M&A Match-Making Platform For Business Buyers With Active, Industry-Centric Buy Mandates
The competitiveness for M&A deals in the lower-middle market (<$100 million in enterprise value) has never been stronger and finding quality business acquisition opportunities has never been tougher. Getting owners of quality businesses to return emails and phone calls can be difficult, even when you believe you have something special to offer.
So, what if you could showcase your capabilities, your experience, and your domain expertise… and the seller chooses you, from amongst your peers, to explore a deal?
What is it?
Aligned IQ M&A is a B2B,
Industry Vertical centric M&A web platform that provides business buyers with active buy mandates an opportunity to source deals by showcasing their differentiated
acquisition strategy and industry experience with potential sellers.
Traditional outreach methods, such as getting owners of quality businesses to return emails and phone calls, are becoming increasingly difficult, even when you believe you have something special to offer.
Aligned IQ M&A gets your active acquisition mandate in front of receptive business sellers. The seller chooses you, opening up an opportunity
to discuss your mandate and articulate how you operate while learning more about their objectives, growth opportunities, and deal objectives.
And all of this happens outside of a
traditional sell-side process and without the deadlines for submitting an offer.
Who uses Aligned IQ M&A?
Only Pay for Results
There are no subscription fees for using Aligned IQ M&A. Users have full access to all the buyer features of the platform and only pay when and if a deal that was facilitated on the platform successfully closes.
Easy to Use
Getting started is easy. You can book a demo or we can set up your profile and acquisition mandate for you. You should be up and running in approximately 30 minutes.
Maintaining and updating your profile and active buy mandate is easy.
Confidential and Secure
No one other than potential sellers can view your profile and buy mandate(s). And then, only after the platform has triggered a Match. This way you can share more specifics on your mandate without fear that it can be easily shared with competitors.
No Obligations for Buyers
Business sellers chose who they would like to meet on the Aligned IQ M&A platform based on the buyer’s confidential profile and acquisition mandate.
If a business owner selects you, you can decide whether you would like to proceed based on their no-names profile.
How it Works
Step 1
Register and execute our User Agreement. Complete your profile outlining your experience, deal criteria, acquisition strategy, value-added services, and value proposition. Select information outlining your experience and acquisition mandate will be used to generate your “Confidential Acquisition Mandate”.
Industry agnostic or generic buy mandates buyer/investors score low, so we encourage you to make sure your profile is Industry Centric, highly-specific and keep it up to date.
Step 2
Periodically, you will be sent a no-names “Confidential Information Profile” (AKA a “Teaser”) of a business that is a potential match based on our proprietary algorithms with “human-in-the-loop” analysis. The potential seller will have already reviewed you “Confidential Acquisition Mandate” and agreed that the fit has potential.
You then simply decide if you would like an introduction to the candidate and agree to the Aligned IQ M&A NDA and Buy-Side Fee Agreement.
The business owner/seller may only select a maximum of three Buyer/Investors on the platform, giving you at least semi-proprietary deals to consider.
Step 3
Once mutual consent has been obtained and the Aligned IQ M&A NDA and Fee terms have been accepted, the candidate’s name and detailed profile are revealed, and the parties can begin communications using our platform messaging system.
Don’t worry, you can supersede the Aligned IQ M&A NDA directly with the counterparty after a Match has been completed.
Once a Match has been completed, each party can exchange more detailed information on or off the platform.
Seller financials and transaction objectives are only used as part of the Aligned IQ M&A‘s matching process. They are only available to you if provided to you by the Seller after the Match has been completed.
Step 4
Once an Aligned IQ M&A introduction has been facilitated, you are free to negotiate a deal with the counterparty at your mutually agreed-upon pace.
We will send you periodic emails with new potential matches and with requests to update/modify your profile and/or buy mandate.
Step 5
You notify us of status updates on Matches facilitated on the platform.
Step 6
Wire us our payment when a deal with a business owner introduced on the platform, closes.
Please contact us for current pricing.
frequently asked questions
Our Virtual Dataroom Solution
Our Virtual Dataroom solution is built for more than casual document sharing. It is purpose-built for M&A professionals, business owners, and investors who demand the highest levels of security, control, and compliance. It is very competitively priced for lower middle-market M&A.
Potential buyers agree to pay a fee for deals sourced on the Aligned IQ M&A platform as a pre-condition of a Match. Fees are only payable if a deal with a seller candidate introduced to the buyer on the platform closes successfully.
Fees are well below market, size adjusted, and are further adjusted downward when the seller triggers more introductions on the platform. Sellers are only allowed to initiate introductions to three potential buyer candidates on the platform to help ensure that any deal is at least semi-proprietary.
We also provide a discount when the seller is represented by an Intermediary.
Please contact us for more specific pricing.
Aligned IQ M&A is not a platform for active sellers running competitive processes that are exclusively represented by Investment Banks and/or other intermediaries. Sellers need to declare whether they have signed an engagement with an exclusive sell-side representative, so the chances that potential buyers have seen a “deal” from a sell-side process are low.
Both parties are given an opportunity, once a Match is completed, to declare whether there has been any active M&A dialogue during the previous 12 months.
As a condition of use, we require that deal status from any Match, is updated periodically, and in particular when deals close or discussions discontinue. We ask for periodic updates on all deals introduced to buyers on the platform.
The platform is designed to provide Buyers/Investors with semi-proprietary access to deals sources with potential sellers and the opportunity to explore and build a strategic relationship first. If a potential seller seeks active discussions with more than three potential buyers, they are more likely running a competitive process.
We don’t. The seller can build relationships or explore a sale to whomever they choose outside of the platform. Aligned IQ M&A is designed for business owners who prefer to understand the strategic fit as a first step, rather than for those who prefer to shop their deal broadly.
There are numerous other platforms available for sellers to confidentially market or advertise the sale of their business. The difference with Aligned IQ M&A is that the seller chooses and controls who views their profile and who they invite to explore a deal.
Sellers are free to hire anyone they see fit to best achieve their goals. If an Aligned IQ M&A buyer successfully acquires a business initiated on Aligned IQ M&A, and can demonstrate that the seller subsequently decided to run a competitive process, we discount our fees to our “Intermediated Client” rates.
Buyers and sellers set their own pace in building their relationship and their transaction timeline, therefore there is no set tail period. Only after both parties confirm that there is no further interest in exploring a transaction will the requirement for payment of a fee terminate.
Aligned IQ M&A is a web platform that allows business sellers to get to know the strategy and experience of any potential Buyer/Investor as a first step. It is truly a “people and experience” first approach that allows potential business sellers to “feel out” potential buyer(s)/investor(s) in a confidential and non-threatening way.
Book a time with us to help you set up your profile and active buy mandate, or walk you through the process to get you on your way.