From global giants to niche mid-market buyers
IGC Partners, a Brazil-based M&A advisory and investment banking firm, uses Inven to uncover niche mid-market opportunities that traditional platforms miss.
For years, the team relied on traditional platforms like CapitaIQ and Mergermarket to research potential buyers. While these tools worked well for large, publicly listed companies, they made it difficult to uncover less visible mid-market players — especially outside the US and Western Europe.
“Traditional platforms showed the obvious large buyers, but missed the mid-market and international players. That meant lost opportunities," says Rafael Frugis, Partner at IGC.
Building a complete buyer list often required three to four months of thorough research across multiple databases and news sources.
Testing Inven for the first time
Within just a couple of weeks of testing Inven, the team discovered companies that had never appeared in any of their other tools, including new prospects in their home market of Brazil.
The quick results convinced Partner Rafael and his colleagues to expand usage. Today, Inven is used across multiple sectors — from IT services to chemicals — several times a week to scan markets and find buyers.
“We’ve had deals where we simply wouldn’t have sold the company without Inven. For us, the real impact of Inven is revenue. More qualified buyers means more closed deals," says Rafael.
"For us, the real impact of Inven is revenue. More qualified buyers means more closed deals." – Rafael Frugis, Partner at IGC
Finding new buyers
With Inven, IGC Partners consistently discovers buyers that don’t appear on other platforms. Many are mid-market companies backed by private equity: ideal acquirers for their sell-side clients.
For example, they have expanded their reach in cross-border deals, finding buyers in South Africa, Austria, and Italy that they would never have considered before.
“With Inven, we can target niche companies from countries we had never spoken with before," says Rafael.
Results: Faster prep, more buyers, stronger outcomes
By adding Inven alongside other AI tools, IGC Partner completes buyer list preparation twice as fast as before.
Moreover, on a typical project, the team now identifies 4–6 additional qualified buyers versus just 1–2 with traditional platforms. Many of these are mid-market or cross-border players they would not have found otherwise.
Most importantly, these new buyers directly impact outcomes: “Inven doesn’t just make us faster — it helps us grow revenue by finding buyers we wouldn’t reach otherwise," says Rafael.
The benefits of using AI for deal sourcing
For IGC Partners, using AI for deal sourcing has meant faster preparation, broader buyer reach, and new opportunities:
- Broader buyer lists across more geographies, including mid-market and cross-border acquirers traditional platforms miss
- Faster preparation times for every mandate, with buyer lists ready in half the time
- Stronger outcomes for clients, with more competitive processes and higher chances of a successful sale
Inven has become a key driver of IGC Partners’ success, helping the team deliver better results for every mandate.
About IGC Partners
Founded in 1997, IGC Partners is a Brazil-based independent advisory firm specializing in sell-side M&A and capital solutions. With 200+ professionals and a track record of 500+ transactions across agribusiness, consumer, technology, healthcare, industrials, and financial services, the firm has nearly three decades of experience helping companies execute complex cross-border deals.
