Faster deal execution for mid-cap M&A: How Anquor Corporate Finance reduced deal management time by 25%

Overview

Anquor Corporate Finance is a boutique M&A advisory firm based in Barcelona, specializing in small- to mid-cap transactions. The team typically works on deals valued between €20 million and €100 million.

To reduce time spent on deal management, Anquor partnered with Ideals. The team chose the platform for its intuitive user experience, transparent pricing, and responsive support during live transactions.

Using Ideals, Anquor has reduced deal management time by 25%. The team can better handle client needs and manage mandates without losing momentum.

“Ideals understands the requirements of M&A teams perfectly. They know what we need and they provide it in the most intuitive way,” said Kirill Bulanov, Investment Banking Analyst at Anquor Corporate Finance.

The context

Anquor has been advising multinational firms, family-owned businesses, and privately held companies for over 30 years.

While the firm is industry agnostic, around 40% of its mandates are in life sciences and pharmaceuticals, reflecting the background of its founder, Pascal Vieilledent. It completes 10–12 transactions each year, with a strong focus on international and cross-border expertise.

With a consistent pipeline of mid-cap transactions, execution speed is critical. The longer a deal remains in due diligence, the higher the risk of deal fatigue or changing market conditions.

“In M&A, time is a critical asset. We manage a strong pipeline of mandates, with multiple data rooms running at the same time. Each minute saved gives us more time to focus on important client needs,” said Kirill.

Key challenges

Customer support was a key factor in Anquor’s decision to switch VDR providers. With their previous data room provider, getting clarification on how things worked often slowed deal execution at exactly the wrong moments. 

“When I needed help, it could take a long time before I got an answer,” said Kirill.

Anquor’s requirements for a new platform were centered around reducing friction in deal management:

• Fast, responsive support during live transactions
• Simple setup of teams and permissions across multiple stakeholders
• Robust control over access to sensitive documents
• Fewer approval steps for small operational changes
• Real-time visibility into activity across the data room
• Clear, straightforward pricing

“With other VDR providers, minor updates require multiple approvals, which slows things down. Ideals makes it much easier to customize access levels and change user settings, without compromising security standards,” said Kirill.

Solution

Kirill shared a project that illustrates the difference Ideals has made. A buyer had to close a deal ahead of a January 31 fiscal year-end deadline. The data room was launched in November, and due diligence was completed in just two months.

Using Ideals, Anquor can:

• Set up data rooms quickly at the start of each deal
• Get immediate support via chat or account managers when needed
• Assign granular permissions so users only see relevant information
• Use the Q&A function for fast, secure communication between parties
• Automate notifications so users know when documents are uploaded
• Maintain clear, predictable costs with usage-based pricing

Kirill summed up the impact of Ideals: “For our clients, the longer a process takes, the more variables can influence the ultimate outcome of the deal. Ideals provides peace of mind because it helps everything move much faster.”

The future

Since switching to Ideals, Anquor has been able to take on more mandates without deal management becoming a bottleneck.

When asked what he valued most about Ideals, Kirill responded: “It’s definitely one less thing to worry about. On a daily basis, we deal with a lot of uncertainties and pressure. I want to use platforms that take some of that away.”

“With Ideals, I don’t have to worry about support, setup, or glitches — it just works.”