We back search funds.
Our Story
Gelman Brothers Family Investment Office (GBFIO) is the search fund investing arm of two brothers, Alex and Kirill Gelman. In 2020, both brothers exited their startups. (Alex sold his search fund acquired tech company, mTab, to a Private Equity fund and Kirill sold his hedge fund to GTS, a global electronic market maker). They created a Family Investment Office to invest in search funds. The goal of GBFIO is to back search funds, independent sponsors, and people pursuing Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA).
We back 5-8 search funds a year. We’re selective because we like spending real time with the entrepreneurs that we back. We will look at equity gaps.
Current Investments
We’ve backed entrepreneurs in their buying/building of the following businesses.
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Team
Alex Gelman
Managing Partner
Alex is the Managing Partner of Gelman Brothers. Universally regarded as the more attractive Gelman Brother, Alex runs all day to day operations of the office, including website copy. Outside of GBFIO, Alex is the Managing Partner of Heritage Point Partners, a Private Equity Fund dedicated to small business investing.
From 2015-2020, Alex was the CEO of mTab, the premier business intelligence tool for market research, which his investors and he acquired via the Search Fund model. Prior to mTab, Alex held positions at KKR and McKinsey & Co.
Alex received a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Philosophy from Dartmouth College.
Alex lives in Los Angeles with his dog, Mimi.
Kirill Gelman
Partner
Kirill is an investing partner in Gelman Brothers, but spends all of his professional time running an options market making business for GTS, a global electronic market maker.
From 1999 to 2019, Kirill held a variety of positions at Barclays (previously Lehman Brothers). In 2008, Kirill founded Barclays’ automated options trading unit. The unit grew to include 40 employees and at its peak traded approximately 6 percent of all exchange-traded equity options volume in the United States. In 2020, GTS acquired the group from Barclays.
Kirill received a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from SUNY Binghamton.
Kirill lives in New York with his wife, 3 children, and dog, Duke.
