What makes M&A software "UK" rather than just localised?

The substance is in the data and the workflow, not the currency symbol: sourcing that reads the Companies House register directly for real filed figures, valuation multiples benchmarked on UK sector data, deal structures that model an asset purchase and a share purchase as genuinely different transactions, and every figure shown in pounds without a conversion step between the analysis and the document a client reads.

Is US-built M&A software unsuitable for UK deals?

Not automatically — the underlying deal mechanics (a pipeline, a data room, a CIM analysis workflow) transfer reasonably well. The gaps tend to show up in sourcing (a UK register versus a US-style business directory), valuation benchmarks, and the legal-form distinctions a UK transaction actually uses. A firm doing mostly cross-border or US deals may find a US-first tool a better fit than a UK-first one.

Does UK M&A software need to read Companies House data?

For sourcing and screening UK targets, yes — it is the primary source of filed accounts, officers, persons with significant control and registered charges, and a tool relying on a secondary or scraped dataset is working from a copy that can lag or omit fields the primary register carries.

Why does the asset purchase vs share purchase distinction matter for software?

Because the two are structurally different transactions under UK law — what is bought, which liabilities transfer, and how the deal is taxed all differ — and software that treats them as one interchangeable "deal type" cannot correctly model the funding, the consideration structure or the documents either one actually needs.

Should pricing and figures be shown in pounds throughout?

Yes, and consistently — a tool that models in dollars and converts to sterling only for display can show a client a figure that has already moved by the time they see it. Ask whether the underlying model, not just the label, is denominated in pounds.

Evaluation guide

The Best M&A Software in the UK: How to Evaluate It

A lot of "M&A software" is built for the US market first and priced in dollars, with a UK edition that amounts to a currency toggle. That is a real gap for a UK adviser or acquirer, because several things about doing deals in the UK are genuinely different: the target register, the standard legal forms a deal takes, the sector multiples a valuation gets benchmarked against, and — mundanely but constantly — what currency every figure in every document is stated in. This is a framework for testing whether a candidate was actually built around that, not a ranked list of vendors.

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What "built for the UK" should actually mean

It is easy for a vendor to claim UK support and mean almost nothing by it — a £ symbol on the pricing page and a support inbox that replies during UK office hours. The parts that matter for a working deal team go further than that. Sourcing and screening candidates should read the UK company register (Companies House) directly, not a scraped or licensed dataset several steps removed from the primary source, because filed accounts, officers, PSCs and charges are the actual evidence a UK screening process is built on. Valuation multiples and comparable-transaction benchmarks should reflect UK sector data, not a generic global average that happens to be denominated in dollars. Deal structuring should model the legal forms a UK transaction actually takes — an asset sale versus a share sale carries different tax and liability consequences under UK law, and a tool that only knows "asset deal" and "stock deal" as US-flavoured labels is describing a different transaction. And every figure a client, a lender or a committee sees — the price, the EBITDA, the funding stack — should be in pounds throughout, not converted at the point of display from an underlying dollar model.

None of this means a UK-built tool is automatically better for every UK team. A firm doing cross-border deals, or a private equity platform running a pan-European mandate, may reasonably want a tool with stronger multi-currency and multi-jurisdiction support than a UK-first product typically offers. The point of this page is to make the UK-specific questions explicit enough that a buyer of the software can tell which kind of tool they are actually looking at, rather than discovering the gap three months into a live deal.

What to test before you commit

Run these against a live account with a real UK company, not a US-seeded sales demo.

Sourcing and the register

Search for a real UK private company by name or number. Does it return filed figures — turnover, operating profit, net assets — read from the company's actual accounts, or a name-and-SIC-code match with no financial substance behind it?
If the software screens acquisition targets, does it read filed accounts (including inline XBRL, not only a PDF nobody has parsed) for the current period, or does it fall back to a stale or estimated figure without saying so?
Are officers, persons with significant control and charges on the target readable in the same place as the financials, or scattered across separate lookups you have to run by hand?

Valuation and comparables

Does the sector multiple used in a valuation reflect UK market data, and does the tool say which sector and multiple band it applied — or is it a single global default with no stated source?
If it draws on comparable transactions or asking-price data, is that UK deal activity, or a global dataset dominated by a much larger and differently priced US market?
Is every figure — price, EBITDA, enterprise value — shown in pounds throughout the workflow, with no silent currency conversion between the analysis and the document a client actually reads?

Deal structure and documents

Can the tool model an asset purchase and a share purchase as genuinely different structures — not just a label — and does it explain, even briefly, why a UK buyer or seller might prefer one over the other for a given deal?
Do the generated documents (an NDA, heads of terms, an offer letter) use UK-appropriate drafting conventions, or is the base template written for a different jurisdiction with the names swapped?
Does the platform distinguish a limited company's registered office, company number and statutory detail correctly on a document that will actually be signed?

The basics that are easy to overlook

Is pricing quoted and billed in pounds, with no dollar-to-sterling conversion applied at checkout that moves with the exchange rate?
Does support and onboarding run in UK working hours, and does anyone you speak to understand a UK deal without you first having to translate US-specific terminology?
If the tool touches personal data on officers, contacts or counterparties, does it describe how UK data protection obligations apply to that processing, rather than pointing only to a US-centric privacy policy?

Five questions for a demo

"Search for [a real UK private company you know] and show me its filed accounts inside the tool." If what comes back is a name and an address with no turnover or profit figure, the tool has not actually integrated the register — it has integrated a directory.

"Run a valuation on that company and show me which sector multiple you used, and where it came from." An honest answer names a UK sector band; a vague one ("industry standard multiples") is a sign the range is not really UK-sourced.

"Model this deal as an asset purchase, then the same deal as a share purchase. What actually changes?" The legal form of a UK acquisition changes what is bought, what liabilities transfer and how it is taxed — if the software treats the two as interchangeable, it has not modelled the distinction that matters most to a UK buyer's lawyer and accountant.

"Show me the pricing page and the invoice. Is the currency the same throughout?" A dollar list price with a sterling conversion at checkout that moves month to month is a small thing until a finance director asks why last quarter's invoice does not match this quarter's at the same subscription tier.

"Who do I talk to if something breaks at 4pm on a Tuesday?" UK hours support is not a technical capability, but it is a genuinely different experience from a US-headquartered vendor whose team comes online as your working day ends.

Where TrueValue fits, honestly

TrueValue is built for the UK market first rather than adapted for it. Target sourcing and screening read the Companies House register directly — including inline XBRL accounts for turnover, operating profit, net assets and employee figures where a filing states them — with officers, PSCs and charges read alongside, and a figure the accounts do not state left blank rather than estimated. The valuation engine runs five methods, including comparable transactions drawn from the workspace's own recorded deal history and asking-price benchmarks from UK business-for-sale listings, and every figure in the workflow is denominated in pounds throughout, from the first screen to the exported valuation report. Deal structuring models asset and share purchases as genuinely different structures, alongside deferred consideration, earn-outs and seller notes, and the document generator produces NDAs, heads of terms and offer documents against UK drafting conventions. Pricing is quoted and billed in pounds, with no currency conversion between the price shown and the price charged.

What it does not claim: TrueValue is not a substitute for a solicitor's advice on the legal consequences of an asset versus a share sale, or an accountant's advice on the tax treatment of a given structure — it organises the analysis and the record so those professionals have real figures to work from, not a guess at what UK law requires.

On vendor comparisons

This page names no other vendor and ranks nothing. Several general-purpose and US-first M&A platforms have added UK support over time, and the quality of that support varies and changes; the only reliable way to judge it is to run the tests above against a live account with a real UK company, not a marketing page.

Frequently asked questions

What makes M&A software "UK" rather than just localised?: The substance is in the data and the workflow, not the currency symbol: sourcing that reads the Companies House register directly for real filed figures, valuation multiples benchmarked on UK sector data, deal structures that model an asset purchase and a share purchase as genuinely different transactions, and every figure shown in pounds without a conversion step between the analysis and the document a client reads.
Is US-built M&A software unsuitable for UK deals?: Not automatically — the underlying deal mechanics (a pipeline, a data room, a CIM analysis workflow) transfer reasonably well. The gaps tend to show up in sourcing (a UK register versus a US-style business directory), valuation benchmarks, and the legal-form distinctions a UK transaction actually uses. A firm doing mostly cross-border or US deals may find a US-first tool a better fit than a UK-first one.
Does UK M&A software need to read Companies House data?: For sourcing and screening UK targets, yes — it is the primary source of filed accounts, officers, persons with significant control and registered charges, and a tool relying on a secondary or scraped dataset is working from a copy that can lag or omit fields the primary register carries.
Why does the asset purchase vs share purchase distinction matter for software?: Because the two are structurally different transactions under UK law — what is bought, which liabilities transfer, and how the deal is taxed all differ — and software that treats them as one interchangeable "deal type" cannot correctly model the funding, the consideration structure or the documents either one actually needs.
Should pricing and figures be shown in pounds throughout?: Yes, and consistently — a tool that models in dollars and converts to sterling only for display can show a client a figure that has already moved by the time they see it. Ask whether the underlying model, not just the label, is denominated in pounds.

Go deeper

Search a real UK company and see what comes back

Look up a company you know on the register, run a valuation in pounds against UK sector data, and see the structure options modelled properly.

Get TrueValue Explore the demo workspace