The process of putting one's own company up for sale and finding the right buyer when one is an SME can be cumbersome and complex. On the other side, there are investors looking for the right bet, but who may not be able to detect it depending on the channels through which each company moves. In this context, Deale emerges, a platform that connects SMEs for sale with investors and advisors and centralizes the necessary documentation to streamline and accelerate M&A operations.
Since its launch in 2021, the startup has facilitated more than 100 operations, and now completes between three and five per month, with an average value of between four and eight million euros. The sales materialized through the platform total 400 million, with operations ranging from 300,000 euros to 35 million, as detailed by its founder, Gerard Garcia. Through these operations, Deale invoiced more than two million euros in 2024, and aims to reach 3.5 million this year.
"We are a link between two worlds that used to look for each other, but did not easily find each other," Garcia highlights. And Deale wants to act as this link at a time when it expects a considerable increase in SMEs for sale, especially due to a lack of generational succession. "From now until 2030, the baby boom generation will retire, and the largest transaction of assets to date will occur," remarks Garcia, who estimates that these retirements will translate into at least one million SMEs for sale.
In this context, Deale aspires to be a key player in this process. The startup accelerates operations through technology and AI, and reduces times to streamline sales. "These are processes that can last between six months and a year; with Deale, the average time from the first meeting to the notary is 130 days," assures Garcia.
In order to accelerate these processes, Deale draws on information and data from sources such as the Commercial Registry, with which they provide context to investors and SMEs for sale. "Ultimately, Deale is like a data company dedicated to facilitating this type of operation," says Garcia, who emphasizes the importance of offering this information appropriately to each side of the operation: "We are a translator of language and M&A for both the entrepreneur and the investor."
Garcia detected this gap in the market while working in investment banking, and kept the idea in mind as he moved to New York to join a tech company that digitizes insurance purchases for SMEs. With the pandemic, he returned to his native Sabadell, with the idea more mature: he wanted technology to help standardize always similar documents in corporate operations, and he set out to design a first prototype. A few months later, Deale was incorporated as a company with the goal of "being the largest operations partner in Southern Europe". For its launch, the startup required an investment of three million euros from business angels and a family office, and incorporated Andbank as a shareholder a year ago, through its Actyus fund, a venture capital fund in the financial sector.
Within this goal, Deale set out to "reduce the asymmetries that exist at the information level" between SMEs and investors, and provide them with documentation and information to accelerate their entry into the market. "Before Deale, investors had to have contacts in management companies and they would pass information to each other; now they can contact entrepreneurs directly," without leaving aside management companies or advisors. In fact, "Deale has never wanted to compete with the advisor universe, but rather is a complement." And the platform does not make contracts, and has advisors who accompany the different parties during the process.
Currently, the platform has about 6,000 companies for sale, 6,000 investors and 2,000 advisors, who pay a monthly fee to access Deale's services. In the event that the operation materializes, the platform charges a fee, from which it deducts what the various actors have paid monthly. Buyers include various profiles, ranging from family offices to private equity funds, large companies, hedge funds and individual buyers. And investors can come from anywhere in the world, although Deale focuses on Spanish SMEs. Although the startup does not rule out opening up to more markets in the future, "for now, the focus is Spain; there is much to do and much value to generate."