Platforms andCorporateDevelopment
Add-on pipelines for PE-backed platforms and strategic acquirers: every owner-operator inside your radius, with a reason to call this quarter.
- 01Clients
- PE-backed platforms · Strategic acquirers
- 02Unit of work
- One hub, one drive-time radius
- 03Targets
- $0.5–5m EBITDA owner-operators
- 04Exclusivity
- One platform per sector and region
Three in four buyouts are add-ons, yet most platforms never complete one.
Add-ons were 72.9% of US buyouts in 2025 and 40.8% of buyout value in the first half of 2026. Across sectors, 74–85% of platforms acquired since 2005 never made an add-on.
Of US buyouts in 2025 were add-ons
Active US roll-up platforms across 32 sub-sectors
Typical multiple for a $10–25m add-on, against 12.5x for the median US buyout
Annual EBITDA growth a buyout now needs, against about 5% in the 2010s
The question a platform actually asks
A platform does not need a list of every HVAC company in the country. It needs the forty owner-operators within ninety minutes of its branches whose owner has held the licence since the 1990s and has nobody behind them on the filings.
That question is answered from state licence registries and retirement-plan filings, joined on address. No commercial database answers it at this size.
Fragmented, licensed, local
Buy-and-build concentrates where businesses are small, licensed and local: financial and professional services, home services and healthcare. Those are the sectors where state registries name the owner and date the licence.
Multiple arbitrage does the rest: buying at roughly six times and joining a platform valued at ten to twelve.
Read by registry, joined by address
Add-on targets are small, owner-run and licensed. That is exactly the population public registries capture well and commercial databases capture poorly.
| Signal | Where it is read | What it indicates | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licence tenure, single qualifier | State contractor and professional licence registries | One named individual has held the licence for 20 years or more and no second qualifier has been added. An owner-operator with no successor on file. | 12–36 mo |
| Retirement-plan movement | US Department of Labor Form 5500 (EFAST2) | Participant count flat or falling under a long-tenured owner; a plan terminated, frozen or converted to cash balance, which is classic pre-exit tax planning. | 6–24 mo |
| Healthcare ownership files | CMS PECOS enrolment and change-of-ownership data | Practices and facilities still independent, and the ones that just changed hands to a competing platform. | 3–18 mo |
| Fleet contraction | FMCSA MCS-150 carrier filings | A fleet shrinking for three filing cycles under the same owner. The business is being run down, not built. | 6–18 mo |
| SBA loan seasoning | SBA 7(a) and 504 loan-level data | An owner-operated business in years 7 to 9 of a 10-year SBA loan. The note is retired at a sale, which gives a concrete reason to talk. | 6–24 mo |
| Owner-occupied property listed | County assessor and commercial listings | The building the business operates from is put on the market or refinanced by the owner personally. Low volume, high intent. | 1–9 mo |
| Control in transition | State officer filings, registered-agent changes, probate dockets | An officer change, a death or an estate filing. Very high intent, very low volume, handled with care. | 0–6 mo |
Owner, evidence, conversation
Every target arrives as a record the corporate development team can act on the same day: who owns it, why now, and what the owner said.
Contractor licence renewed; still one qualifier on fileState licensing board
401(k) participants down from 41 to 34 over three filingsDOL Form 5500
Equipment lien lapsed without renewalSecretary of State UCC
Illustrative record. Details are composite and do not describe a real company.
Same-day action
The record carries what the team needs to call: owner, route in, distance and the evidence.
Rejected names, with reasons
You see the companies we passed on and why, so the filter improves each month.
How platforms usually fill the funnel
Most platforms rely on the sponsor's deal team, inbound from brokers and a corporate development lead with too many integrations to run outbound at scale.
| QuantiverseSignal-led, contacted | Data platformsCompany databases | Deal marketplacesMember deal networks | Outsourced agenciesDone-for-you outreach | In-house BDOrigination hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finds the owner before an adviser is engaged | By design | Visible, untimed | Already marketed | Partly | Partly |
| A dated reason to call, on every name | Every row cites one | Static profile | Seller has decided | Usually list-led | Partly |
| Sources outside commercial databases | Registries and filings | No | No | Some | Partly |
| Source and date shown on every name | Cited on the record | No | No | Rarely | No |
| Owner name, tenure and route in | Yes | Partly | Via the adviser | Partly | Partly |
| Conversation opened before handover | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Exclusive to one buyer in the lane | One per sector-geography | Same list for all | Shown to all matches | Sometimes | Yes |
From platform CEOs and corporate development
Specific to buy-and-build. General questions are answered on the practice page.
01We are a strategic, not PE-backed. Does this apply?
Yes. The work is the same: a radius or a region, a target profile and owners who are moving. Strategics often value the fact that the approach can be made in their own name.
02Can you cover several branches?
Each hub is a lane. Platforms with several hubs usually start with the one under the most pressure to close and add hubs once the first produces.
03Do you cover healthcare services?
Yes, using CMS enrolment and ownership files alongside state boards. That also shows which practices your competitors have already taken.
One hub, one radius, one platform
- 01Your hubsBranch locations and the radius you can integrate from.
- 02Your target profileTrade, size, service mix and licence types.
- 03Your cadenceAdd-ons planned this year and closed to date.