About
Toma Milanovic.
Founder of SVETA Capital.
Toma Milanovic — 2026
I grew up around entrepreneurship. My father ran his own business. So did others in my family. From an early age, I understood that a company is not just a financial asset — it is years of daily work, sacrifices, and decisions that compound into something worth protecting.
When I became an accountant in Paris, I spent eight years sitting across the table from founders preparing to sell or transfer what they had spent a lifetime building. I saw how much that decision weighed on them. A business is not just a balance sheet. For most founders, it is the closest thing to a life's work.
That experience shaped everything. Selling a business is not just a financial transaction — it is a human relationship built on trust. The founder has to believe that whoever takes over will respect what they built. That conviction is at the core of everything I do.
That is what I am building with SVETA Capital.
How I got here.
2017 — 2024
Paris, across the table
I started as an apprentice in a Paris accounting firm and grew into the work that mattered to me: business valuations, owner buyouts, and succession advisory for SME founders in the €1M–€20M range.
For eight years I sat across the table from people preparing to sell or transfer what they had spent a lifetime building. None of them were negotiating a number — they were deciding what would happen to their employees, their name, their work. That is where I learned the real lesson: a transfer is human before it is financial. Trust comes before terms.
2025
Turning instinct into a framework
I wrote my graduate thesis on LBO mechanics, financial risk, and the role of the accountant in leveraged acquisitions. Everything I had understood in practice, I forced into structure — exactly how these deals are financed, where the risk sits, and how to do one without breaking what you buy.
2025
Portugal
I relocated to Portugal and joined one of Europe's largest banking groups. It gave me my first real proximity to the Portuguese market — and I saw the same pattern as France, only sharper: solid, profitable companies, founders ageing out, and almost no structured buyers prepared to take over with care. The opportunity was real.
2026
SVETA Capital
SVETA Capital applies LBO principles to the Portuguese SME market, where business transfers remain structurally underserved. Concretely: I acquire one profitable small business from a founder ready for the next chapter, take over its day-to-day, and run it for the long term — keeping the team, the name, and what already works. Not a fund running on a clock — a single buyer who has spent his career on the founder's side of the table. I am currently sourcing the first acquisition.
French · English · Serbian
Let's talk.
Whether you are considering selling your business, exploring a partnership, or simply want to introduce yourself — I read every message personally.
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