ADVISORY
A cross-border exit multiplies the number of ways a deal can go wrong: buyer diligence spans multiple legal systems, valuation benchmarks differ by region, and a founder’s local network rarely extends to the strategic acquirers most likely to pay a premium. In 2026, with US and European private equity both sitting on record dry powder and strategic buyers increasingly willing to pay for AI-enabled recurring revenue wherever it originates, the advisor a founder picks determines whether that broader buyer pool ever gets reached in the first place.
| Agency | | Best For | | Core Expertise | | Typical Deal Size |
|---|---|---|---|
L40 Partners | Founder-led software, SaaS, and AI companies with roughly $5M–$100M in revenue that want genuine cross-border execution bringing US and European buyers into the same process at the same time. | Sell-side M&A advisory for SaaS, software, and AI companies, with an emphasis on running a single competitive process across both US and European buyer networks simultaneously. | $10M-$100M revenue |
Drake Star Partners | Technology, media, and communications companies — particularly Software/SaaS, fintech, and digital media businesses — that want a firm where roughly seven in ten deals already cross a border. | M&A and corporate finance advisory across Software/SaaS, HR Tech, Digital Services, FinTech, Digital Media, and Industrial Tech, with senior-led deal teams working in multiple offices on each cross-border mandate. | Mid-market TMC |
Arma Partners | Digital-economy companies — software, data and information services, and infrastructure/cybersecurity — where roughly three-quarters of the resulting deal involves a global strategic buyer or cross-border private equity investor. | Independent corporate finance advice spanning private capital raising for founder-led disruptors through complex cross-border M&A for private equity investors and large-cap public acquirers, concentrated in the digital economy. | Growth to large-cap |
Alantra | Mid-market software and technology-enabled services companies, roughly $10M–$500M in enterprise value, that need access to buyers across more than twenty countries in a single process. | Sell-side and buy-side M&A, strategic advisory, and capital raising for technology companies, with senior banker-led teams and dedicated sub-sector coverage across software, fintech, and IT-enabled services. | £25M–£550M |
Clairfield International | Mid-market software, SaaS, and digital businesses up to roughly EUR 500 million in enterprise value whose founders want a genuinely global partnership rather than a single-country boutique with an international-sounding name. | Sell-side and buy-side M&A, capital raising, and strategic advisory for midmarket companies, with a dedicated technology, software, and digital practice alongside debt advisory and family-business advisory services. | Up to ~€500M EV |
Woodside Capital Partners | Technology and health-tech companies in the roughly $30M–$500M enterprise value range that need cross-border reach into Europe alongside Silicon Valley relationships. | M&A advisory, strategic partnerships, and private placements for emerging growth technology and health-tech companies, with dedicated sector teams for AI, cybersecurity, and digital health. | $30M–$500M EV |
Union Square Advisors | Later-stage venture-backed or public technology companies that need both M&A and capital markets advisory from a bank with no trading or research conflicts and genuine reach into international strategic buyers. | Sell-side and buy-side M&A, strategic positioning, activist and hostile-defense advisory, and capital markets work including equity private placements and debt advisory for technology companies. | Venture-backed & public |
DC Advisory | Software and technology companies whose founders want access to a genuinely global sponsor and strategic-buyer network, particularly one connecting Western sellers with Japanese and broader Asian acquirers. | M&A advisory, debt advisory, and restructuring across eleven core industries including software, with dedicated Asia Access and US financial-sponsors teams built to widen the buyer pool on technology mandates. | Broad, global range |
733Park | Founder-led companies from $2M to $350M in enterprise value at the intersection of software and payments — vertical SaaS with embedded payments, fintech infrastructure, billing platforms, and applied AI — that plan to sell to buyers outside their home market. | Sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory and exit-readiness preparation for vertical SaaS, embedded payments, fintech infrastructure, and applied AI companies, many of which sell to international strategic acquirers. | $2M–$350M EV |
Livingstone Partners | Mid-market software and technology-enabled services companies whose founders want a single global M&A and debt-advisory platform with dedicated sector teams already embedded in Europe, Asia, and North America. | Cross-border sell-side and buy-side M&A, debt advisory, and capital raising for mid-market software, security, information, and technology-enabled services companies. | Middle-market, global |
This guide profiles the 10 best advisors for cross-border software company exits in 2026, evaluated across five dimensions: Services & Expertise, Affordability, Reviews & Reputation, Case Studies & Results, and Communication & Transparency. Whether a founder is selling a European SaaS company into the US market, a US infrastructure platform into Asia, or a LatAm-founded business into either, this list is built to help match the mandate to an advisor with genuine, proven reach on both sides of the transaction.
| Best for: Founder-led software, SaaS, and AI companies with roughly $10M-$100M in revenue that want genuine cross-border execution bringing US and European buyers into the same process at the same time.
L40 is a sell-side M&A boutique built specifically for founder-led software companies, with offices in Miami, Madrid, and Lisbon. Its partners have closed more than 180 transactions over 20 years across the US, Europe, and Latin America, and the team includes operators who have built and exited their own companies, including a co-founder of one of Europe’s first unicorns. Every mandate is partner-led from the first conversation through close, and the firm’s multi-office structure is designed to widen the buyer pool beyond what a single-country boutique can typically reach.
Services & Expertise
Sell-side M&A advisory for SaaS, software, and AI companies, with an emphasis on running a single competitive process across both US and European buyer networks simultaneously.
Affordability
L40° targets the $10M-$100M revenue range, positioning it alongside other lower-middle-market SaaS specialists but with distinctly stronger European buyer access.
Reviews & Reputation
The firm’s partner-operator backgrounds — including founders who have sold their own companies — are a recurring theme in how it is described by industry commentators covering boutique SaaS advisors.
Case Studies & Results
More than 180 completed transactions over two decades across the US, Europe, and LatAm, reflecting sustained cross-border deal flow rather than a single-region practice.
Communication & Transparency
Every engagement is led by a partner from the first call onward, and the firm’s multi-office model means European and US buyer conversations run in parallel rather than sequentially.
| Best for: Technology, media, and communications companies — particularly Software/SaaS, fintech, and digital media businesses — that want a firm where roughly seven in ten deals already cross a border.
Drake Star Partners traces its roots to 2004, when European boutiques LD&A Jupiter and Redwood Capital combined to build a pan-European technology corporate finance practice with US reach; the combined firm has since completed more than 500 transactions. Drake Star today operates from New York, London, Paris, Munich, Los Angeles, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Tokyo, with roughly 70% of its historical deal volume classified as cross-border. The firm’s Managing Partner Eric Ward and senior team are frequent award recipients for cross-border execution, including the Cross Border Deal of the Year for advising Envato on its sale to Shutterstock.
Services & Expertise
M&A and corporate finance advisory across Software/SaaS, HR Tech, Digital Services, FinTech, Digital Media, and Industrial Tech, with senior-led deal teams working in multiple offices on each cross-border mandate.
Affordability
Drake Star is positioned in the technology mid-market, with a deal history spanning venture-stage financings through nine-figure strategic sales, giving it flexibility across company sizes within its core sectors.
Reviews & Reputation
The firm has won multiple regional and category Deal of the Year awards, and industry sources highlight its senior-led, specialist ethos as a differentiator from generalist investment banks that cover technology part-time.
Case Studies & Results
Recent closed transactions include advising Envato on its sale to Shutterstock, Proviso Capital on the sale of Kerr Consulting to Cherry Bekaert, and Onclusive on its acquisition of Digimind.
Communication & Transparency
Clients work with partners and principals based across the firm’s US and European offices, an structure built specifically so that both sides of a cross-border process are run by bankers embedded in each market.
| Best for: Digital-economy companies — software, data and information services, and infrastructure/cybersecurity — where roughly three-quarters of the resulting deal involves a global strategic buyer or cross-border private equity investor.
Arma Partners was founded in 2003 in London, starting with four employees focused on software M&A during the post-dotcom downturn, on the contrarian view that technology’s long-term growth potential remained intact. The firm has since advised on more than 190 completed transactions valued at over $50 billion in aggregate, and in 2023 Arma Partners was acquired by Italian bank Mediobanca, giving it additional balance-sheet backing while continuing to operate as an independent technology advisory brand. Arma’s team of roughly 150-plus professionals is based across London, Munich, New York, and Palo Alto, complemented by affiliate relationships in Japan, Australia, Israel, Turkey, and Brazil.
Services & Expertise
Independent corporate finance advice spanning private capital raising for founder-led disruptors through complex cross-border M&A for private equity investors and large-cap public acquirers, concentrated in the digital economy.
Affordability
Arma works across the growth-stage-to-exit lifecycle rather than a single deal-size band, giving it flexibility for both venture-backed software companies raising capital and later-stage businesses running a sale process.
Reviews & Reputation
Arma is regularly named among the largest financial advisory teams focused exclusively on the digital economy, and its 2023 acquisition by Mediobanca was widely covered as a validation of its transatlantic technology franchise.
Case Studies & Results
The firm’s history spans over 190 completed digital-economy transactions, and it continues to run high-profile cross-border sell-side mandates for European technology companies exploring strategic sales.
Communication & Transparency
Deal execution is led by senior bankers who stay engaged from the first conversation through close, supported by a team split across London, Munich, New York, and Palo Alto to keep US and European buyer tracks moving together.
| Best for: Mid-market software and technology-enabled services companies, roughly $10M–$500M in enterprise value, that need access to buyers across more than twenty countries in a single process.
Alantra is a global investment banking and asset management group with more than 360 investment banking professionals working from eighteen offices across Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Its dedicated Technology sector team runs sell-side and buy-side mandates for software, SaaS, fintech, and technology-enabled services businesses, and the firm reports that a majority of its European technology engagements carry a cross-border component. Alantra’s cross-border platform is built specifically to let a single deal team coordinate simultaneously across its Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America offices rather than handing a mandate off between regional franchises.
Services & Expertise
Sell-side and buy-side M&A, strategic advisory, and capital raising for technology companies, with senior banker-led teams and dedicated sub-sector coverage across software, fintech, and IT-enabled services.
Affordability
Alantra’s technology deals have spanned roughly £25 million to £550 million in transaction value in its published market data, positioning the firm across the lower-middle to middle market.
Reviews & Reputation
Independent published deal snapshots show a consistent share of Alantra’s technology transactions closing cross-border, and the firm has run competitive sell-side processes resulting in international strategic acquirers.
Case Studies & Results
Recent mandates include advising Cow Hills, a Netherlands-based unified-commerce SaaS provider, on its cross-border sale to France’s DL Software, backed by TA Associates.
Communication & Transparency
Each mandate pairs local-market bankers with global technology sector specialists, giving founders both cultural fluency in their home market and direct relationships with international strategic and financial buyers.
| Best for: Mid-market software, SaaS, and digital businesses up to roughly EUR 500 million in enterprise value whose founders want a genuinely global partnership rather than a single-country boutique with an international-sounding name.
Clairfield International was founded in Geneva in 2004 by five partners and has grown into a partnership of more than 400 M&A advisors across 32 countries, closing roughly 99 to 250-plus transactions annually depending on the year, including a reported EUR 14 billion in deal value in 2024. The firm operates as a single company across its partner offices rather than a loose referral network, and its Technology, Software & Digital sector group has been ranked first for technology deals in Refinitiv’s mid-market league tables in past years. In 2025, Japan’s Yamada Consulting Group acquired a 10% stake in Clairfield, extending the firm’s reach into Asian buyer networks.
Services & Expertise
Sell-side and buy-side M&A, capital raising, and strategic advisory for midmarket companies, with a dedicated technology, software, and digital practice alongside debt advisory and family-business advisory services.
Affordability
Clairfield designs and executes transactions up to roughly EUR 500 million in enterprise value, positioning it as a lower-middle to middle-market specialist rather than a large-cap advisor.
Reviews & Reputation
Clairfield consistently ranks among top mid-market advisors in Refinitiv and Mergermarket league tables and marked its 20th anniversary in 2024 with a reported team of roughly 400 professionals.
Case Studies & Results
Recent technology and SaaS work includes advising on the IPO of Odine, a cloud communications and SaaS/PaaS provider, on the Borsa Istanbul, alongside a steady flow of cross-border midmarket technology sales.
Communication & Transparency
Senior partners are involved at every step of every engagement, and because Clairfield’s country offices operate under one partnership rather than a franchise model, cross-border deal teams share a single process and timeline.
| Best for: Technology and health-tech companies in the roughly $30M–$500M enterprise value range that need cross-border reach into Europe alongside Silicon Valley relationships.
Woodside Capital Partners was founded in 2001 by Rudy Burger and operates from Silicon Valley, London, and Zurich. The firm has completed transactions totaling more than $10 billion across SaaS, internet services, electronics, communications, and health tech, with particular sector depth in computer vision, AI, and cybersecurity. Its cross-border structure gives founders access to venture capital, private equity, and Global 1000 corporate buyers across both US and European markets, and the firm positions itself as an ultra-personalized advisory boutique built around a small group of sector-specialist partners.
Services & Expertise
M&A advisory, strategic partnerships, and private placements for emerging growth technology and health-tech companies, with dedicated sector teams for AI, cybersecurity, and digital health.
Affordability
Woodside is positioned in the $30M–$500M enterprise value segment, above micro-cap sell-side shops but below the large tech-only investment banks.
Reviews & Reputation
The firm’s partners are frequent industry speakers and publishers of sector research, reflecting long-standing relationships across the technology and health-tech investor base in both the US and Europe.
Case Studies & Results
A multi-decade transaction history exceeding $10 billion in completed deal value, with recent mandates including the sale of Actenum Corporation to Prometheus Group.
Communication & Transparency
Clients get direct access to Woodside’s small, sector-specialist partner group rather than a large deal team, keeping US and European buyer conversations tightly coordinated.
| Best for: Later-stage venture-backed or public technology companies that need both M&A and capital markets advisory from a bank with no trading or research conflicts and genuine reach into international strategic buyers.
Union Square Advisors was founded in 2007 by Carter McLelland, the former chairman of Bank of America’s Securities division, and operates out of San Francisco and New York. The firm has advised on more than 170 strategic transactions worth in excess of $118 billion, spanning enterprise software and infrastructure, fintech, healthcare IT, internet and digital media, and AI and machine learning. Because Union Square does not run trading or research desks, it markets itself as free of the conflicts that can arise at larger banks advising the same sector, and its senior bankers regularly run competitive processes that bring in non-US strategic and financial acquirers.
Services & Expertise
Sell-side and buy-side M&A, strategic positioning, activist and hostile-defense advisory, and capital markets work including equity private placements and debt advisory for technology companies.
Affordability
The firm’s deal history skews toward larger, more capital-intensive transactions than most lower-middle-market boutiques, reflecting its work with venture-backed and public technology companies.
Reviews & Reputation
Union Square’s senior bankers are former heads of major banks’ technology practices, and the firm is frequently cited for deep sector knowledge across AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise software.
Case Studies & Results
Recent representative work includes advising optoelectronics company NeoPhotonics on its sale to Lumentum, alongside a broader portfolio of technology M&A and financing mandates.
Communication & Transparency
Clients work directly with senior, sector-dedicated bankers rather than a generalist coverage team, which the firm positions as central to how it delivers strategic advice on complex, often multi-jurisdiction deals.
| Best for: Software and technology companies whose founders want access to a genuinely global sponsor and strategic-buyer network, particularly one connecting Western sellers with Japanese and broader Asian acquirers.
DC Advisory is an international investment bank and a subsidiary of Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group, operating from 24 locations across the Americas, Asia, and Europe with roughly 750 professionals. The firm’s name references its Daiwa Capital heritage rather than Washington, DC, and it was built through the combination of Close Brothers Corporate Finance with several other boutiques and Daiwa’s European franchise. DC Advisory closed 145 deals in the twelve months reviewed on its own transaction tracker, of which 45 were cross-border, and the firm maintains a dedicated software and technology practice alongside a three-decade track record in Japanese cross-border M&A specifically.
Services & Expertise
M&A advisory, debt advisory, and restructuring across eleven core industries including software, with dedicated Asia Access and US financial-sponsors teams built to widen the buyer pool on technology mandates.
Affordability
As part of a large global platform, DC Advisory can flex from lower-middle-market software sales up to sponsor-backed transactions well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Reviews & Reputation
DC Advisory ranked in the top three globally for mid-market Industrials M&A in 2025 per Mergermarket league tables and is regularly cited for its Japan and broader Asia cross-border access.
Case Studies & Results
Recent transactions include advising Argos Wityu on its acquisition of the technology-enabled security firm Axitea, part of a track record spanning technology, industrials, and infrastructure services.
Communication & Transparency
Senior-led client teams span DC Advisory’s global office network, and the firm has been actively expanding its US financial-sponsors coverage specifically to strengthen cross-border technology dealmaking.
| Best for: Founder-led companies from $2M to $350M in enterprise value at the intersection of software and payments — vertical SaaS with embedded payments, fintech infrastructure, billing platforms, and applied AI — that plan to sell to buyers outside their home market.
733Park is a Boston-based boutique with more than 25 years and 200-plus closed transactions representing over $10 billion in volume, concentrated specifically where software meets money movement. The firm’s model is built around direct principal involvement: founders work with the firm’s partners from the first call through close, not a rotating junior deal team. 733Park is a pure advisory shop — sell-side, buy-side, and exit-readiness work only — and does not run capital raises or securities offerings, which the firm positions as removing a structural conflict of interest from its sell-side mandates.
Services & Expertise
Sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory and exit-readiness preparation for vertical SaaS, embedded payments, fintech infrastructure, and applied AI companies, many of which sell to international strategic acquirers.
Affordability
The firm’s stated range of $2M–$350M in enterprise value makes it accessible to earlier-stage founder-led companies as well as larger, more established payments and infrastructure businesses.
Reviews & Reputation
733Park is frequently cited in industry roundups of tech-focused M&A advisors specifically for its payments and fintech infrastructure specialization, an area few generalist boutiques cover in depth.
Case Studies & Results
More than 200 closed transactions representing over $10 billion in aggregate volume across 25-plus years of dealmaking in software and payments.
Communication & Transparency
Because mandates are principal-led rather than staffed down to junior bankers, founders deal with the same senior person throughout diligence, negotiation, and close — including when that process crosses borders.
| Best for: Mid-market software and technology-enabled services companies whose founders want a single global M&A and debt-advisory platform with dedicated sector teams already embedded in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Livingstone Partners is an independent, global mid-market M&A and debt advisory firm with offices spanning Amsterdam, Beijing, Chicago, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Seoul, Stockholm, Valencia, and Verona. The firm organizes its coverage around five core sectors, including a dedicated Business & Technology Services practice that runs cross-border sell-side and buy-side M&A, equity and debt capital raising, and special-situation transactions for software, security, information, and tech-enabled services companies. Livingstone positions its extensive international office network as a direct advantage in accessing both strategic and financial buyers outside a founder’s home market.
Services & Expertise
Cross-border sell-side and buy-side M&A, debt advisory, and capital raising for mid-market software, security, information, and technology-enabled services companies.
Affordability
As a global mid-market platform, Livingstone works across a broad range of software company sizes, with pricing built around success-fee investment banking economics typical of the segment.
Reviews & Reputation
Livingstone bankers are frequent panelists on cross-border M&A themes, including geopolitics and AI’s effect on deal execution, and the firm has been recognized with industry consulting awards in several of its home markets.
Case Studies & Results
Recent technology transactions include advising on the cross-border merger of Sweden’s PrimeQ and VIEW Ledger, part of a broader track record of Nordic and European software M&A.
Communication & Transparency
Clients are served by dedicated Business & Technology Services bankers who collaborate across Livingstone’s international offices, giving cross-border mandates a coordinated team rather than a single-country point of contact.
Start with Best For — match the firm’s description to your company’s stage, sector, and target geography before comparing anything else. A generalist boutique that occasionally closes an international deal is a different proposition from a firm whose office footprint, buyer relationships, and deal history are actually built around moving a transaction between regions.
Then check Core Expertise against the capability you actually need: pure sell-side representation, dual-region buyer outreach run in parallel rather than sequentially, growth-equity financing alongside M&A, or deep vertical knowledge in payments, AI, or healthcare IT. Cross-border execution is a distinct skill from domestic M&A, and few firms are genuinely strong at both.
Use Typical Deal Size as a filter, not a guarantee — most boutique M&A advisors work on success-fee economics tied to the eventual transaction value, and a firm built for $500M enterprise-value deals will rarely give a $5M ARR company the attention a smaller specialist would. Engaging an advisor 9–18 months before a planned cross-border transaction, rather than after an unsolicited offer arrives, consistently produces better outcomes than a reactive process.
Bill Nash is the CMO of Marketing LTB with over a decade of experience, he has driven growth for Fortune 500 companies and startups through data-driven campaigns and advanced marketing technologies. He has written over 400 pieces of content about marketing, covering topics like marketing tips, guides, AI in advertising, advanced PPC strategies, conversion optimization, and others.
