Acquiring the right platform, on the right terms, is the cornerstone to successful execution of a PE thesis. A significant proportion of lower-mid and mid-market platforms are in fact acquired off-market. And even for those that come to an advisor-led auction there is major competitive advantage to be gained from rapidly building context and connectivity in the lead-up to an auction, or even mid-process. Whether engaging with superior off-market platform candidates on your behalf, or accelerating your knowledge and associations around an in-market target, our team of sector and practice experts will quickly assemble a deep, comprehensive view of the platform and add-on ecosystem to help you either arrive pre-emptively, or lean right in, to an otherwise crowded and uncertain banked process.

It’s rare that a successful buy-and-build programme goes unnoticed and, as such, unimitated for long in the PE community. Consequently, the same pool of targets is often rapidly engaged by multiple parties and, despite the various personalities and track records of individual funds, either the respective M&A propositions begin to blur, or the target hires an advisor to field a multilateral process to play off the interested parties - or both. Speed and effectiveness in identifying, assessing, engaging and progressing founder-led businesses is essential, then, if investors are to secure the best win-win transactions with the best add-ons. Our team builds on deep experience originating across PE playbooks to find and facilitate connections with owners of businesses with the strongest strategic fit and progress the dialogue to bilateral M&A.

For corporate acquirers, expanding at pace at the innovation frontier requires a blend of both organic and inorganic growth initiatives. New and attractive capabilities and markets are opaque and competitive by default, so finding the right companies to acquire and delivering a narrative that will attract founders and managers to transition to a larger platform can be especially challenging. Artemis has conducted over 200 programmatic origination engagements, the majority cross-border, all involving the acquisition of new talent and innovative capability. So understanding and communicating just how a platform provides leverage to management, experts and technologies comes naturally. To date our projects have yielded over £4 billion of EV in completed add-on transactions.