Mangold Fondkommission AB, a Stockholm-based investment bank serving small and medium-sized businesses, turned to Grata as its M&A practice expanded beyond the Nordics and needed a more efficient way to identify European acquisition targets. By replacing time-intensive manual research with broader geographic coverage and more streamlined company discovery, Mangold has expanded its cross-border sourcing, engaged more potential targets, and built stronger relationships with business owners.
Based in Stockholm, Mangold Fondkommission AB is a major investment bank specializing in financial services for small and medium-sized businesses. Mangold offers a broad portfolio of services, from capital raising and IPOs to regulatory advisory for companies in niche markets. The firm expanded into M&A advisory in 2023 to help entrepreneur-led companies grow through acquisitions. The team works hands-on with business owners, often guiding them through their first inorganic growth transactions.
Robert Kisch, Head of M&A at Mangold, oversees the department's deal sourcing and execution. Before taking over M&A leadership in 2024, Robert spent four years in Mangold’s corporate finance division, giving him deep familiarity with the SME market the firm serves. M&A Analyst Hannes Iwarsson focuses on the firm’s buy-side and sell-side workflows, using Grata to identify new targets, monitor known companies, and build buyer lists beyond the Scandinavian market.
In 2022, Mangold began using Valu8 for screening in the Nordics. “Nearly all the deals that we made in Sweden have been complemented by data that we’ve sourced through Valu8,” Kisch said.
While the team valued Valu8’s intuitive interface and data quality, its need for broader geographic coverage continued to grow. The challenge was in finding European companies outside Scandinavia without having to sift through a large, uneven database of information. “Grata made that process easier and more accurate,” Hannes said.
In 2024, the team began evaluating additional screening tools, including SEALK, which Datasite acquired later that year. After evaluating multiple platforms, Mangold chose Grata for its functionality and broad geographic coverage of the companies it needed to screen.
In practice, Mangold leverages Grata across both buy-side and sell-side mandates. “For our buy-side mandates, we use Grata to screen and identify new target companies, as well as to monitor the development of existing targets on behalf of our clients,” Hannes said. “For our sell-side mandates, we use Grata to compile and refine buyer lists, particularly for those outside the Scandinavian market.”
The Grata difference is especially clear in cross-border sourcing. Previously, Mangold relied on structured European acquisition processes alongside a large manual workload in identifying and approaching off-market companies. With Grata, Hannes said sourcing targets outside of Scandinavia has become “a lot more streamlined,” allowing the team to identify companies more efficiently and engage directly with potential targets.
Hannes credits Grata with helping Mangold engage in more conversations with potential targets and build more relationships with business owners. For a relationship-driven M&A practice serving entrepreneurial clients, that expanded owner engagement is a meaningful step toward future acquisitions.
As Grata and Valu8 merge into a unified platform, Mangold sees an opportunity to reduce manual research and move more quickly from target discovery to qualification.
For M&A teams considering Grata, Hannes recommends starting a trial. “The use cases for the platform are plentiful given that screening and sourcing deals are an essential part of the daily operations in M&A,” he said. “It saves us a fair amount of time.”
“Our favorite thing about Grata is the comprehensive coverage of companies and legal entities available on the platform that are often difficult to identify through traditional sourcing channels,” Hannes said. As Mangold continues expanding its cross-border work, that visibility gives the team a stronger foundation for identifying cross-border opportunities, initiating more owner conversations, and building a broader acquisition pipeline.
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