Sell your business with certainty. Buy with confidence.
The M&A process built for SMEs. Whether it's just for acquisition finance or an end-to-end managed transaction.
- Verified financials & information memorandum
- Matching between vetted buyers & motivated sellers
- Acquisition finance from iwoca
- Success fees only, pay nothing until a deal closes
M&A for SMEs
£4.5 billion
small business funding
100,000
businesses funded
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% of deals. When buyers dig in and find problems, they either walk away or chip your price down.
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 assess finance early, so offers from buyers are backed by real capital.
The Solution
A Market Maker Model
We run a managed M&A process without advising. The sub-£10M M&A market doesn't lack good advisories. We leverage our deep footprint in the SME economy to create transparency for both sides and only get paid when deals close. Focus on facts, not spin. And that's possible because we put our own capital behind it.
If you're selling
Upload your financials and you'll soon be meeting and negotiating with buyers. We run the rest of the process.
- 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
An unmatched opportunity to buy into the backbone of the UK economy, with iwoca finance behind your offers so sellers take them seriously.
- 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 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. Before you meet a buyer you'll have a valuation range built on figures that hold up, with the judgement calls spelled out.
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 run the process and keep it moving. The negotiating is between you and the other side.
3. Close with certainty
Dedicated deal team: We run the process from Heads of Terms to completion and coordinate both sides' lawyers and accountants.
Embedded financing: Many deals die at the end of months of work because financing falls through. Because iwoca is a lender, the finance is assessed on checks we've already done. Buyers know early what they can borrow, and sellers know the offer is fundable.
Want to know more?
Yes. iwoca lends to buyers of UK small businesses, whether you found the business through manda or on your own. We assess the finance alongside the deal, using iwoca's unsecured lending and partner secured facilities for larger deals, so sellers know early that an offer is fundable.
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.
No. We don't act for the buyer or the seller, and we don't certify what a business is worth. We check the facts, introduce people who can do the deal, run the process and, where it helps, lend. Price and terms are agreed between buyer and seller, and both should have their own lawyer and accountant.
Three structural advantages:
- Verified financials upfront - We analyse seller financials quickly and for free before marketing, so problems can be tackled before a buyer's lawyers find them.
- Qualified buyer network - Access to iwoca's 100,000+ business relationships plus pre-screened financial buyers
- Embedded acquisition finance - When iwoca funds a deal it has far more at stake than our fee.
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 your Heads 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 assess finance early, so deals don't collapse at the end for want of funding. 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 check your figures against bank and filed data to build 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.