For business owners
Who is buying businesses like mine?
Not a market estimate and not a survey. This is the current demand on BusinessWanted.com, counted from approved acquisition requirements, broken down by sector, size, buyer type and region.
In short: demand is broadest in Technology & Software, and across the platform as a whole most buyers are trade acquirers looking for profitable businesses between one and ten million pounds of turnover. Find your sector in the table below, then read the underlying requirements.
Current BusinessWanted acquisition demand
555
approved acquisition requirements across 14 UK sectors, most recently updated 13 July 2026.
Source: BusinessWanted.com, approved acquisition requirements currently published. Data read 9 October 2026.
Demand by sector
Each figure is the number of approved buyers with a live requirement in that sector. Follow a sector to read what those buyers are looking for and how they intend to transact.
Demand by size of business
Target turnover of live requirements
- £5m to £10m186 (34%)
- £3m to £5m131 (24%)
- £1m to £3m114 (21%)
- £10m to £25m86 (15%)
- £25m to £50m29 (5%)
- £50m plus9 (2%)
Owners frequently assume they are too small to interest an acquirer. The distribution above usually says otherwise. The genuinely difficult band is below roughly five hundred thousand pounds of turnover, where the business is often too dependent on the owner to transfer.
Demand by buyer type
Live requirements by buyer type
- Trade buyer337 (61%)
- Private equity108 (19%)
- Search fund54 (10%)
- High net worth individual42 (8%)
- Investor backed trade group10 (2%)
- Family office4 (1%)
Demand by region
Target location of live requirements
- UK wide91 (16%)
- Scotland82 (15%)
- England – Midlands80 (14%)
- England – South East76 (14%)
- England – North74 (13%)
- Wales68 (12%)
- Nationwide with regional focus64 (12%)
- Western Europe10 (2%)
How to read a requirement properly
- Sector and sub sector tell you whether the buyer understands your market.
- Target turnover and profitability tell you whether you are inside their range, and whether you sit at the top or the bottom of it.
- Geography tells you whether you strengthen an existing footprint or open a new one.
- Acquisition rationale tells you what they are actually buying: capacity, customers, people, licences or coverage.
- Funding position and decision readiness tell you how quickly they can move.
- Deal structure tells you what a sale would mean for you personally, including whether you are expected to stay on.
Where three of those six line up with your business, the requirement is worth answering. A fuller explanation of the fields sits on what an acquisition mandate is.
Common questions
Who buys small and medium sized UK businesses?
Four groups account for most completed UK SME transactions: trade buyers expanding capability or coverage, private equity building a platform or adding to one, search funds and individual acquirers buying a single company to run, and family offices investing for the long term. Trade buyers are the largest group by a wide margin.
How do I know if anyone wants to buy a business like mine?
Read the requirements published on this platform for your sector, size and region. Each one states what that acquirer is looking for. Where several requirements overlap with your profile, there is genuine demand for your business, not a theoretical market.
Why would a buyer want my business specifically?
Usually for something they cannot build quickly: your customer relationships, your qualified people, a licence or accreditation, geographic coverage, or contracted recurring revenue. Profit matters, but acquirers pay premiums for things that take years to replicate.
Is my sector attracting buyers right now?
The sector table on this page is counted from live approved requirements and updates as requirements are added or retired. If your sector shows a low count, it usually means demand is concentrated in specific sub sectors rather than absent.
Does a buyer need to be in my region?
Not necessarily. A large share of requirements are UK wide. Regional preferences matter most to trade buyers building density, where being inside their footprint can be worth more than being larger.
What happens if I respond to a requirement?
You send an anonymous outline quoting the reference. Our team checks the fit and passes the outline to the buyer. If both sides want to continue, an introduction follows under confidentiality. Nothing about your business is published at any point.
Source and date. Figures on this page are counted from approved acquisition requirements currently published on BusinessWanted.com, read 9 October 2026. They exclude unapproved enquiries, withdrawn requirements, historic records and third party data, and they change as requirements are added, updated or retired. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. How a requirement is approved is set out in our methodology.
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