A handover of historic scale
A generation of baby-boomer founders is retiring at once. Across Europe, an estimated 1.7 million SMEs must change hands by 2030. Many will find no local buyer willing to take on the whole structure, its people and its liabilities — and without an intermediary who can route them to solvent buyers, a viable business quietly disappears.
The market you cannot see from a desk
On the €1–10M segment, an estimated 60–65% of transactions happen off-market — never reaching a platform or a database. Reaching them takes presence, not listings: proximity to owners, administrators and the courts, sourced live across France, Spain, Germany and Italy. This is precisely the segment traditional M&A advisors cannot service, because the fixed cost of a full process eats the fee.
A credit cycle that sorts the field
A tightening credit cycle will split this population into two: cash-generating companies with a healthy future, and over-leveraged firms heading toward distress. Both need an intermediary — one to find a fair transmission, the other to find a buyer for what still has value. Industrialised sourcing, qualification and documentation are what make deals on this band economically viable at all.
Key takeaways
- 1.7 million European SMEs must change hands by 2030 — a demographic, not a cyclical, event.
- 60–65% of €1–10M deals happen off-market and require presence, not listings.
- Traditional advisors cannot profitably service this band; an agentic platform changes the economics.
- A tightening credit cycle sorts firms into healthy transmissions and distressed exits — both need an intermediary.
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