4 Deal Sourcing Trends Shaping 2023

The coming year is unlikely to see a marked departure from the deal sourcing tactics of 2022.

Instead, private equity business development professionals and other industry participants point to trends that they expect to gain greater traction in 2023, including creative approaches to marketing, new technology applications, increased enthusiasm for smaller deals and an earlier start to relationship-building.

Technology is a must-have in dealmaking, but when it comes to deal sourcing tech, not all acquirers find themselves in the same place on the adoption curve. In a shifting M&A landscape, corporates and financial investors may have significantly different tech adoption experiences in 2023.

Nevin Raj, chief operating officer and co-founder of private company intelligence engine Grata, says a growing disparity between corporates and PE firms may lead to one of the most poignant trends in tech adoption next year.

“What we see is that (PE) investors, especially early-stage tech investors, tend to be some of the first adopters of technology,” notes Raj. As a result, those investors tend to embrace technology within their deal sourcing workflows, too. In contrast, corporates are “actually the furthest behind” in the adoption curve, he adds.