Roll-up Platforms · Strategic Acquirers · Search Funds · Brokers

Off-market deal sourcing for UK acquisitions

We score every active UK company on exit readiness, so you can reach owners before a sale process starts. Our model rated 6 in 10 eventual sellers as likely to sell, before they sold.

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McKinsey estimates $5 trillion in US business value is at risk from failed ownership transitions. We mapped the equivalent problem across 3.8 million UK companies. Read the analysis.

The UK Off-Market Deal Sourcing Problem

  • 20 months average search duration.
  • 37% of funded searches never acquire.
  • £15,000+ per month of searching (Stanford GSB 2024).

What ExitRadar Filters It To

  • 865,182 UK companies with an average director age of 60+.
  • 174,311 owner-run businesses with a single director aged 60+ and no internal successor.
  • 37,232 scoring 70+ for exit readiness.

Built on Companies House data. See the full exit statistics. UK search fund directory.

Browse by Sector

Scored and ranked target lists, updated from live filings.

  • Manufacturing: 149,208 companies, 2,821 rated PURSUE. Defensible niches, long customer relationships.
  • Construction & Trades: 401,992 companies, 4,373 rated PURSUE. Essential, fragmented, owner-dependent.
  • Healthcare: 199,989 companies, 2,578 rated PURSUE. Ageing population, recurring patients, regulated.
  • Professional Services: 550,671 companies, 2,765 rated PURSUE. Consulting, legal, accounting, engineering.
  • Facility & Field Services: 83,310 companies, 1,172 rated PURSUE. Route-based, contracted, recurring services.
  • IT & Tech Services: 141,384 companies, 551 rated PURSUE. MSPs, IT consultancies, managed services.
  • Technology: 90,962 companies, 592 rated PURSUE. Software, cloud, and telecoms products.
  • Automotive: 74,643 companies, 1,356 rated PURSUE. Garage roll-ups, MOT annuities, parts distribution.
  • Logistics & Fleet Services: 86,597 companies, 1,161 rated PURSUE. Road freight, warehousing, courier, fleet hire.
  • Wholesale & Distribution: 78,907 companies, 1,588 rated PURSUE. B2B trade supply, territorial roll-ups, sticky accounts.
  • Financial Services: 143,761 companies, 398 rated PURSUE. Regulated, sticky clients, recurring fees.
  • Education & Training: 89,211 companies, 607 rated PURSUE. Fragmented, recession-resilient, recurring.
  • Hospitality & Leisure: 415,686 companies, 2,848 rated PURSUE. Restaurants, hotels, leisure, personal services.
  • Retail: 229,416 companies, 2,000 rated PURSUE. Physical retail with proven models and loyal customers.
Per company

What every intelligence brief includes

Analyst-grade acquisition intelligence on a single target: investment thesis, financial benchmarking, approach strategy and tailored diligence questions.

Signals: Exit window detection

We identify when a business is approaching a natural exit window from owner and director age, succession gaps, board changes and control structure, then rank how strongly those signals match businesses that went on to sell.

Financials: Revenue, EBITDA, and margin analysis

Most private companies don’t report revenue. We estimate revenue from ten independent balance sheet signals, including multi-year growth trajectories, cross-checked by a statistical model trained on 158,000 company-years. Validated against 3,668 companies in the search fund target range: median estimate within 23% of actual revenue.

Valuation: Screening-level valuation range

Enterprise value range built from size and sector multiples applied to normalised EBITDA, adjusted for business quality and earnings volatility. It is not a formal valuation, but a calibrated starting point.

Quality: Benchmarked against filed peers

Current ratio, liabilities to equity and net assets growth set against peers of the same activity and filed size, with charts showing where the target sits. Filed margin and per-employee figures appear where the target and its peers filed a P&L.

Approach: Pre-approach strategy and draft letter

Analyst note with an investment thesis. Recommended channel, timing, opening narrative, and deal structure signal. A draft approach letter tailored to the owner profile.

Risks: Risk flags and diligence priorities

Operational, financial, and data-confidence risks identified and explained, ranked by severity, with sector risks alongside.

Structure: Directors, network, and group structure

Full director profiles with age, tenure, and every other active appointment mapped. Network risk and governance bandwidth assessed.

Comparables: Ranked against peers on filed figures

The target against up to ten peers of the same activity and filed size, on current ratio, liabilities to equity, net assets growth and Exit Score. Filed margin appears where the target and its peers filed a P&L.

These are healthy businesses, and they vanish because no one made the introduction.

Unlock Intelligence Briefs

Try free, buy a project pack, or run a campaign on a monthly plan. New companies scored weekly as filings update.

One month of searching costs £15,000+. One broken deal costs £20,000–£30,000 in wasted diligence. From £4.97 per report on the Searcher Plan.

  • Free trial: three reports, no card required.
  • Starter Pack: £299 (£14.95 per report). 20 reports for project-based work.
  • Searcher Plan: £149/month (£4.97 per report). 30 reports a month, built for sustained campaigns.
  • Buy Box Licence: from £399/year. Every Pursue company in your buy box, named, built for buy-and-build platforms and vertical brokers.

See a full sample report. It is free, with no sign-up required. See pricing

From the research desk

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The market exists. Will you find it?

Nearly a million UK companies have directors approaching retirement. Most buyers will never see them.

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