Deeper data, better deals: UK private company intelligence in one enhanced platform

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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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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