A private equity-backed custom software engineering firm with its headquarters in the UK sought to diversify its nearshore footprint from a largely Ukraine to a broader Central/Eastern European exposure. By engaging a sector-specific, pan-European, dedicated buyside advisor for a targeted, high impact origination sprint, they industrialized their M&A origination and market access in the new geographies.

With geopolitical tensions exerting pressure on productivity at their existing nearshore engineering base, our client wished to access opaque and fast-consolidating alternative delivery markets. The variety and complexity of assets under consideration and the range of geographies, levels of corporate evolution and ownership aspirations brought significant challenges:

• Complexity in identifying firms that deployed relevant expertise for enterprise clients in specific sectors of interest
• Barriers to connecting with owners of EE-based firms, given rising inbound interest in those firms from the international M&A market and lofty valuations anchoring owners to unrealistic expectations post-2021
• Need to deploy an industrialised process of data capture and outbound comms given levels of volume and quality needed for success in proactive off-market deal sourcing

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In a 4-month origination sprint, Artemis delivered a longlist of 189 targets, contacting 162 of these at the client’s request and bringing additional ‘live’ data to the client concerning 67 of those through direct discussions with the target owners. By the end of 3 months, the client had been introduced to 44 of these, 31 of which let to additional deep dives (with IRLs completed under NDA and subsequent meetings) and 4 subsequent offers.

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• Rich context and sector insight to lean into 2 non-binding offers as the portco attracted interest from next phase investors