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Catcha Digital (Eric working with Patrick Grove) has completed 14 acquisitions…

2026-08-05 · 15:07 UTC ·@PrivatEquityGuy ·1 min read

Brief

Catcha Digital, led by Eric with partner Patrick Grove, has executed 14 acquisitions — eight within the last year — across digital media, B2B exhibitions and vertical SaaS. The firm runs a decentralized holding‑company buy‑and‑build that rejects ~99% of targets, follows Constellation/Danaher‑style playbooks, and focuses on capital allocation, IPO timing and the rising strategic value of live events in an AI world.

Why it matters

Catcha Digital (Eric working with Patrick Grove) has completed 14 acquisitions across digital media, B2B exhibitions and vertical SaaS — eight of those acquisitions occurred in the past 12 months.

Key details

  • Their buy‑and‑build model is a decentralized holding company that rejects roughly 99 of 100 acquisition opportunities and explicitly borrows software consolidation tactics from Constellation Software and operational lessons from compounders like Danaher and Roper.
  • The interview (timestamped) focuses on capital allocation and IPO tradeoffs (51:00), why B2B trade exhibitions are ‘exceptional’ businesses (24:00), the software acquisition strategy (28:40), and why live events may become more valuable in an AI era (43:50).
Source evidence

So far, they’ve completed 14 acquisitions across digital media, B2B exhibitions and vertical SaaS.

Here are a few they’ve bought:

PrivateEquityGuy (Mikk Markus) (@PrivatEquityGuy)

My conversation with Eric. Him and @patrickgrove are building one of Southeast Asia's most interesting buy-and-build platforms.

They've completed 14 acquisitions (eight in 12 months) while creating a permanent home for market-leading businesses across digital media, B2B exhibitions, and vertical software.

We dive deep into capital allocation, decentralized operations, buy-and-build strategies and why live events may become even more valuable in the AI era.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:
0:00 Building Southeast Asia's serial acquirer
1:00 From failed startup to Catcha Digital
8:20 How Catcha Digital operates a decentralized holding company
13:05 Why 99 out of 100 acquisition opportunities get rejected
15:25 Lessons from Sweden's best serial acquirers
24:00 Why B2B trade exhibitions are exceptional businesses
28:40 The software acquisition strategy inspired by Constellation Software
30:15 The buy-and-build playbook behind Catcha Digital's growth
39:00 Learning from Danaher, Roper, Constellation & other compounders
43:50 Why live events become more valuable in an AI world
47:00 Working with Patrick Grove & building an acquisition machine
51:00 Capital allocation, going public & balancing long-term thinking with quarterly results

Video

— https://nitter.net/PrivatEquityGuy/status/2084970868715737572#m