Tharsis Fund

Betting on
humans in
an AI world.

A long-term investment fund acquiring AI-resistant service businesses where physical presence, empathy, and manual skill are the absolute moat. We use AI not to replace humans, but to relentlessly optimize the operations behind them.

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01 / The Thesis

The AI commoditization trap.

While venture capital pours into AI startups facing severe margin compression, essential physical service businesses across Central Europe are trading at historic discounts due to demographic shifts.

The Vulnerable

Software, law, analysis, content. Pure digital workflows facing immense deflationary pressure from LLMs.

The Irreplaceable

Healthcare, skilled trades, complex physical services. Sectors protected by the necessity of human hands and trust.

The trade worth its weight in gold.

Essential service businesses carry a natural floor: people need plumbers, dentists, and electricians regardless of the economic cycle. The downside is structurally bounded by inelastic demand. The upside? Let skilled professionals do what they do best: billable, high-trust work. AI handles scheduling, billing, and admin overhead. More hours on the tools, fewer behind a desk. That margin expansion is ours to capture.

PROTECTED DOWNSIDE Inelastic demand: people always need these services MARGIN EXPANSION AI-optimized processes. People focus on what makes them irreplaceable. BASE EBITDA MARGIN ACQUISITION YEAR 5

The Mission

We don't just acquire businesses. We help preserve the essential infrastructure Europe can't afford to lose.

€50M
Target Fund Size
~20
Platform Acquisitions
20%
Target EBITDA Uplift
Target MOIC

02 / The Edge

Engineers embedded in every deal.

We are not traditional PE sponsors hiring external IT consultants. We deploy our own engineers directly into portfolio companies, spending weeks understanding their exact workflows, bottlenecks, and needs before writing a single line of code. The result is technology that fits like a glove, not a generic SaaS layer bolted on top.

A

Proprietary Deal Sourcing

Our matching engine continuously scans and pre-screens acquisition candidates across Central Europe, surfacing businesses with strong fundamentals and succession-driven motivation before they hit the open market.

B

Forward-Deployed Engineers

Our engineers sit on-site with operators, observing, listening, and mapping every process to build solutions precisely tailored to each business.

C

In-House AI & Tooling

No outsourced dev shops. Our own engineering team builds bespoke AI tooling, from automated scheduling and billing to intelligent dispatch and pricing.

Healthcare / HVAC / Dental Clinics / Plumbing / Veterinary / Skilled Trades / Physiotherapy / Electrical / Elder Care / Landscaping / Pest Control / Optometry / Roofing / Cleaning Services /  Healthcare / HVAC / Dental Clinics / Plumbing / Veterinary / Skilled Trades / Physiotherapy / Electrical / Elder Care / Landscaping / Pest Control / Optometry / Roofing / Cleaning Services / 

03 / The Playbook

Phase 001

Acquire

Buy profitable, owner-operated businesses facing succession crises at attractive multiples. Target profile: €1M–€5M EBITDA, 15+ years of operating history, and deep local integration.

Phase 002

Transform

Deploy forward-deployed engineers to eliminate back-office drag. A master plumber shouldn't spend 15 hours a week invoicing. We automate dispatch, billing, and CRM to increase billable utilization by 30%+.

Phase 003

Scale

Free the skilled professionals to do purely billable, high-trust human work. We establish a regional hub-and-spoke model.

Phase 004

Compound

Reinvest cash flow into tuck-in acquisitions on a unified tech stack. Actively engineer cross-portfolio synergies: shared clients, referrals, and bundled services across trades.

Phase 005

Exit

Package highly optimized, tech-enabled regional leaders and exit to larger institutional sponsors (traditional PE) or strategic buyers at a premium multiple.

05 / The Operators

Seasoned engineers turned private equity sponsors.

We are seasoned engineers with deep experience in ML/AI, big data, distributed systems, and cybersecurity. Our background extends into defence and compliance, where we built tools to protect critical supply chains. We don't hire external IT consultants. We build the tech stack ourselves.

Technology DNA

ML/AI, big data, distributed systems, and cybersecurity. We have built and scaled enterprise software, managed complex migrations, and developed proprietary AI tooling that directly drives margin expansion.

Defence & Compliance

Built tools to protect critical supply chains. Our overlap into defence and compliance means rigorous thinking about security, resilience, and downside protection in every acquisition.

06 / Risks

What could go wrong.

We believe in transparency. Every investment carries risk, and ours is no exception. These are the factors we think about constantly.

01

Operational Complexity

Managing multi-site service businesses across Central Europe introduces coordination, regulatory, and cultural challenges at every level.

02

Integration Risk

Applying new technology to established businesses can meet resistance, disrupt workflows, or fail to deliver expected efficiency gains.

03

AI Advancement

Rapid AI progress could eventually threaten certain aspects of physical service delivery that we currently consider protected.

04

Market Conditions

Shifts in private credit availability and interest rate environments can affect acquisition financing and portfolio company performance.

05

Limited Liquidity

This is a long-term investment. Capital is committed for years, with limited ability to exit positions during the initial holding period.

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