Product Update: See a More Intuitive “Recommended Targets List” Before Marketing Your Deal

Investors and buyers with highly-targeted investment mandates use keywords to help narrow the kinds of deals they see on Axial. With that in mind, we recently made a change that highlights these buyside members to companies looking to raise capital or sell for a more intuitive and targeted experience on the platform.

Breaking it down:

Axial recommends buyers and capital providers to sell-side members based on three main criteria: (1)financial fit, (2) industry/strategic fit, and (3) how responsive buyside members are on the platform. Everything else being equal, a buyer or capital provider who matches with an advisor or CEO over a keyword like “autism” or “CRM software”, for example, will rank slightly higher on that Recommended Targets list.

To be clear: while a buyside member will be recommended to an advisor when there is a good fit, irrespective of keywords, keywords do affect where buyers or capital providers are positioned on the sell-side’s Recommended Targets lists.

Here’s the rationale: advisors are motivated by intent – if they’re selling a niche healthcare company they usually want to connect with capital providers on Axial who’ve explicitly expressed interest in that niche market. Buyside members do that on Axial through their choice of industry and keyword selection.

For example, if you’re advising on the sale of a health care services company that focuses on “hospice” care, you want to quickly see who is interested specifically in hospice-related businesses on Axial. Of course, that’s only one of the factors considered on the platform for when someone is a good transaction partner, but in our testing, we found this prioritization makes the application more intuitive for advisors and CEOs on the sell-side.

Let’s take a look:

What this means for you

Buyers and Capital Providers:  If you refrain from using keywords or use keywords that don’t necessarily match a particular sell-side member’s offer, you’ll still be recommended to them if you’re a good fit overall – however, you might fall a little bit further down the list if other buyers meet the advisors criteria more directly.

For Advisors: you’ll see buyers that have a more focused intent first in your recommended targets. This new feature encourages capital providers to highlight their intent and specify exactly what they’re looking for, providing you with a smoother more efficient experience when deciding who might be a good fit.

You’ll still see all the relevant opportunities, but you’ll see the capital providers who’ve expressed strategic intent with keywords first.

We’re always trying to improve the experience of our buyside and sellside members on Axial – if you have any feedback or thoughts, please reach out and let me know at [email protected].