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Today’s Rundown

• Report on small business acquisitions

• Lessons from 22 off-market acquisitions

• Experience redefines SME acquisition

• 1 deal / launch announcement

• 5 new career opportunities

Database Overview

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Weekly Highlights

• BizBuySell, an US SME marketplace, published a report on small business acquisitions:

  • Closed transactions reached 2,599 in Q3 2025 (+8% YoY, +11% QoQ) with total deal value rising to $2.13B (+5% YoY, +12% QoQ), while the median sale price fell 2% YoY and 9% QoQ to $320,044

  • Owner confidence dropped from 50 to 48, and 53% of owners reported tariff-driven cost increases; 62% said inflation is not easing. Meanwhile, 55% believe they can achieve their desired price now, and 60% fear prices will stagnate or fall next year

  • Deals moved faster with time on market down to 149 days (from 176 last quarter), even as median cash flow declined 2% YoY and 6% QoQ, and median revenue fell 2% YoY and 6% QoQ to $674,500

  • Sector performance varied: Service transactions +11% YoY (median price –8%), Retail +14% YoY (median price –5%), Restaurants +2% YoY, and Manufacturing –11% YoY with median price down 37%

  • 55% of owners use AI; 76% report improved performance, 13% reduced roles, and 5% added roles, indicating early but measurable operational impacts

• Entrepreneurial Capital, a search fund investor, shared lessons from 22 off-market acquisitions:

  • Peter Lang has completed 22 off-market acquisitions across multiple platforms/holding companies and now runs a boutique PE-style holding company (Lang Acquisitions) that aims to buy 3–4 companies per year

  • From the live poll of 100+ attendees, about 88% are actively searching for a business; 61% look both on- and off-market, 9% off-market only, and the average satisfaction with off-market sourcing was ~4–5/10, with no one rating above 8/10

  • Peter stresses volume and time commitment: he wants searchers to get to 5 seller conversations ASAP and 20 in the first month, typically by sending around 10 high-quality LinkedIn messages per day (LinkedIn caps around 70/week), supported by tools like Apollo/Clay/Growbots and a CRM

  • He recommends building a proprietary outreach engine (especially via LinkedIn) backed by virtual assistants for list building and admin, using rules of thumb like targeting add-on acquisitions roughly 30% of your current employee count, and using seller financing + earnouts as core structuring tools

  • For collaboration and referrals, he suggests simple finder’s fees in the ~$5k–$50k range (e.g., for a multi-million-EBITDA deal) and emphasizes credibility signals: a clear personal “search” website/LinkedIn profile, documented process (100+ preliminary DD questions), recorded calls, and advisory backing (e.g., investors/board-type supporters)

• Këana Marketing, a outsourced marketing provider for search funds, shared an interview on toward a more flexible search fund: when experience redefines SME acquisition:

  • Fabrice Clerc-Renaud (founder of Nexo Capital in Barcelona) is running a self-funded search to acquire a family-owned Spanish SME with EBITDA < €1M, focusing on B2B or niche B2C firms with strong local roots that are typically too small for traditional funds

  • He estimates only 8,000–9,000 companies in Spain truly fit classic search fund criteria, and maybe ~10% of those are actually for sale, against ~50 active searchers, creating a very tight deal ratio and pushing him toward a more flexible, self-funded model

  • Fabrice (French-Brazilian, HEC Paris) previously built a pan-European division at DS Smith from scratch, expanding into 8 countries and generating €10M in annual revenue, and now frames ETA as a continuation of that entrepreneurial, “build and structure” career path

  • In traditional search funds, search capital is valued at ~50%, making sub-€1M EBITDA deals less attractive for institutional investors; Fabrice sees this as an opportunity for self-funded searchers to buy “overlooked gems” that are profitable, well-run, but slightly outside the standard “high-margin, recurring, high-growth” box

  • He stresses that the biggest risk is post-close human execution, not the investment thesis: managing cultural shock, hands-on presence, early “quick wins” in the first ~100 days, and a continuity narrative

Deal / Launch Announcements

• 🇬🇧 Saepio Information Security, a MSSP and an asset of search fund Aurias, acquired their first add-on Ruptura InfoSecurity, a penetration-testing specialist (link)

Career Opportunities

• [PE] Investment Associate | Apollo | London (apply)

• [PE] Investment Intern | Ardian | Milan (apply)

• [PE-Asset] Investment & Business Transformation Consultant | PER | Hamburg (apply)*

• [PE-Asset] M&A Manager | The Nutriment Company | Dusseldorf (apply)

• [PE-Asset] M&A Manager | PER | Hamburg (apply)*

_*Headhunter

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