Axial
United States
Largest online marketplace for buying, selling, and financing private companies in the lower middle market, connecting 4,500+ buyers and investors with 10,000+ deals annually through algorithm-driven matching.
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Inven
Finland
Inven is an AI‑native deal sourcing platform for private markets that helps investors find M&A targets and buyers others miss, using global private‑company data and advanced AI to replace manual research. It is scanning 28M+ companies across 160+ countries using NLP over 4M+ sources to surface private company data, intent-to-sell signals, and acquisition targets.
Key features
- AI-native search – Natural‑language prompts like “B2B SaaS companies in the UK” combined with filters for revenue, growth and intent‑to‑sell signals.
- Deep data coverage – 28M+ companies, 3M+ transactions, 430M+ contacts across 160+ countries.
- Multi‑source data ingestion – AI and NLP analysing millions of data points from diverse sources into unified company profiles.
- Buyer & investor discovery – Tools to identify relevant financial and strategic buyers active in specific niches.
- Chrome extension – Browser extension and exports that let users pull Inven intelligence directly into their workflows.
AI capabilities
Inven uses AI algorithms and NLP to analyse millions of global data points, build company and transaction data, and surface relevant M&A targets and buyers through natural‑language search.
Integrations
- Chrome browser extension and CSV exports into CRM/analytics tools
- Salesforce, HubSpot, DealCloud, Chrome Extension, API
- Integrates via exports and potential APIs into clients’ deal stacks.
More information
Founded in 2022 by Finnish entrepreneurs, Inven aims to transform M&A by simplifying tedious data gathering and analysis through cutting-edge AI and NLP technology. Inven positions itself as the first AI‑native platform purpose‑built for private‑market deal sourcing, with testimonials from PE firms, investment banks, brokers and consultants highlighting major productivity gains versus manual mapping and legacy databases.
What Makes Inven Different
Key differentiators highlighted by the vendor.
- AI-native architecture – Built from the ground up around AI and NLP rather than retrofitted.
- Global, lower‑mid market focus – Strong coverage of lower middle and middle market companies.
- High user leverage – Testimonials describe one person doing in a day what previously took teams multiple days.
Key facts
- Year founded
- 2022
- Pricing
- Subscription – list price ~USD 10,000/user/year with annual contracts. Aggressively discounted in negotiations (up to 70% reported), making actual pricing highly variable.
- Deal stage
- Sourcing
- Target market
- Corporate M&A · M&A Advisory · Private Equity · Venture Capital · Investment Banking · Business Brokers · Search Funds
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