Europe has marked a technological and commercial first this month, after London-based fintech firm Eilla AI facilitated an ‘AI-native’ acquisition of two Bulgaria-based digital marketing agencies, CreateX and Native.
The acquisition, by Swedish stock exchange-listed White Pearl Technology Group, took only 15 days from buyer outreach to completed purchase, with Eilla’s platform using AI to automate and accelerate many of the routine tasks required to execute M&A transactions.
This includes the identification of potential buyers and similar deals, as well as the processing of necessary data and documents. In parallel, experienced M&A advisors working for Eilla provide clients with higher-level assistance and guidance, ensuring that the process as a whole is ultimately directed and executed by humans.
While terms of both deals were not disclosed, Eilla reports that the two firms achieved valuations that were approximately six times larger than their respective earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation).
From 12 months to 12 weeks
Eilla is using the deal to highlight how the integration of AI into the M&A process significantly improves outcomes for firms looking to be acquired, both in times of speed and in terms of price achieved.
It claims that, with its platform and services, companies can achieve valuations between 25% and 50% higher than market value, which is comparable to the performance achieved when an M&A deal is handled by a traditional bank.
Yet it also claims that transactions are, on average, completed within two months, whereas the timeline with banks and brokers is 6-12 months. Additionally, Eilla AI charges a fee only upon the successful completion of a deal, whereas banks and brokers charge an additional flat fee for their services.
One of the key features of Eilla’s platform is that it has developed a proprietary database of potential buyers, which currently numbers 9 million companies. Its AI model scans this database to target the most relevant candidate buyers for firms, assessing past acquisitions, market caps, company headcounts, sectors, and financial performance.
M&A deals for startups and scaleups
Eilla currently works with SMEs (startups or scaleups), usually with annual revenues somewhere in the region of $1 million to $50 million. The company was founded in Bulgaria in 2022, and raised €1.4 million in seed funding in 2023, in a round led by Eleven Ventures and joined by Fuel Ventures.
While its framing of the CreateX and Native acquisition would indicate that this represents one of its platform’s first deals (as well as Europe’s first ‘AI-native’ acquisition), its two clients report satisfaction with the whole process, something which arguably bodes well for Eilla’s future.
“The combination of structure and people-centric communication gave me confidence,” said CreateX CEO Aleksandar Ivanov. “Eilla brought clarity, data, and processes — but I never felt like I was handing over control. Instead, I felt supported by a system that made better decisions possible.”
Eilla’s CEO, Petar Petrov, said in an interview that the platform now has around 20 M&A ongoing deals in its system, and expects to draw fees from these deals of $20 million in total.
It faces some competition in the nascent AI-native M&A field, with PwC launching a similar platform in conjunction with AI provider Harvey last July, and with New York and Indian startup GrowthPal raising $2.6 million in January for its own AI-powered deal platform.
Europe has marked a technological and commercial first this month, after London-based fintech firm Eilla AI facilitated an ‘AI-native’ acquisition of two Bulgaria-based digital marketing agencies, CreateX and Native.
The acquisition, by Swedish stock exchange-listed White Pearl Technology Group, took only 15 days from buyer outreach to completed purchase, with Eilla’s platform using AI to automate and accelerate many of the routine tasks required to execute M&A transactions.
This includes the identification of potential buyers and similar deals, as well as the processing of necessary data and documents. In parallel, experienced M&A advisors working for Eilla provide clients with higher-level assistance and guidance, ensuring that the process as a whole is ultimately directed and executed by humans.
