Celia Beatu

Celia Pérez-Beato has spent her career in Spanish finance and private equity, and has been part of Nazca Capital since March 2007 — roughly 18–19 years with the firm. She earned a BA in Business Administration from ICADE (Universidad Pontificia Comillas) in Madrid. Her early career included about five years in the finance department of Alstom, followed by roughly eight years as an M&A investment banker at Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and the Spanish corporate-finance boutique Arcano.

Before joining Nazca she spent a year as an Investment Director at Valanza, BBVA's private-equity arm, where she first crossed paths with Nazca's founding partners while advising them on the sale of Svenson. She joined Nazca in 2007 and became a partner, later taking responsibility for the firm's smaller-company (Small Cap / SME) investment strategy and sitting on Nazca's Investment Committee. Her role spans deal origination, investment management and portfolio monitoring, investor relations and fundraising.

In January 2020 Nazca reorganised into a multi-fund manager, running Fund IV (€275M, 2016) for mid-market deals alongside Fund V (€150M, 2019) for smaller SMEs, together covering equity tickets of roughly €7M–€80M. As the firm scaled its Small Cap franchise, Pérez-Beato became Managing Partner of Small Cap Funds I and II.

On 21 January 2026, Nazca named her Chief Executive Officer as part of a broader leadership reorganisation: co-founder Álvaro Mariátegui, the previous CEO, moved to the Board of Administration, while co-founder Carlos Carbó remained executive president. She continues to lead the Small Cap business line as Managing Partner in addition to the CEO role. The change followed a strong 2025 in which Nazca raised over €600M across its strategies and invested around €300M across 14 transactions (9 new investments and 5 add-ons).

• Invests through control buyouts and growth capital in established, profitable Spanish SMEs, typically family- or founder-owned, using share acquisitions and capital increases.
• Sector-agnostic approach spanning food and natural ingredients, industrials, consumer brands, business services and, increasingly, sustainability/decarbonisation (e.g. the Global Factor investment).
• Historically backs companies with sales of ~€30M–€200M, deploying equity checks in the ~€7M–€80M range across Nazca's funds; her Small Cap funds sit at the lower end.
• Value-creation model centres on buy-and-build (add-on acquisitions), professionalising management, and international/organic growth — reflected in 2025's mix of new platforms plus bolt-ons.
• Focus is squarely on the Spanish market, where Nazca has invested since 2001.