Business acquisition software
Business Acquisition Software for Buyers, Search Funds and PE
TrueValue is the buyer-side counterpart to an adviser's deal platform: one workspace that carries a single acquisition from a mandate and sourcing through CIM analysis, valuation, funding and diligence to a signed offer — built for the buyer running the deal, not an advisory firm's whole book of client mandates.
- Solo £149 · Deal Team £499 · Firm £1,490 a month
- Annual: two months free
- 10-targets-in-14-days guarantee
What business acquisition software does
Business acquisition software is a workspace built for a buyer running an acquisition — a searcher, an acquisition entrepreneur, a corporate development team or a private equity deal team — that carries one deal from a first look at an opportunity through valuation, funding and diligence to a signed agreement, rather than a set of features built for an advisory firm managing many client mandates.
Most software sold into M&A is built for the sell side: an adviser running a pipeline of mandates for different clients, reporting to partners, and handing a deal off once it closes. A buyer running an acquisition has a different job. There is usually one deal at a time, or a short list of live opportunities against one thesis, and the software has to carry the analysis a buyer actually needs — is this business worth what is being asked, can the price be funded, and what does diligence find — rather than a pipeline report for a partner meeting.
What makes running an acquisition hard without it
None of this is a failure of effort — it is what happens when four separate tools are asked to act like one record.
Sourcing is scattered
Marketplace adverts, broker introductions and a register search each live in a different place, and nothing scores them against the same criteria.
A CIM takes an afternoon to read properly
Spreading the financials, checking the add-backs and testing the growth story by hand is time a buyer with a day job does not have for every opportunity that lands.
The valuation and the funding are modelled separately
A price built in one spreadsheet and a funding stack built in another drift apart the moment either changes, and nobody notices until the numbers are presented.
Diligence runs on email
A request list in a document, answers as attachments to replies, and a finding noted on a call and never written down anywhere the next person can find it.
One workspace, from mandate to close
- Step 1
Set the mandate
State the acquisition criteria as numbers — sector, size, geography, earnings band, return hurdle — once, and score every sourced opportunity against it, with an unknown named rather than scored as a miss.
- Step 2
Screen and analyse
A CIM or a set of filed accounts is read into an actual spread, with mandate fit scored and red flags surfaced against the evidence that raised them.
- Step 3
Value and fund
Five valuation methods run on the extracted accounts, and the funding plan solves the stack from the price backwards against what the target's own balance sheet supports.
- Step 4
Diligence and close
A request list goes to the counterparty, evidence links to every finding, and the offer, NDA and sale and purchase agreement are sent for signature from the same record.
What's in the workspace
Acquisition mandate
Criteria as numbers, scored against every sourced opportunity, with an unknown never scored as a miss.
How to build an acquisition mandateCIM analysis
Financials extracted from a memorandum or a set of accounts, every figure traceable to the page it came from.
AI CIM analysisValuation
Net assets, DCF, SDE, EBITDA multiple and comparable transactions in one deterministic engine.
M&A valuation softwareDeal economics and funding
IRR, MoIC and a funding plan that caps secured draws at what the target's own accounts support.
M&A deal management softwareDue diligence
Request lists the counterparty answers without an account, evidence on every item, red flags surfaced.
M&A due diligence softwareDocuments and signature
NDAs, letters of intent, offers and the closing documents drafted from the deal record and sent for e-signature.
M&A e-signatures
Before and after
The same acquisition, run on four disconnected tools versus one record.
| Stage | Spreadsheets, email and a data room | TrueValue |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing | Adverts, introductions and register searches read one at a time, scored by memory. | One feed scored against a stated mandate, unknowns named rather than penalised. |
| CIM review | Financials retyped by hand into a screening spreadsheet. | Extracted automatically, with every figure linked to the page it came from. |
| Valuation and funding | Built in separate files that drift apart as either one changes. | One record: the funding stack is solved from the same price the valuation produced. |
| Diligence | A request list in a document, answers as email attachments. | A request list the counterparty answers directly, evidence linked to every finding. |
| Closing documents | A Word template and a separate e-signature tool. | NDAs, offers and the SPA drafted from the deal record and signed in the same workspace. |
Who runs an acquisition on it
The workspace serves four kinds of buyer with the same underlying record: search funds running one acquisition against an investor thesis, private equity teams screening a platform's bolt-on pipeline, corporate development teams running strategic acquisitions alongside the day job, and independent sponsors who source, structure and present deals without a back office. Each reads the same mandate, valuation and diligence engines through a view built for how they actually work.
Frequently asked questions
What is business acquisition software?
- Software built for a buyer running an acquisition — sourcing, screening a memorandum or a set of accounts, running a valuation, solving the funding and managing diligence — as one connected record rather than a set of unrelated files and inboxes.
Is this the same as M&A software for advisers?
- The underlying engines overlap, but the framing differs: adviser-facing M&A software is built around managing many client mandates through a team, while business acquisition software is built around carrying one buyer's deal from a mandate to a signed agreement.
Can it value a business I have not yet made an offer on?
- Yes. Upload a CIM or a set of filed accounts and the five-method valuation engine runs on the figures it extracts, with anything the document does not state left blank rather than estimated.
Does it help with funding the purchase, not only pricing it?
- Yes. The deal economics engine models the consideration structure — cash, deferred payments, an earn-out, a seller note — and solves the funding stack against what the target's own balance sheet supports.
How much does business acquisition software cost?
- TrueValue has three plans: Solo £149, Deal Team £499 or Firm £1,490 a month plus VAT, with two months free on annual billing. Every new subscription carries a 10-targets-in-14-days guarantee.
Go deeper
- For search fundsOne acquisition, done properly, with the evidence to show investors.
- For private equityConsistent screening across the fund, and committee papers from figures already on file.
- For corporate developmentBolt-ons and strategic acquisitions run alongside the day job.
- For independent sponsorsSource, structure and present deals without a back office.
- Best business acquisition softwareAn evaluation framework for buyers running one acquisition end to end, not an advisory team's whole book.
- How to build an acquisition mandateCriteria as numbers, so every target is scored the same way.
- How to screen acquisition opportunitiesGetting from inbound to a shortlist without losing a good one.
- M&A due diligence checklistWorkstream by workstream.
Run your next acquisition through it
Bring a real CIM or a set of accounts and see what the workspace does with it, or explore the buyer demo workspace with a sample deal already loaded.