PrivateEquity
Owner-level, off-market deal flow for lower and mid-market funds, delivered before a banker builds the buyer list.
- 01Buy box
- $2–25m EBITDA, founder-owned
- 02Deal types
- Platforms and add-ons
- 03Delivered
- Owners who have agreed to speak
- 04Exclusivity
- One fund per sector and geography
The median private equity firm sees fewer than one in five of the relevant deals in its own market.
Across 177 firms, the median saw 18.4% of the intermediated deals that fit its strategy, 9.0% for buyers of $10–50m enterprise value, and none of the exclusive sell-side processes.
Median firm's coverage of exclusive sell-side processes in its market; 2.9% of limited ones
Of closed deals were proactively self-generated, though firms describe 47.9% as proprietary
EBITDA multiple for $10–25m companies, against 12.5x for the median US buyout
Of private-capital investors now rank deal sourcing their first priority, up from 30% in 2024
Most of what a fund sees has already been shown to others
Roughly four in ten closed deals come through banks and brokers; about a third are generated by the firm itself.
Coverage data shows the other side. Inside the banked market, the median firm sees about a third of broad auctions and almost none of the exclusive or limited processes, which are the ones that price best.
The stack every competing fund also owns
Funds pay for four layers of origination infrastructure. Each is useful, and each is shared with every other subscriber in the sector. That is the structural reason proprietary flow is scarce.
Intermediaries
About 42% of closed deals- Investment banks
- M&A boutiques
- Business brokers
- What it gives
- Prepared processes with materials, data rooms and a timetable.
- What it misses
- Price discovery belongs to the seller, and the median fund sees 18.4% of these deals.
Deal marketplaces
Success fee on deals sourced there- Axial
- DealStream
- BizBuySell
- What it gives
- Intermediated deals from thousands of advisers, in one feed.
- What it misses
- Every listing is already for sale and is shown to every member whose criteria match.
Company data
PitchBook median about $31,750 a year- PitchBook
- S&P Capital IQ
- Grata
- Sourcescrub
- Inven
- What it gives
- The universe: who exists, estimated size, ownership, contacts.
- What it misses
- No timing. Grata and Sourcescrub now share one owner, so more funds draw on one pool.
Relationship CRM
Affinity $2,000–2,700 per seat a year- DealCloud
- Affinity
- 4Degrees
- What it gives
- A memory of every banker, adviser and owner the firm has touched.
- What it misses
- Records relationships you already have. It does not create the next one.
Before the banker, while the owner is still deciding
The window that matters for a fund is the year or two before an owner engages an adviser. In that window a fund can be the only buyer in the conversation.
What places an owner in time
For a fund, the strongest signals are those that combine tenure with an absent successor, and then show the owner preparing: retirement planning, debt being retired, the balance sheet clearing.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Liens lapsing | Secretary of State UCC filings | Secured liens expiring without renewal. The balance sheet is clearing, which is how a business is made ready to sell. | 3–12 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 |
| 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 |
What one sector and one geography produce in a month
An illustrative month in a single lane: a regional services sector, founder-owned companies between $2m and $10m of EBITDA. The deliverable is the last line, with the evidence for each owner attached.
Reply rates on well-targeted owner outreach run at a few per cent per touch; a full multi-touch sequence compounds that. We model conservatively and report against the model every month.
What a fund is choosing between
Most funds use several of these at once. The question is which one produces the conversations no competing fund is having.
| 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 investment committees and deal teams
Specific to funds. General questions are answered on the practice page.
01We already pay for a sourcing database. Why add this?
Because every fund in your sector pays for the same one. A database is the universe; we work the part of it that is moving this year, from registries and filings that commercial databases do not carry for businesses this size, and we open the conversation.
02Will you show the same owner to another fund?
Not inside your lane while we are engaged. A lane is a sector, a geography and a size band, agreed in writing.
03Do you work on add-ons for our portfolio companies?
Yes. Platforms with an active buy-and-build programme are covered on their own page, because the work is organised around drive-time radius rather than a national buy box.
A lane is a sector, a geography and a size band
- 01Your buy boxEBITDA band, ownership, geography and the sectors in your thesis.
- 02Your thesisWhat makes a target right for you, and what you will not buy.
- 03Your capacityHow many owner conversations the deal team can work each month.