Add-on acquisition sourcing firm roundup for buy-and-build platforms
Add-on acquisition sourcing firms, ranked.
The best add-on acquisition sourcing firms are not the ones with the longest platform logo wall, they are the ones built to find twenty small, owner-operated businesses inside a fixed drive-time radius rather than a few hundred companies spread across a country. We publish this list and DealSource Systems is our own service, ranked first because add-on search is a named part of what we run; the other four are ranked on fit, not on who we like. Every claim about another firm below comes from that firm's own live website, read in this run, and is linked as the source. For context on what this actually produces: running add-on sourcing for a physical therapy platform, we opened 15 positive owner conversations inside the platform's own geography and size band, every one direct, none through a broker, detailed on our results page.
What makes add-on acquisition sourcing different from a platform search?
The universe is fixed and small, so a firm built for platform-scale sourcing will treat an add-on mandate as an afterthought and it will show in the results. A platform pursuing add-ons is not looking nationwide; it wants the handful of clinics, shops or service firms inside its own drive-time radius, a universe that is often absent from the databases buyers normally license because the businesses are too small to be covered well. That absence is why a specialist matters here: the general method is in add-on acquisitions and buy-and-build sourcing, and the broader choice between sourcing models for a portfolio is in portfolio company deal sourcing models compared. On the physical therapy mandate above, the owner was the entire decision with no board and no adviser involved, and the motivation to sell ran toward retirement or a lease coming up rather than a multiple, which changes how the first message has to read.
Quick comparison
| Provider | Location | Best for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| DealSource Systems | Remote, US-based (Danish Lead Co.) | Buy-and-build platforms running add-on search inside a fixed geography and size band | $4,000/month flat, published in full |
| Harvey & Company | Newport Beach, California | Well-capitalised funds running many simultaneous add-on searches across a large multi-sector platform | Contact for pricing |
| SourceCo | Not published | PE and corp dev teams wanting an "Add-On Ready" AI-matching platform with no fee to the seller | No cost to founders; buyer pricing not published |
| CT Acquisitions | Sheridan, Wyoming | A single opportunistic add-on search, no retainer, buyer pays only at close | Contact for pricing (buyer pays at close) |
| Konverrt | Not published | Lower middle market B2B SaaS and services add-ons in the $1M-$50M range | A few thousand dollars a month once qualified meetings land |
How we chose this list
We only considered firms that run actual owner outreach for buy-side mandates, not data subscriptions that hand you a list and leave the calling to you, and we checked each one for whether add-on or buy-and-build sourcing is a stated capability rather than something we are inferring from a general buy-side page.
DealSource Systems
Best for: buy-and-build platforms and PE sponsors that want one system running a defined add-on thesis inside a fixed geography, not a one-off list pull sized for a national platform search.
DealSource Systems runs add-on acquisition sourcing built around the constraint that matters most here: the target universe cannot be widened when it goes quiet, because the platform's own footprint sets the boundary. Pricing is a flat $4,000 a month with a 90-day minimum and no success fee. On the physical therapy mandate referenced above, every one of the 15 positive conversations came from a direct approach to the owner rather than through an intermediary, which in a small, local category is the only way the conversation happens at all.
Harvey & Company
Best for: well-capitalised funds and corporations running many add-on searches at once across a large, multi-sector buy-and-build programme.
Harvey & Company has run buy-side search and advisory since 1998, closing over 1,200 transactions including 151 in 2025, and states its 2025 breakdown as 1,011 add-ons against 138 platform acquisitions, by far the most explicit add-on-versus-platform disclosure of any firm compared here. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California with a European office, and names buy-and-build strategies outright as a service line across sectors including industrial, healthcare, consumer and technology. Pricing is not published.
SourceCo
Best for: PE and corporate development teams who want an AI-matching platform that flags add-on-ready targets, without a fee to the seller.
SourceCo positions itself as an off-market sourcing and matching platform using AI and proprietary data, with an explicit "Add-On Ready" designation among the deal characteristics it surfaces for PE clients, and a stated focus on $2 million to $200 million founder-led businesses. Founders pay nothing; SourceCo is compensated by the buyer. Buyer-side pricing is not published.
CT Acquisitions
Best for: a single opportunistic add-on search where you want no retainer and no fee until a deal closes.
CT Acquisitions runs confidential, buyer-pays-at-close sourcing out of Sheridan, Wyoming, working with founder-owned and family-owned businesses typically between $1 million and $50 million in revenue, a size band that covers most add-on targets. There is no retainer and no fee to the seller; the buyer pays only once a deal closes, which suits a single search better than a standing, always-on programme.
Konverrt
Best for: lower middle market M&A advisors and PE sponsors adding B2B SaaS and services companies in the $1 million to $50 million range.
Konverrt builds a deal origination engine for lower-middle-market M&A advisors and PE firms, naming B2B SaaS and services among its served sectors, with mandates typically in the $1 million to $25 million range. It does not name add-on or buy-and-build sourcing specifically as a capability, so treat it as a strong generalist option for this size band rather than an add-on specialist. Its model is no invoice until the first two qualified meetings land, after which engagements typically run a few thousand dollars a month.
How do these add-on acquisition sourcing firms differ in pricing model?
They split into three groups: success-fee-only (CT Acquisitions, and SourceCo on the seller side), paid only once a deal closes; flat retainer (DealSource Systems), a fixed monthly fee for a standing programme against a defined thesis; and case-by-case institutional pricing (Harvey & Company, Konverrt), negotiated per engagement. A single, opportunistic add-on search usually fits a success-fee firm better, while a continuous buy-and-build programme fits a retainer, the logic covered in deal origination pricing: retainer vs success fee.
How do you choose between these add-on acquisition sourcing firms?
- 1. Size the universe before you price the programme. If there are sixty fitting businesses in your platform's radius, no amount of budget produces two hundred conversations, and any firm promising otherwise is planning to contact companies that do not fit.
- 2. Ask whether add-on sourcing is a named capability or an inferred one. Harvey & Company and SourceCo both disclose add-on-specific numbers on their own sites; Konverrt and CT Acquisitions are strong generalists at this size band without naming add-ons specifically.
- 3. Match the pricing model to how many searches you are running. A single search fits a success-fee firm; a standing, multi-category buy-and-build programme fits a flat retainer like ours.
- 4. Confirm who takes the call once an owner replies. On an add-on mandate the owner usually wants to speak with someone who understands operating the business, not a corporate development analyst; ask any firm on this list how replies are routed.
- 5. Plan the follow-up in months, not weeks. A fixed, local universe cannot be widened when it goes quiet, so outsourced deal origination vs in-house and deal origination partner questions to ask are worth reading before you sign a contract sized for a faster result than this category delivers.
Frequently asked questions
What is add-on acquisition sourcing?
Add-on acquisition sourcing is outreach built to find and open conversations with owners of small, often local businesses that fit an existing platform's thesis, as opposed to platform sourcing, which searches more broadly for the first, larger acquisition in a category.
How is add-on sourcing different from sourcing a platform deal?
The target universe is smaller and geographically fixed by the platform itself, the owner is usually the entire decision with no board or adviser involved, and the motivation to sell tends to be personal, such as retirement, rather than financial, which changes both the targeting and the message.
Which firms specialise in add-on acquisition sourcing specifically?
Harvey & Company and SourceCo both name add-on or buy-and-build work explicitly on their own sites with supporting figures; DealSource Systems runs a dedicated add-on acquisition sourcing service; CT Acquisitions and Konverrt are strong generalists at the relevant deal size without naming add-ons as a distinct focus.
How much does add-on acquisition sourcing cost?
Pricing on this list ranges from success-fee-only, where the buyer pays nothing until a deal closes, to a flat $4,000 a month retainer, to undisclosed case-by-case institutional pricing, so the right model depends on whether you are running one search or a standing programme.
How fast can an add-on acquisition sourcing firm produce owner conversations?
It depends entirely on how large the fitting universe actually is. On a fixed local geography, fifteen conversations can represent a large share of the reachable universe, so judge a provider against the size of your actual target list rather than against a national campaign's numbers.
Should add-on sourcing be outsourced or run by the platform's own team?
Most platforms lack the infrastructure to run owner-direct outreach at the volume a thesis-driven search needs, which is why outsourced deal origination vs in-house is worth reading before committing internal headcount to what is, in practice, a specialist outreach function.
What happens when the add-on target universe inside a platform's geography runs out?
It does not get wider, since the geography is fixed by the platform, so the programme shifts from new outreach to a long nurture with owners who said not now, the same model covered in why deal origination stalls.
Conclusion
Five names is a shortlist, not a directory: Harvey & Company for a large, well-capitalised buy-and-build programme with disclosed add-on volume, SourceCo for an AI-matching platform with no seller fee, CT Acquisitions for a single success-fee search, Konverrt for a generalist lower-middle-market option, and DealSource Systems for a flat-priced, thesis-driven programme built around a fixed geography. Verify each firm's own claims against its own site before you sign anything, the same way we verified the four above before ranking them. See how it works, review the solutions built for private equity firms and M&A advisors, or read the full WestStar Physical Therapy case study behind the numbers cited here.