A company with growth in its DNA

In many organisations, M&A is seen as left-hand activity – something that happens on top of a manager's day job. At Visma, M&A and growth have been core since the beginning.

"We have an incredible amount of domestic tailwind," says Chief M&A Officer Sindre Talleraas, who has led Visma’s M&A department through more than 400 acquisitions.

"Our Managing Directors think strategically about M&A because it’s an important part of how we operate, not an afterthought. That internal drive means when a new company joins, the entire organisation is already aligned to help them succeed."

Founders trust founders

While Sindre leads the 15-person M&A team, he admits that his best “salespeople” aren't on his payroll. They’re the entrepreneurs already in the Visma network.

"I can tell the Visma story all day, but when an entrepreneur tells it to another entrepreneur, that’s when it becomes powerful," Sindre says. "Founders speak a different language. They believe each other when it comes to pros and cons. We encourage prospective founders to call anyone we’ve acquired in the last 15 years. That reputation – built on peer-to-peer trust – is one of our greatest assets."

Listening for a specific kind of excellence

When Sindre’s team evaluates a potential new member of the group, they are listening for a specific kind of excellence. In order to fit Visma, a company needs not just a healthy heartbeat, but also a specific mindset.

"We look for best-in-class products, but we also look at how they think," Sindre notes.

His team focuses on four benchmarks:

• Financial health: Is it a sound business with the right KPIs?
• Tech-forward mindset: We look at their tech status, but more importantly, how they think about tech and the AI era.
• Customer and Employee Satisfaction: Happy customers and employees are extremely important.
• Market Potential: Does the company have what it takes to be a market leader?

Due diligence as a strategy session

Many M&A teams use due diligence (DD) to find reasons to lower the price. At Visma, once a hand is shaken, there is inherent trust because the due diligence process is a strategy session for the future.

"We use DD to identify where a founder might need help," says Sindre, “and then we fill those gaps with internal experts who have done the job before. We don't assign board members by corporate rank – we assign them by who has the best real-life competence to help that company grow."

They get to do what they love

For the 70% of founders who stay, the secret sauce is the realisation that they get to do what they love, but with the support of a world-class pit crew helping them win.

"Founders are, by default, people who want to create,” says Sindre. “And that’s exactly what we want them to do. Keep building.”