The Acquiry engine
Proprietary sourcing. Rigorous vetting. Clean execution.
We don't wait for listings. Acquiry finds off-market digital businesses, verifies them to investment-committee standard, matches them with the buyers who will pay most for them, and runs the deal through to signing. One desk, one timetable, from first map to final signature.
- P1Target mapping & asset verificationwk 0–5
- P2Buyer intelligence & matchingwk 4–9
- P3The transaction deskwk 8–15
- P4Negotiation & the signing tablewk 14–20
- Enterprise value focus
- $1M–$500M
- Every first approach, buyer and seller sealed
- Codenamed
- Typical concept-to-LOI timeline
- 12–20 wks
- No identity crosses the desk without one
- NDA first
The deal lifecycle
Four phases. We carry the weight.
Choose your side, then step through each phase to see exactly what our desk does, what we need from you, and what you hold at the end of it. Your time commitment is modelled on a typical mid-market mandate.
Your total time to LOI: ~27 hours across roughly 20 weeks
By the time a company is listed, it has been shopped and priced. We find it first, then prove it is what it looks like.
Acquiry does
- Rebuild your numbers into normalised EBITDA / SDE
- Run the same checks a buyer’s analyst will run, before they do
- Turn findings into a value story, not a list of issues
You do
- Share read-only access to analytics and accounts
- One founder interview
You hold at the end
Normalised financials and a defensible valuation range
Phase 1 · Mapping & verification
Verified before any buyer sees a page.
We hunt unlisted businesses using the origination scoring blueprint, then run the checks an investment committee will run, before they run them.
Digital scoping
Traffic health, branded search share, backlink quality, stack age, dependency vulnerabilities and release cadence, read from public and permissioned data.
- Algorithm-update resilience
- Bot and invalid traffic ratio
- Framework and vendor lifecycle
Financial forensics
Founder-led accounts rebuilt into the format an investment committee expects: normalised EBITDA or SDE, cohort retention and revenue quality.
- Owner add-backs evidenced line by line
- Recurring vs one-off revenue split
- Customer, program or player cohorts
Operational risk scrub
Every issue a buyer’s lawyer would find, found first and turned into a plan, so it becomes a value driver rather than a price chip.
- GDPR / CCPA posture
- IP chain of title and contractor assignment
- Key-person and single-vendor dependency
- Reported EBITDA$1.42M
- Founder salary above market+$0.18M
- One-off legal and migration costs+$0.11M
- Personal costs run through the business+$0.06M
- Under-priced related-party contract−$0.07M
- Normalised EBITDA$1.70M
Every add-back is evidenced, so it survives the buyer's quality-of-earnings review. At a 7x multiple, this bridge alone is worth roughly $2M of enterprise value.
Phase 2 · Buyer matching
The right buyer pays for a problem they already have.
A deal is only as strong as the competition behind it. Tick what the business has and watch which buyer class leans in, and why. We run the same logic on live mandate data before a single teaser goes out.
- #1Strongest tension
Private equity platforms
Mid-market buyout and growth funds with capital to deploy.
Fit80%Why they pay up: A clean, scalable platform with predictable cash flow they can build around.
- #2
Portfolio bolt-ons
PE-backed companies running a roll-up.
Fit80%Why they pay up: Synergies: the target drops into a cost base that already exists, so they can pay more.
- #3
Cross-market buyers
Adjacent industries buying a capability.
Fit70%Why they pay up: A technology layer, payment channel or audience that lowers their own acquisition cost.
- #4
Strategic acquirers
Larger competitors and global groups.
Fit60%Why they pay up: Instant market share, pricing power and licences they would otherwise wait years for.
Modelled weightings from typical mandate outcomes. Every real process is ranked on live buyer data.
Phase 3 · The transaction desk
Five gates between a buyer and your name.
Leaks unsettle staff, worry customers and hand competitors leverage. The desk handles every request, every document and every question, so the business keeps performing while it is being sold.
- 1
Buyer screening
Identity, mandate, capital availability and proof of funds checked before any information is shared.
- 2
Blind teaser
Metrics without identity: sector band, model, size and growth. No brand, niche or location markers.
- 3
Signed NDA
Drafted for the deal, binding the buyer’s corporate entity, tracked and logged.
- 4
Clean-room data
Partitioned data room. Staff records masked, user databases summarised, code reviewed in isolation.
- 5
Managed Q&A
Every analyst question routed through the desk, batched and answered once, so founders keep running the business.
- Sector
- Vertical B2B SaaS
- Company
- Project Halyard
- ARR
- $6–8M, growing 31%
- Net revenue retention
- 118%
- Brand and domain
- Headquarters
- Named customers
Black bars lift only after screening and a signed NDA, and only for the buyers you approve.
Phase 4 · The signing table
The headline price is the start. Structure decides what you keep.
We run a synchronised bid timetable so buyers compete on price, terms and speed, then rebuild the winning letter of intent clause by clause. Typical first-draft terms against where we usually land:
| Clause | Typical first draft | After Acquiry |
|---|---|---|
| Working capital peg | Set at a 3-month high, so the seller owes a top-up at close. | Set on a 12-month normalised average, with seasonality agreed up front. |
| Escrow | 15% held for 24 months against any claim. | 7.5% held for 12 months, with staged releases and a claims cap. |
| Earnout | Paid on EBITDA the buyer controls after close. | Paid on revenue milestones, with operating covenants and acceleration on a resale. |
| Exclusivity | 90 days, open-ended extensions. | 45 days, tied to a diligence timetable with a confirmatory checkpoint. |
| Non-compete | Five years, worldwide, any digital business. | Two years, the target’s actual market and products. |
Questions
Origination to execution, answered.
What does “origination to execution” mean?
Acquiry runs the whole deal: finding or preparing the business, matching it with the right buyers, managing confidentiality and diligence, and negotiating terms through to signing. One team, one timetable.
How long does a typical deal take?
Most mandates reach a letter of intent in 12 to 20 weeks, depending on how ready the financials are and how many buyers are in the process. Completion usually follows 6 to 12 weeks after the LOI.
How do you keep a sale confidential?
Buyers are screened before they see anything. They receive a blind teaser with no identifying details, sign a deal-specific NDA, and only then get access to a partitioned data room. Every question goes through our desk.
Which buyers do you approach?
Strategic acquirers, private equity platforms, PE-backed bolt-on buyers and cross-market buyers. We rank them by fit and capacity to pay, and you approve the list. Competitors you name never see the file.
Do you only work in certain sectors?
We specialise in digital businesses such as SaaS, fintech, iGaming and digital media, but we are not limited to them. Any sector, any market: bring it to us anyway.
How do you charge?
Sell-side mandates are success-fee only, with no upfront retainer. Buy-side search mandates are a success fee on completion, and a monthly retainer may apply that is credited against it.
Start here
Request a strategic conflict check.
Whether you are a fund deploying capital through a sourcing mandate or a founder exploring a quiet exit, the first step is the same: we confirm we have no conflict with your side of the deal, then a partner calls you.
Nothing is shared with any buyer or seller without your written consent.