Growth by acquisition.
Risks seen early. Value delivered.
Buy, integrate, grow. Decided by experience. Accelerated by AI.
Buy, integrate, grow: that is Buy-and-Build. Long reserved for the largest investors, now within your reach.
Worldwide M&A reached US$4.6 trillion in 2025.1 In private equity, buy-and-build is the core strategy.
In Europe, private equity now accounts for half of all M&A value,3 and most of its deals are add-ons. For decades, buy-and-build was the privilege of global PE firms and multinationals, with the teams and budgets to match. Our system opens it to entrepreneurs building a group in their own industry or niche: Buy-and-Build Check: EU-based AI model, no use for training, built on the experience of 100+ deals. The future of buy-and-build starts here.
From a free first check to your Value Creation Roadmap.
Start free with the Quick Score. Then run a concrete case through the Buy-and-Build Check and get your Value Creation Roadmap.
Quick Score
Free · live todayA first check of your company as a buyer and, if you have one, a specific target: a result for each, the reason that decided it and your top three levers.
- About 5 minutes, every question shows which company it is about
- Instant result, no email needed
- Calculated in your browser, nothing stored
Buy-and-Build Check → Value Creation Roadmap
First roadmap free · then €49A concrete case, built on 100+ deals. You get a Value Creation Roadmap in a fixed format with a clear result, reasons, evidence hints and the next step.
- Results: NO-GO · FIX FIRST · PROCEED · BUILD FIRST
- Reasons, evidence, next step
- First Value Creation Roadmap free, then €49 (net) each
Dealmaker
NEWYour AI sparring partner for every acquisition
- Ask: like sparring with a dealmaker from 100+ deals – anytime.
- Buy: teaser x-rayed in minutes, with quote and page – before you sign an NDA.
- Sell: your teaser the way buyers want it – complete and anonymous.
- Synergies: your value bridge with payback and ROI, before money moves.
- Over 80 % of customer relationships depend on one person.
- Recurring revenue documented, top-3 customers 31 % of revenue.
Buy-and-build end to end: find and vet the right target, set the plan, calculate the synergies. One system – built to make your add-ons succeed.
Quick Score zeigt, ob der Zukauf grundsätzlich passt. Der Check liefert die Roadmap. Der Dealmaker prüft jeden konkreten Teaser.
Built on 100+ deals.
Secure EU sandbox in the Buy-and-Build Check
Runs in one closed environment hosted in Germany (EU), with an EU model endpoint and metadata-only logs. Your answers are not stored with your name or email. An anonymous copy of the answers and the result is kept for comparisons. Your email and result are kept for 24 months. The Quick Score on the website is calculated in your browser; nothing is stored.
Dealmaker experience
From single-country deals to multi-billion cross-border transactions, asset deals and Europe’s largest bank transaction of the last 20 years, in more than 20 countries: that decision logic is built into every result. A competitor can license the same AI models, but not the experience behind them.
100+ deals. AI-amplified.
Your result is built on 100+ deals. AI amplifies it with levers, risks and comparable cases. An automatic check rejects any explanation that contradicts the result, invents numbers or sounds like advice. Tested across 1.3 million input combinations.
AI proposes. The experience of 100+ deals scores. A named human signs off.The guardrail that stays
The investment committee before you have one.
Run the Buy-and-Build Check, get your Value Creation Roadmap.
Most buy-and-build damage happens before the NDA: a good company treated as the base for acquisitions, a blocker hoped into a closing condition. The Buy-and-Build Check runs your case against 100+ deals and returns one structured Value Creation Roadmap.
The free Buy-and-Build Quick Score
About 5 minutes. A result for your company and, if you add one, for a specific target, with the reason that decided it. No email needed for your result.
Bernhard Engel
Bernhard Engel is a Senior Banking Executive, Global Advisory Managing Director and entrepreneur.
Previously, he built and scaled a pan-European financial services company from zero to 250+ employees across seven countries. With a track record of over 100 deals, large-scale transformations and cross-border M&A, he has led and executed buy-and-build strategies across multiple industries and countries.
100 Deals Later
Regulation creates urgency. Fragmentation creates opportunity. AI creates speed.
100 Deals Later is the practical playbook for business owners and operators who want to master buy-and-build strategies. Written by Bernhard Engel, a seasoned operator and dealmaker with 25 years of experience and over 100 transactions, it delivers battle-tested frameworks for identifying targets, executing acquisitions, integrating businesses and creating lasting value at scale.
What you get
- How to spot and evaluate the right acquisition targets in fragmented markets
- Proven frameworks for fast, value-creating integration and post-merger transformation
- Turning external pressures into recurring revenue and durable competitive advantages
- How AI accelerates due diligence, integration and scaling your company
- Real lessons from wins, challenges and large-scale transformations across industries
- Building repeatable systems, not just collections of companies
100+ transactions
20+ countries · 25 years
Buy-and-build as operator
Successful build and scale of a pan-European financial services company from zero to 250+ employees across seven countries.
Buy-and-build as advisor
Buy-and-build of 200+ blood labs: synergies proven via value bridge and successful sale supported.
Bank and portfolio transactions
Many acquisitions and sales as advisor and principal, including lead advisor on Europe's largest bank transaction of the last 20 years
Bernhard Engel as a speaker