock ownership plan, a management buyout, a mission-aligned recapitalization, sale to a faith-aligned strategic buyer, or steward-ownership through a purpose trust.
Because there is no fund clock, the eventual transition can be chosen rather than forced. We would rather say these out loud early than have them discovered late.
Pathway
An employee stock ownership plan
The people who built the value come to hold some of it.
Pathway
A management buyout
The manager we spent a decade forming buys the company he has been running.
Pathway
A mission-aligned recapitalisation
New patient capital replaces ours on the same terms and the same commitments.
Pathway
A faith-aligned strategic buyer
A larger company that will run it the way we have been running it.
Pathway
Steward-ownership through a purpose trust
The trust buys investors out at fair market value and the company’s purpose is locked in permanently.
And the one that is not on the list
A forced sale to the highest bidder in year five
Because nothing in our structure requires it.
Process
From first conversation to closing.
Introductory conversation
A confidential discussion of the business, the owner’s objectives, and whether our approach fits the company’s next chapter.
Fit assessment
Values alignment with management is the first consideration: a leadership team committed to human flourishing and open to the Vocaris formation program. We then review three years of financials and customer concentration, and provide a clear answer within two weeks.
Indication of interest
A written valuation range, proposed structure, rollover terms, and governance provisions.
Due diligence
Quality of earnings, working capital, lease and environmental review, and management assessment.
Closing and the first hundred days
Agreed operating metrics from day one, beginning with systems, pricing, and receivables.
Management partnership
Our operating cadence with management: monthly financial reporting, quarterly business reviews, and annual planning developed together.
Common questions
What does Vocaris do?
Vocaris acquires controlling interests in durable, privately held businesses and holds them for the long term, with the management team in place. We also advise business owners on strategy, value growth, and transition readiness, and lead a leadership formation program grounded in Catholic social teaching.
What size company does Vocaris acquire?
We acquire companies with $5M to $25M in revenue and $0.8M to $2.5M in adjusted EBITDA, measured after a market-rate manager. Enterprise value typically ranges from $2M to $20M. These are ranges rather than requirements, and a strong company near the boundaries is worth a conversation.
Must an owner sell the entire company?
No. We acquire 51% to 80% of the company, with the seller retaining 20% to 49%. Rollover ownership provides the seller with liquidity today and a meaningful share of the value the company creates going forward.
What happens to management and employees?
Management continues to run the business. A capable manager, in place or prepared to step up, is a requirement of every investment we make. We invest in the development of the leadership team beginning in the first hundred days of ownership.
Does Vocaris plan to sell the companies it acquires?
Our structure includes no fund clock and no scheduled recapitalization, and we underwrite to a hold of seven to ten years or longer. When a transition eventually makes sense, we underwrite to five pathways: an employee stock ownership plan, a management buyout, a mission-aligned recapitalization, sale to a faith-aligned strategic buyer, or steward-ownership through a purpose trust.
How does Vocaris approach valuation?
We value the business as it stands today. Our returns come from the improvements we identify before closing and pursue after it — pricing, systems, and the development of a sales and marketing capability. Because the seller retains meaningful ownership, the seller shares in the value those improvements create.
Is Vocaris only for Catholic business owners?
No. Our principles come from Catholic social teaching and align with the natural law written on every heart. We work with leaders of good will of every tradition, and hiring, promotion, and compensation within our portfolio companies are decided on competence, character, and merit.
How do intermediaries and co-investors work with Vocaris?
We respond to intermediaries within days, state our rollover requirement up front, and generally decline broadly marketed auctions. Co-investment is arranged deal by deal, privately, with people we know. Nothing on this website is an offer or a solicitation.