We buy businesses to own them.
Most buyers have a clock running. A fund has to sell within a few years. A strategic buyer wants to fold your company into something bigger.
Hardgreen has no fund, no investors waiting for a return and no exit date. When we take on a business, we intend to still own it in twenty years: run by good people, a little stronger every year.
How we work
Founding and funding
Most long-term owners only buy. We also help start new businesses when the idea, the market and the people justify it. CTRL Disrupt, our first, began that way.
Owning, not flipping
No fund cycle and no holding-period clock. We take full, majority or minority stakes, whichever serves the business, and we don't plan an exit.
Businesses that matter
Real purpose, healthy economics, strong teams and integrity at the core. We're drawn to essential businesses and to work tied to resilience, risk and security.
What we believe
Six convictions. They decide which deals we walk away from.
Good businesses are not flipped.
They are carefully owned.
Understandable beats clever.
If you can't explain it to your parents, we probably won't buy it.
Integrity is not a nice-to-have.
It is part of the investment case.
Patience compounds.
Velocity does not.
Founders are partners, not sellers.
They can stay, reduce or leave, on their terms.
Work should be enjoyable.
Long-term ownership is a long time to spend with people you don't like.
What we look for
In short. The full criteria, and what isn't a fit, are on one page.
€200,000+
EBITDA per year, up to €1,000,000
Healthy
Margins with room to invest, pay people well and get through a bad year.
Simple
A business model you can explain in two sentences.
Integrity
Towards customers, staff and suppliers. Not negotiable.
Any stake
Full, majority or minority
None
Exit date. We buy to hold.
Who we hear from
If you built a business
Thinking about what comes next? You can stay, step back slowly or leave. We'll build the deal around it.
See our criteriaIf you advise founders
Accountants, succession advisers, lawyers: our criteria fit on one page, and we're glad to hear from you first.
See our criteriaIf you're starting something
We co-found where the idea, the market and the person justify it. The bar is high.
Get in touchIf you've run serious businesses
We're small, and there may be no role today. We'd still like to know you.
Get in touch
The businesses we own
CTRL Disrupt
A Dutch firm focused on enterprise resilience: security, risk and governance for organisations where trust and continuity matter.
Founded 2022 · Wholly owned
Start a conversation.
A first conversation commits nobody to anything. Gijs reads every email himself.
gijs@hardgreen.nl