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AI for M&A: How the right platform can transform your deal sourcing and business growth
August 3, 2026
0
min.
read
What is AI for M&A?
Using AI in mergers and acquisitions is a growing trend, giving dealmakers better tools to enhance the process of finding, qualifying and executing investment opportunities more efficiently. According to Deloitte’s 2025 M&A Generative AI Study, 86% of respondents reported the integration of GenAI into their workflows, with 65% doing so within the past 12 months.
In the M&A and deal sourcing space, AI can be utilised throughout the acquisition lifecycle, gathering and processing large volumes of company data to assist professionals with core tasks such as:
- Business ownership, structure and financial details
- Analysing and identifying potential investment targets
- Analysing market signals
- Comparing targets based on key criteria
- Team collaboration
- Acquisition outreach and pipeline management
Rather than replacing dealmakers, AI acts as an intelligent assistant – feeding teams streamlined, organised data that allows them to make more educated decisions. Able to collate, sift and categorise thousands of records in minutes, AI deal sourcing software reduces this huge administration burden from professionals, giving them a host of newly available hours to focus on fostering relationships and forwarding deals.
For those concerned about GDPR, data quality and accuracy, modern AI solutions are incredibly sophisticated and programmed to meet compliance requirements. They also work on natural language processing, making search simpler, and visual dashboards to make company comparisons easier.
AI in M&A often takes the form of a tech stack – a cluster of platforms working together to ensure as many aspects of the deal sourcing workflow as possible are automated and improved. This gives users the flexibility to build their own personalised solution, focused on their unique needs.
Handshaik AI: deal sourcing software for success
With optimised research facilities at your fingertips and tools to take you right through to deal completion, Handshaik AI is an end-to-end solution for M&A teams who want to swap endless manual admin for enhanced insight and efficiency.
From in-depth, accurate research, to smart collaboration and analytical capabilities, Handshaik powers up performance at every stage of your M&A pipeline.
Here’s a quick look at how Handshaik AI makes mergers and acquisition activities easier, clearer and more informed.
Explore the potential of AI for mergers and acquisitions
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How does AI improve the deal sourcing process?
Traditionally, deal sourcing and M&A firms relied on personal networks, existing contacts, referrals, manual database searches and cold outreach. With most admin done by hand and a lack of joined-up services, fast progress and team collaboration wasn’t easy.
While these approaches are still used within the industry, new AI platforms offer broader and deeper resources, along with a much faster way to filter results and find the best opportunities. With the right software, you can track and manage the entire pipeline, with full team visibility to ensure everyone is always on the same page.
Some key ways that your deal sourcing pipeline will improve with the introduction of AI include:
- Better intelligent target identification – rapid screening of turnover, EBITDA, employees, ownership structure, hiring trends etc with daily refreshes
- Smarter buyer matching – comparing previous acquisitions, criteria, strategy, deal scope and more
- Market monitoring – constant updates on news, press releases, websites, directorships, funding and M&A activity
- Collaboration – with all information in one place, colleagues can view outreach progress, meeting summaries, formal documentation and more from one shared platform
In the cited Deloitte report, among those who have already adopted AI in the M&A space, 40% apply it to strategy and market assessment, 35% to target screening and 32% to deal execution. Also, according to PwC, global M&A deals increased in value by 26% in 2025, with large deals up by 17% and mega deals by 31%.
With the time AI can save throughout the deal sourcing pipeline, it’s no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’ if you’re going to keep up in this competitive marketplace.
How does Handshaik AI work for M&A users?
As one of the more recent additions to the AI for M&A market, Handshaik has been developed to bridge the gaps left by other AI deal sourcing solutions.
A comprehensive platform that ensures consistency in your entire pipeline management, Handshaik speeds up every step without compromising on accuracy or quality, so you can:
- Access extensive private company intelligence resources immediately
- Receive daily refreshes on the latest company, ownership, financial and contact data
- Qualify and compare acquisition opportunities via a visual dashboard
- Identify investment targets in minutes – including niche and less visible opportunities
- Manage and keep track of outreach and progress right up until the deal is signed
An AI-native deal sourcing platform designed to save you time, prevent false leads and enhance teamwork and decision-making, Handshaik can be used as a standalone solution or integrated with your existing tech stack.
Driving deal growth with sophisticated AI solutions
The time saved by integrating AI into your M&A workflow is just one benefit it offers. With data cleaned, organised, analysed, categorised and scored in a fraction of the time it would take by human hand, you’ll also have more clarity and confidence in your deal decision making.
Using Handshaik or a combination of AI deal sourcing tools, this necessary and modern step forward will also progress growth through a range of commercial benefits:
Increased efficiency
With masses of research admin removed from your workload, you and your team have more time for outreach, nurturing, negotiation, building larger pipelines and executing deals – and much faster.
Deeper insight
With AI, acquisition targets that usually remain hidden are brought to the surface, helping you to find emerging companies and underserved markets for better quality insight and opportunities.
Higher conversion rates
With its more targeted and organised approach, AI helps improve target qualification and buyer matching, while also increasing relevant conversations, engagement and ultimately, conversions.
Scale and speed
With AI supporting your M&A activities, you can identify trends and react much faster than before, monitor markets continuously and scale your origination efforts without onboarding more staff.
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Written by
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Josh Port
Founder & CEO
Share
What is AI for M&A?
Using AI in mergers and acquisitions is a growing trend, giving dealmakers better tools to enhance the process of finding, qualifying and executing investment opportunities more efficiently. According to Deloitte’s 2025 M&A Generative AI Study, 86% of respondents reported the integration of GenAI into their workflows, with 65% doing so within the past 12 months.
In the M&A and deal sourcing space, AI can be utilised throughout the acquisition lifecycle, gathering and processing large volumes of company data to assist professionals with core tasks such as:
- Business ownership, structure and financial details
- Analysing and identifying potential investment targets
- Analysing market signals
- Comparing targets based on key criteria
- Team collaboration
- Acquisition outreach and pipeline management
Rather than replacing dealmakers, AI acts as an intelligent assistant – feeding teams streamlined, organised data that allows them to make more educated decisions. Able to collate, sift and categorise thousands of records in minutes, AI deal sourcing software reduces this huge administration burden from professionals, giving them a host of newly available hours to focus on fostering relationships and forwarding deals.
For those concerned about GDPR, data quality and accuracy, modern AI solutions are incredibly sophisticated and programmed to meet compliance requirements. They also work on natural language processing, making search simpler, and visual dashboards to make company comparisons easier.
AI in M&A often takes the form of a tech stack – a cluster of platforms working together to ensure as many aspects of the deal sourcing workflow as possible are automated and improved. This gives users the flexibility to build their own personalised solution, focused on their unique needs.
Handshaik AI: deal sourcing software for success
With optimised research facilities at your fingertips and tools to take you right through to deal completion, Handshaik AI is an end-to-end solution for M&A teams who want to swap endless manual admin for enhanced insight and efficiency.
From in-depth, accurate research, to smart collaboration and analytical capabilities, Handshaik powers up performance at every stage of your M&A pipeline.
Here’s a quick look at how Handshaik AI makes mergers and acquisition activities easier, clearer and more informed.
Explore the potential of AI for mergers and acquisitions
[cta]
How does AI improve the deal sourcing process?
Traditionally, deal sourcing and M&A firms relied on personal networks, existing contacts, referrals, manual database searches and cold outreach. With most admin done by hand and a lack of joined-up services, fast progress and team collaboration wasn’t easy.
While these approaches are still used within the industry, new AI platforms offer broader and deeper resources, along with a much faster way to filter results and find the best opportunities. With the right software, you can track and manage the entire pipeline, with full team visibility to ensure everyone is always on the same page.
Some key ways that your deal sourcing pipeline will improve with the introduction of AI include:
- Better intelligent target identification – rapid screening of turnover, EBITDA, employees, ownership structure, hiring trends etc with daily refreshes
- Smarter buyer matching – comparing previous acquisitions, criteria, strategy, deal scope and more
- Market monitoring – constant updates on news, press releases, websites, directorships, funding and M&A activity
- Collaboration – with all information in one place, colleagues can view outreach progress, meeting summaries, formal documentation and more from one shared platform
In the cited Deloitte report, among those who have already adopted AI in the M&A space, 40% apply it to strategy and market assessment, 35% to target screening and 32% to deal execution. Also, according to PwC, global M&A deals increased in value by 26% in 2025, with large deals up by 17% and mega deals by 31%.
With the time AI can save throughout the deal sourcing pipeline, it’s no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’ if you’re going to keep up in this competitive marketplace.
How does Handshaik AI work for M&A users?
As one of the more recent additions to the AI for M&A market, Handshaik has been developed to bridge the gaps left by other AI deal sourcing solutions.
A comprehensive platform that ensures consistency in your entire pipeline management, Handshaik speeds up every step without compromising on accuracy or quality, so you can:
- Access extensive private company intelligence resources immediately
- Receive daily refreshes on the latest company, ownership, financial and contact data
- Qualify and compare acquisition opportunities via a visual dashboard
- Identify investment targets in minutes – including niche and less visible opportunities
- Manage and keep track of outreach and progress right up until the deal is signed
An AI-native deal sourcing platform designed to save you time, prevent false leads and enhance teamwork and decision-making, Handshaik can be used as a standalone solution or integrated with your existing tech stack.
Driving deal growth with sophisticated AI solutions
The time saved by integrating AI into your M&A workflow is just one benefit it offers. With data cleaned, organised, analysed, categorised and scored in a fraction of the time it would take by human hand, you’ll also have more clarity and confidence in your deal decision making.
Using Handshaik or a combination of AI deal sourcing tools, this necessary and modern step forward will also progress growth through a range of commercial benefits:
Increased efficiency
With masses of research admin removed from your workload, you and your team have more time for outreach, nurturing, negotiation, building larger pipelines and executing deals – and much faster.
Deeper insight
With AI, acquisition targets that usually remain hidden are brought to the surface, helping you to find emerging companies and underserved markets for better quality insight and opportunities.
Higher conversion rates
With its more targeted and organised approach, AI helps improve target qualification and buyer matching, while also increasing relevant conversations, engagement and ultimately, conversions.
Scale and speed
With AI supporting your M&A activities, you can identify trends and react much faster than before, monitor markets continuously and scale your origination efforts without onboarding more staff.
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Ready to make better business deals?
Learn how Handshaik can help you create stronger M&A workflows, from start to finish.
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Additional resources
July 20, 2026
0
min.
read
What is private company data software?
Are you currently using a range of UK company search platforms to collate insights into potential investment, advisory or acquisition opportunities?
Does your private company database return the information you want in an instant? With fully enriched company profiles created from proprietary data points beyond the usual reports?
Are you looking for an AI-native platform to help you target new customers, monitor existing clients or undertake effective market and competitor analysis?
Despite being the core foundation of the business development pipeline, gathering, storing and sorting company data has traditionally been an unnecessarily laborious task, taking time better spent on advancing deals.
Now you can spend less time getting more information, with the latest AI-powered private company intelligence software. Designed to take the donkey-work out of deal sourcing, and with hundreds of firmographic and personnel datapoints, you can build a company database that delivers a shortcut to success by allowing you to:
- Instantly collate and analyse millions of company data points
- View consolidated information across ownership, structure, financials and more
- Analyse and identify companies against specific acquisition criteria
- Access real-time data with daily auto-updates
- Conduct quality market analysis with filters for scale/quantum etc.
- Evaluate investment potential with side-by-side comparisons
Whether you want a standalone solution or a UK company search platform to integrate into your current tech stack, this new approach to company intelligence will enhance your operations immediately.
Handshaik: your private company database builder
Quality data makes quality deals, and a more fluid deal sourcing pipeline.
Handshaik puts all the private company information you need right at your fingertips, pulling live, rich results from a multitude of publicly available sources and proprietary datasets. No more outdated details and broad-range financial estimates: just clear facts and concrete figures.
You also have the reassurance that Handshaik’s sophisticated AI agent learns from a broader range of ‘hidden’ datapoints. This gives you a more rounded view of what a company truly does, who they serve, their accreditations, any awards and more.
See how the Handshaik UK company search platform works here, and how it will accelerate your investment and acquisition workflow and outcomes.
Explore the potential of our private company intelligence platform
See how you can harness Handshaik to make smarter, faster deal sourcing decisions.
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A new era of company intelligence = better business opportunities
Gathering data on potential acquisition and investment targets has never been easier – but not all platforms are created equal. While traditional software covers Companies House and other public company data sources, Handshaik combines these results with a myriad of proprietary commercial datasets, LinkedIn people data (including skills, interests, experience, education) and the strongest contact data on the market.
As an AI-native platform, Handshaik allows you to search in natural language and explore data in much deeper detail from an intuitive, visual dashboard. Potential targets are ranked and assigned a relevance score, providing rationale for their fit based on the brief, with only the most important data points selected to clearly justify its place on the list. Collaboration and workflows are also improved through smart pipeline management tools.
Functionality includes the ability to assign selected targets and contacts to specific team members; once they receive their in-app notification, they can progress outreach and head towards a team win, with all updates visible to all team members.
How does the Handshaik UK company search platform work?
Devised and developed in the UK, Handshaik combines private company data, ownership intelligence, financial information and pipeline management workflows into one interface.
Taking away tedious and time-hungry administration tasks from your team, Handshaik’s data depth and accuracy supports smarter decision-making and a speedier pipeline.
Handshaik provides instant access to a suite of search, collaboration and workflow management tools, with an at-a-glance view of all collated data, including:
- Analyst-grade business summaries
- Detailed ownership information
- Financial performance data
- Filters to help estimate turnover for small companies
- GDPR-compliant and verified contact information
- Company records and insights
- Growth and intent signals
- Research history
Streamlined and seamless, Handshaik does the hard work in a fraction of the time, while you focus on reaching the deal-sealing handshake. Describe what you’re looking for, and the platform will qualify opportunities against your criteria, delivering the finished article ready for you to act on.
How your private company database drives business growth
Implementing the right business tools can help you uncover opportunities that traditional company search methods may miss.
Providing the clarity, context and commercial insights required to approach acquisition targets with confidence, here’s how Handshaik’s private company intelligence capabilities will help you make bigger, better deals.
Precise company data
From well-known sources like Companies House, Apollo, Wiza, Contact Out, and LinkedIn, to online deep-dives and a growing list of proprietary datasets, your records are detail-rich, up-to-date and always accurate.
Constant monitoring
Business moves fast, blink and you could miss a golden opportunity. Always in monitoring mode, Handshaik highlights events and activity, so you can engage prospects before they reach the market.
Instant analysis
Data points are analysed instantly, so you can compare results, identify possible prospects and opportunities, build target lists and progress outreach in super-quick time, all from one system.
Side-by-side views
No more spreadsheets... compare core criteria in clear visuals, allowing you to evaluate financial fit and acquisition potential in line with your strategy, and without the need to crunch numbers.
Outreach support
Handshaik’s private company intelligence supports relationship building with targets through intelligent workflows to help you manage and control the entire deal sourcing pipeline.
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Deeper data, better deals: UK private company intelligence in one enhanced platform
Written by
Josh Port
Founder & CEO
July 10, 2026
0
min.
read
What is AI deal sourcing software?
Are you looking for the latest deal sourcing software to help you reduce tedious administration and fast-track your investment and acquisitions lifecycle?
Do you need a comprehensive solution to help you quickly identify opportunities and build powerful relationships, without wasting time on dead-ends?
With deal sourcing - or deal origination - being the first crucial step in the investment and acquisition process, you need the right tools to make it count. A built-for-purpose AI deal sourcing platform gives you the tools to manage and improve every stage of your workflow, allowing you to:
- Collate vast amounts of data from multiple sources in an instant
- Access the best contact data on owners and management teams
- Analyse and identify/disqualify targets within minutes
- Utilise proprietary data and scoring to aid the qualification process
- Compare companies and opportunities automatically
- Harness efficient pipeline management features to track and analyse outbound performance
- Collaborate and coordinate with your team throughout the pipeline
- Divert time from manual tasks to progressing the right deals
Bringing research, company intelligence and relationship management together in one intuitive and insightful platform, AI deal sourcing software puts an end to sluggish, fragmented systems, replacing them with streamlined investment and acquisition pipelines.
With plans to integrate with existing tech stacks, Handshaik’s deal sourcing software is precise, detailed and delivers the capabilities to find, nurture and win from one central system.
Handshaik: your end-to-end deal sourcing solution
Manual tasks are a thing of the past, and faster growth is your future.
Our AI-powered deal sourcing solution provides you with the bigger picture. Using natural language and flexible search criteria, Handshaik pulls rich-results from multiple live sources, including Companies House, proprietary corporate datasets, contact information, websites and news items.
Here’s a quick look at how the Handshaik AI deal sourcing platform will improve your investment and acquisition performance.
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Investment intelligence that redefines dealmaking
Sophisticated in its simplicity, Handshaik’s deal origination software prevents you from wasting precious hours on endless admin and manual pipeline management.
Traditionally, the deal origination and acquisition process required separate tools, multiple spreadsheets and disjointed workflows. Tasks ended up duplicated, teams had limited visibility into collaboration, and admin time was swallowed that could have been better spent sealing the most lucrative deals.
Now, with access to AI-powered search and analysis, you can gain deeper insight, evaluate targets and use human language to narrow down results in a matter of moments. Everything you need, right at your fingertips.
Manual processes such as updating records and market mapping are now fully automated, and your team has a real-time view of each potential opportunity, allowing you to approach the right prospects, at the right time.
How does the Handshaik deal origination platform work?
An AI-native deal sourcing platform, Handshaik does the dirty work for you.
Combining live business data, game-changing search methodology, workflow tools, and collaboration features in one place, Handshaik provides enhanced tools to make market-mapping, deal origination, and pipeline building faster, more accurate, and more effective.
If you want to work smarter, not harder, this innovative deal sourcing software gives your team the tools to:
- Identify investment targets in minutes
- Pinpoint businesses that are likely to require your advisory services
- Access the latest company, ownership, financial and contact data
- Qualify and compare acquisition opportunities
- Describe your ideal target criteria, then let Handshaik score and explain the best matches.
A proactive platform populated with the most precise data, Handshaik offers complete visibility across the pipeline and the ability to integrate with existing tech stacks... so you get a comprehensive and complete view of company intelligence and intent signals.
The outcome?
Viable investment opportunities, confident decision-making and a faster investment lifecycle.
Using data-led deal origination to drive growth
The beauty of an AI-powered deal sourcing platform is its ability to elevate your deal origination journey at every step.
You can harness Handshaik to deliver deeper, richer research results, group targets into criteria-based lists, and manage the entire approach/outreach/completion process.
In a nutshell, here’s how you can utilise Handshaik’s core functions to fast-track your growth.
Quality, deep-dive data
Refreshed daily and drawing from a wide range of proprietary and leading third-party sources, Handshaik’s company results are enriched with financials, ownership structures, growth signals, contact data and business insights.
Instant analysis
Analysing billions of data points in an instant, you can identify and build target lists at speed, comparing results to drill down the best possible M&A opportunities.
Not just who, but why
An AI deal sourcing platform designed to deliver, the system surfaces key signals and shows why a company matches your search criteria, rather than just returning a list of vague targets.
Track and monitor
Not all deals are ready to be made, so our platform allows you to monitor company and ownership changes and track financial updates, so you can align your strategy accordingly.
Collaborate
Create collaborative lists and assign targets to your team in-platform, drawing on visual workflow tools and features to track outreach and progression through the deal pipeline.
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Find, nurture and win: One AI deal sourcing platform = countless opportunities
Written by
Josh Port
Founder & CEO
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