Positioning
How we partner with founders
Everything we do starts with understanding what you want for the business. From there, we shape an ambitious growth strategy together, and build the platform that will deliver it. And if what you want is to step back, that's fine too. We know how to make that transition a smooth one
What we bring beyond capital: a clear view of where the sector is heading and what the business should become within it, and the operating design and leadership to get there
Integration, not arbitrage
Moving beyond aggregate and sell up
The traditional model is challenged
Serial acquisitions stapled together, with little real integration
A collection of add-ons rather than a coherent asset — scale without strategic content
Value creation resting on buying add-ons cheaply relative to the platform, and on the market staying where it is
Fragile by design: the spread closes as the platform scales, integration debt accumulates, promised synergies never land and the buyer at the end was never identified
The Catalina approach
Integration strategy and requirements shaped during due diligence, led by our Operating Partner
Leadership capability, founder dependency and organisational readiness tested against the investment thesis
A common group operating model and one data & technology backbone, while preserving appropriate local autonomy
AI workflows deployed at the delivery layer through a dedicated tech team, contracted before the anchor platform LOI or shortly thereafter
The exit corridor evidenced before we buy: at least four credible buyers and three completed transactions, and a group that closes a gap for one of them
Technology & AI
How we underwrite the AI contribution
Services firms traditionally carry thin margins because revenue scales with headcount. AI breaks that link by automating a meaningful share of repetitive work while people keep the judgement and the relationships
What we underwrite
Capacity released and sold. Automation frees delivery time; margin follows from output per person, not from persons removed
One question, asked of every target: if the delivery team had twenty per cent more capacity next quarter, is there work waiting for it? Where the answer is no, we do not enter
A workforce proposition fixed before the first LOI: no compulsory reductions in client-facing delivery for twenty-four months, overhead consolidation disclosed at signing, and a defined share of measured productivity gain paid to delivery teams
What we do not underwrite
Headcount removed. Cost-out is one-time and capped, in a business we then need to change again
Adoption bought with a redundancy programme. The knowledge that makes a deployment work sits with the people a substitution thesis removes
A reputation we cannot afford to spend. Five to eight sellers in one country know each other, and the first ninety days after the first close are known to all of them
Cost synergies harvested before exit. A buyer paying 9–11x is buying a synergy plan it intends to execute itself; visible operating slack is an asset to that buyer, not a discount