Frequently Asked Questions

What does your name stands for ?

IP² is about the spirit and attitude of entrepreneurs. The letters are an acronym for Investment Partners raised to the second power because we strongly believe that beyond the traditional Strategic, Investment and M&A advisory services, there is much more needed to truly capture strategic opportunities.

We are committed to develop long term partnerships with our Clients offering highly creative, individualized services and support and we believe that great deals are square deals, that benefit all parties involved

How do you manage confidentiality?

It is one of our core principles. From the very first contact, confidentiality is of utmost importance for us. We recognize that our clients need to act with the greatest amount of discretion during our assignment. We therefore have developed highly confidential approach to assignments. We do not disclose the names of our Clients to interested or targeted parties. It is part of our vision that long term partnerships are based on respect, integrity, trust and confidentiality.

How do you differentiate yourselves?

We combine the thought leadership of our General Partner and Partners with years of intensive Corporate and Business strategy, traditional M&A transactions globally, invaluable Industry/Technology knowledge and Insight and deep business acumen and cultural empathy of both Brazil and European/North American markets.

We proud ourselves on our unique combined experience working on both side of the table. We know what it takes to start, grow and run a business. We have been on the driver seat and we know what it means and demand for entrepreneurs, shareholders or Board of multi-nationals to scale a business to a totally different level to reach sustainable value.

That’s why our Clients benefit also from the wise counsel and operational experience of our Partners who have also served P&L level responsibilities of companies in Global companies and for Private Equity funds. We bring in that respect to entrepreneurs and at the Board level, before a transaction, a unique holistic support offer, Augmented M&A®, with a global strategic, financial and organizational vision, to better position, transform the company and create value from a business perspective to maximize a future M&A transaction.

We only take on projects in which we know we will be able to perform and where our hands-on, independent, entrepreneurial and Client-focused principle would maintain intact. We take a deep and detailed approach to our assignments and do not hesitate to align our interests with our clients’ objectives; which in turn maximizes the chance of success.

We are a mix of experienced European and Brazilian professionals. We can leverage our extensive network for the benefit of our Clients and we proud ourselves on our ability to bridge cultural differences between western and south American organizations.

How specialized IP² is?

We are a pure M&A and Strategic Investment advisory service, but we go beyond pure M&A transactions as we provide strategic advisory services. We either work with companies that are looking for organic growth strategy or inorganic growth strategy. Companies that are looking to sell their business, or, in some cases, we work with, larger corporate entities that may be looking to divest a subsidiary.

We work with these two types of sellers, or we also work on buy-side projects, where a client is looking to expand via acquisitions. We are totally independent, so we work exclusively on each mandate either with a buyer or with a seller and never represent both parties to ensure the best outcome possible for our client.

We are specialist in the “Tech Economy”, we work to lead you to the smartest M&A deal.

So, we provide strategic advisory services, buy-side and sell-side mandates for Technology companies, companies in the Digital Transformation journey, group that have an agenda with Digital Transformation, or parent companies with traditional businesses but looking for Digital remodeling, and that’s all we do.

How International are you?

We are a small entrepreneurial boutique firm and we believe in the Brazilian economy and growth. We are based in Brazil but are very much international. Many of our projects are cross-border, meaning that the buyer and the seller are in two different countries. We are a team of 4 partners and one of our unique points, besides the fact that we just do M&A and Strategic Investment advisory services, is that we are very much international. Two partners are located in Brasil, one in the US and one in France.

How is it to work with IP²?

As a smaller firm, a boutique, we tend to relate very well with owner-operated businesses because, again, we’re the owners of the business. That, obviously, means you wear a lot of hats. We all do our share in the projects, from finding potential clients to working with them to go from prospects to clients, and then executing the project. But, in addition, we’ve kind of parsed out some of the other responsibilities. One of the things we do is have at least two of us on any project. Again, many of our projects being cross-border, that’s a natural. If we have a client in California, one of us in California probably originally found that client or acquired that client or was key to that, and manages or is the day-to-day person they can talk to locally. But then one of us over here in Brazil may be spending a lot of time on the ground in the Country or the Region working with buyers or with sellers. So, we work in teams on a typical project. There’s always two, sometimes more, maybe three or even four of us, depending on the project.

Are you partnering with other firms in these advisory services or transactions, or possibly contracting with individuals when you’re involved in an M&A deal?

It really depends of the assignment. There are few instances where we may have someone on an affiliation basis, let’s say, that has been involved with us in a project for a specific reason. We also partner with legal and tax advisory firms on a as-needed basis.

What factors come into play when you are advising companies on their growth strategy or mergers and acquisitions?

At the heart of M&A is strategy, and we work closely with CEOs first to understand their strategy and organic plan and determine how inorganic moves such as acquisitions or divestitures will complement the overall strategic game plan for the company. The first step when working with a company is typically to evaluate a range of possible options and determine the most attractive ones.

Most of our clients are brazilian entrepreneurs willing to sell their business our structure fundraising for growth, or are willing to expand from Brazil to North America or Europe. Others are looking to enter or grow in Brazil. Then comes the art of what is possible, in identifying the best options.

M&A is one of this option and we think about what the transaction would do for the company strategically. For example, we look at how it would affect market share, the complementary fit of products and services, and customer and supplier synergies. When analyzing a transaction from a financial standpoint, we look at its effects on a variety of metrics including growth rates, margins, earnings.