How we can help with
Startup M&A as a Service for Strategic Buyers
If your market is consolidating and you’re looking to strategically acquire smaller businesses, we guide you in identifying potential targets, conducting due diligence, negotiating deals, and ensuring effective integration. If you anticipate growth through acquisitions in addition to relying on organic growth, we help you develop a growth strategy, assess potential targets, navigate the acquisition process, and maximize synergies.
Your challenges are taken care of
Regulatory pressure, changing consumer behavior and technological innovation are challenges we need to solve by working with new players int he market.
We need to accelerate our growth by acquiring innovative companies that might be in need of financing and a strategic partner.
Our CFO and Finance team have limited resource and experience to run full M&A projects.
Areas in which we work with you
Key elements of work
- We define your M&A strategy with you
- We develop the market analysis with the targets depending on the investment criteria
- We conduct initial strategic discussions
- We assess potential and review the company in financial planning, valuation and by means of due diligence
- We provide preparation for board decisions and deal structuring
- We implement the purchase
- We support you in the integration phase after the company acquisition
- We complement your team on portfolio management and board participation.
Results you will get
Project-lead by a senior partner
Petra Wokenstein
Petra is a highly accomplished professional with a wealth of experience in strategy and driving business growth. She specializes in providing strategic guidance and expertise in the areas of strategy, M&A, and growth. Petra is also an Investor and General Partner for Africa Startup Wise Guys, actively supporting and nurturing innovative startups in Africa.
With hands-on experience working with startups and investors since 2012, Petra has successfully led funding rounds and sales in diverse industries such as cybersecurity, eCommerce, SaaS and HealthTech. Petra’s extensive expertise, coupled with her proven ability to drive growth and navigate complex business areas, make her a valuable asset in the fields of strategy, M&A, and business development.
Expertise we bring
Tech and Startup M&A expertise
We specialize in business valuations for early-stage startups and have trained and advised more than 2,000 startups on investors, funding, and strategic growth. We have been active in the M&A sector for over 20 years.
Better decisions with our expert pool
We work with an extended expert pool to combine industry and tech knowledge.
Access to startup ecosystem partners and SME service providers
For years we have been training companies in accelerators, local agencies, universities, and research institutes throughout the DACH region and Eastern Europe. We have a strong network of technology scouts. We work closely with banks and tax advisors for medium-sized companies.
Optimized tech-enabled process
The process is standardised and runs as a stage-gate process supported by technology to keep an eye on M&A costs and enable faster investment decisions.
Petra led a strategy review process in a dynamic, expanding medium-sized company across several divisions under time pressure. She has the ability to get the most diverse division heads on board, even with difficult issues. The result was a perfect fit.
Bernhard Thalhammer
Styria Media Group
Our process for a project with you
01.
Initial consultation & project outline
We engage in a thorough discussion to understand your specific needs, goals, timeline, budget, and general project requirements.
02.
Determining investment criteria
We determine your mergers & acquisitions investment criteria together with you. We ensure to align it with your overall corporate strategy.
03.
Scouting & estimating potentials
We develop a market analysis including targets according to investment criteria.
04.
Strategic initial talks and an investment report
We have initial strategic conversations with target companies.
05.
Financial planning, business assessment, due diligence
We assess opportunities and review financial planning and business valuation via due diligence.
06.
Arrange the purchase and support post-investment
We do the decision preparation and arrange for the offer and purchase to be executed. We support you during the post-acquisition phase.
How we support you
Advisory
Start with a free initial consultation. Fill out our questionnaire and make an appointment.
Case studies
Mergers and acquisitions Opportunities on a plate in the FoodTech field
M&A Opportunities on a Plate. Successful completion of strategic cooperation with two target companies after 5 months.
Establishing and managing a Venture Capital Fund in Africa
„Establishing the new fund in Africa makes a change in early-stage startups, and pushes them to the next level with acceleration.”
Strategic investor and company sale of food startup Goldkehlchen
Preparation of the entry of a strategic investor up to the support of the entire company sale as an exit for the founder.
Other expertise in M&A
01.
Find investors
We provide guidance on investor identification, effective approaches, business readiness assessment, document preparation, negotiation tactics, company valuation, and demonstrating value to investors.
02.
Selling your company
We support you with strategic guidance in the preparation and selling of your company including valuation, potential buyer identification, deal structuring, due diligence, and executing the exit strategy.
03.
Financial plan
We support you and establish your financial plan or a revision of it. You will be able to communicate with financing partners and steer your company with a well-thought-through financial plan based on a proven tool.
04.
Harvard business negotiation
We work with you on your current negotiation challenge with tactics, preparation, guidance, briefing, and debriefing, as well as process and analysis to improve your negotiation results.
05.
Business valuation
We develop, document, and provide the argumentation of a well-analyzed and benchmarked business valuation for your company.
06.
Vienna stock exchange direct market
We assist you in getting your first listing on the Direct Market planned and executed.
Frequently asked questions
Starting off with the M&A strategy, you would expect the first potential target companies for deeper analysis within 3 months. A full cycle of Startup M&A as a Service is a 9-month+ process depending on your internal decision-making structures.
The process usually involves an initial meeting with us to discuss the specifics of your company and corporate strategy. Based on the briefing we provide an offer with milestones and project packages. We would define jointly your M&A strategy and expectations, source a short-list of target companies, provide an analysis on synergies and valuation, deal structure and an offer, and lead due diligence up to signing and closing. Optionally we provide portfolio management, advisory board seats, and post-merger integration projects.
The cost of working with an advisor can vary depending on the advisor and the services offered. Some advisors charge a flat fee, while others charge a success fee or any combination thereof. It is important to discuss the costs and any additional expenses in detail before you start the process.
For the legal and financial issues in the M&A process, we work with your lawyer and tax advisor to ensure that all the necessary documents and paperwork are in order. As Konsultori, we are responsible for communicating and addressing potential companies, negotiating, and managing projects through to the acquisition.
While working with more than 2,000 startups on financing projects and interacting with investors on the one hand, we have experience in the M&A sector with corporates in the technology field and with mid-sized companies for more than 20 years. We are award-winning (Global Startup Awards) for our work with startups. We are a specialist in early- to mid-stage startup transactions. Over the last 10 years, we have gained special experience in the Food sector in the German-speaking environment with several M&A deals, but we are not excluding projects outside the Food space. In 2022, we have worked on 41 M&A projects in different industries.
We are working with an extended expert pool to combine industry and tech knowledge and provide a broad basis of expertise.
Our case studies in this field can be seen under “case studies” on this page. Our customers typically do not talk publicly about this sensitive topic. We are signing Non-Disclosure Agreements as a standard. If you would like to talk to one of our customers about their experience of working with us, please do reach out to Petra Wolkenstein, her booking possibility is above under “Advisory – get started now”.
For years we have been training companies in accelerators, local agencies, universities, and research institutes throughout the DACH region and Eastern Europe. We have a strong network of technology scouts. We work closely with banks and tax advisors for medium-sized companies
Part of our projects is a risk mitigation module covering standard risks from our experience, as well as individual risks we analyze together with our customers. We provide a joint risk mitigation plan which becomes part of the project in all phases. In addition, our process is standardized and runs as a stage-gate process to include go and no-go decision points. We are experienced in running due diligence processes across several functional areas, tax advisory, and legal partners to reduce risks in an M&A project.
As we are working towards milestones, we need to give project updates frequently. We communicate via email and in project management web calls or personally at your office. Sharing of information is structured via Microsoft Sharepoint or a platform chosen by your company which can ensure data privacy and security.