Read this before the first call. What we buy, how a deal runs, what happens after closing, and the questions sellers ask us.
Six criteria. Meet most of them and we want to hear from you.
| Criterion | What we look for |
|---|---|
| Size | EBITDA above €5m or net revenue above €20m |
| What we buy | Asset-light digital and software businesses |
| Market position | Market leader or strong number two in a defensible niche |
| Team | Founders stay on, or management buys in |
| Where | Primarily Europe |
| Ticket | Up to €150m cash at close, up to €250m per transaction |
Someone from our team calls you within 48 hours. No adviser is required on your side. You tell us what the company does, what it earned in the last twelve months and why you are thinking about this now. We tell you on that call whether it fits our criteria and what we would want to see next. Thirty minutes is usually enough, and a deck is optional.
If we like it, we say yes. If we don't, we say no quickly.
No investment committee sits behind us, and no consultants sit between us.
We buy companies that already work, so we do not restructure them. We work with the team on a handful of things we know well.
Every CEO in the group meets the others, in three formats.
Aligned incentives, shared rewards
We invest our own money, not a fund raised from others. When a company does well, we do well. When it does badly, we carry the loss ourselves. We ask the same of the people who run our companies: founders keep a stake, managers buy in, and rewards follow results. Nobody at RMEP earns a fee for closing a deal or a salary for holding a board seat. That alignment decides more than any clause in a shareholder agreement.
Iterate, don't innovate
Most digital businesses win by doing ordinary things well: a price that matches the value, a product that fixes what users complain about, marketing that pays for itself. We prefer a small change shipped this month to a grand plan for next year. We read the numbers, ask what a sensible owner would do, and do that. Financial models and strategy decks come later, if they come at all. Sophistication is what you buy when the simple answer is not working.
Street fighters, not pencil pushers
We judge a company by what it earns and how its users behave, not by how its board pack looks. Monthly numbers, a short quarterly board and a direct line to a partner are the whole governance. Nobody writes a ninety-page memo for us. When something is wrong we pick up the phone. When something works we do more of it. That is how the companies on our list grew. Processes exist to serve that, never the other way round.
No, and most sellers stay. If you want to hand over, we agree a handover period and find or promote a managing director with you. If you want to keep building, you keep a stake and a seat at the table. We say which one we expect before we sign.
It stays. We buy companies that already work, so there is no synergy case and no integration project. We do not fold your team into a shared service centre. What changes is the rhythm: monthly numbers, a quarterly board, and access to the operators running our other companies.
As long as it makes sense. We invest our own money, so no fund clock forces a sale in year five. We have held companies for more than ten years and sold only when a strategic owner was the better home: Alpy ran from 2015 to 2026.
Moderately, and sized so the company survives a bad year. We fund the equity from our own balance sheet, which means the deal does not hang on a lender's committee. We do not load the business with leverage to lift our own return.
The partners you meet. There is no investment committee behind them, no fund and no limited partners to consult. The Managing Partners decide together, usually in the week after they have your numbers. That is why we can give you a real answer within seven days.
Three things: what the company does, revenue and EBITDA for the last twelve months, and why you are thinking about this now. An email is enough, no data room and no teaser deck. If it fits, we come back with questions and a date for a call.
If this sounds like your company, talk to us.