Sell your business with certainty. Buy with confidence.
The performance marketplace for small business M&A. Verified financials, pre-qualified buyers, embedded acquisition finance.
- Verified financial reports & documents
- Matching between vetted buyers & motivated sellers
- Embedded financing arranged before deals close
- Success fees only means pay nothing until the deal closes
M&A for SMEs
£4.5 billion+
deployed to small business
150,000+
businesses financed
The Problem
Why >90% of small business sales fail
Never find a serious buyer
Most buyers browsing online can't afford your business. You waste months in conversations that go nowhere. Your sale becomes public knowledge but nothing happens.
Collapse at due diligence
Messy books kill 40-50% of deals. When buyers dig in and find problems, they either walk away or hammer your price down 30%.
Financing falls through
Banks won't lend for small business acquisitions without property. So buyers ask you to accept payments over time. That’s risky, so most sellers say no and the deal dies.
What we fix: We sort your financials upfront, vet buyers before they contact you, and arrange financing before anyone makes an offer.
The Solution
A Market Maker Model
Traditional advisors represent one side and charge upfront. That works for Wall Street deals. For sub-£10M businesses, it doesn't. We work to create transparency for both sides and only get paid when deals close. Focus on facts, not spin.
If you're selling
Pay nothing until the deal completes. We maintain clarity and simplicity from start to finish.
- We turn your business data into quality business reports and realistic valuation guardrails.
- Match you with pre-qualified buyers only.
- Process designed for legal and accounting clarity so that you can focus on negotiating with the buyer.
If you're buying
Search and evaluate for free. A fixed commitment fee upon offer acceptence. Success fee upon deal completion.
- Tell us what you want, and we will match the right businesses. Get access to large off-market SME network.
- Credit grade due diligence with focus on fact, not narrative.
- Embedded acquisition finance, free structuring, and more certainty upfront.
How It Works
Three steps. No surprises. We've taken everything that normally kills small business deals and fixed it upfront.
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1. Get verified
Sellers: We check your numbers and write up your financials. You'll know what your business is actually worth before meeting any buyers. That takes a week, not months.
Buyers: Tell us what you're looking for and show us that you’re serious. We'll match you with businesses from iwoca's 150,000+ customers, most of which are off market.
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2. Match with confidence
No time wasters. Total confidentiality. We vet everyone and only introduce you to people who want to get a deal done. We handle the paperwork and data collection so that both parties start negotiations from a transparent base. Our transaction managers guide you through the process so you don’t get any surprises.
3. Close with certainty
Dedicated deal team: Our M&A professionals will manage the entire deal process end-to-end. Ensuring a smooth and transparent process.
Embedded financing: Many deals die at the end of months of work because financing falls through. iwoca’s infrastructure gives us a unique advantage to offer buyers financing certainty early in the process.
Want to know more?
Here are some questions our customers ask. If there’s anything we haven’t covered here, take a look at our FAQ
Yes. As iwoca's M&A platform, we can structure acquisition financing as part of the deal process. Our transaction managers work with iwoca's unsecured lending and partner secured facilities to create financeable offers. Buyers get pre-qualified so sellers know offers are credible.
We specialise in UK SMEs typically valued between £500k and £10m—the segment overlooked by traditional advisors. Whether you're selling a retail operation, service business, or manufacturing company, or you're a buyer seeking quality acquisition opportunities, we're built specifically for this market.
Three structural advantages:
- Verified financials upfront - We analyse seller financials quickly and for free before marketing, eliminating the due diligence surprises that kill deals
- Qualified buyer network - Access to iwoca's 100,000+ business relationships plus pre-screened financial buyers
- Embedded acquisition finance - We can structure the debt as part of the deal, not an afterthought
Traditional advisors ignore this segment because their manual processes don't scale. We've automated the trust-building steps while keeping expert humans where it matters.
For Sellers: Success fee only—a percentage of transaction value when the deal completes. No retainers, no monthly costs. You only pay when we deliver.
For Buyers: No fees to register or browse opportunities. A fixed commitment fee applies when you Head of Terms are accepted and you enter exclusivity—this ensures serious buyers and covers our exclusivity management costs.
All fees are transparent and competitive for the SME market. We'll walk you through the complete structure in your initial consultation.
We've built for speed. Target timeline from mandate to signed Letter of Intent: 3-6 months. Traditional processes often take 12-18 months.
The difference: we verify financials upfront (eliminating back-and-forth), use technology for the tedious parts (NDAs, data rooms, documentation), and embed financing to prevent last-minute collapses. Our transaction managers focus on negotiations and closing, not paperwork.
For Sellers:We'll schedule a confidential consultation to review your business, discuss realistic valuations based on verified financials, and outline what's needed to go to market. We'll perform initial due diligence to create your verified profile. You'll speak with an experienced transaction manager within 48 hours.
For Buyers:We'll qualify your acquisition criteria, funding capacity, and sector interests. If you match our verified seller opportunities, we'll start introductions immediately. For search mandates, we can proactively reach out to businesses in iwoca's network that match your profile. Giving you access to off-market opportunities.