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Swedish Serial Acquirers is an annual March conference in Stockholm with 200+…

2026-08-07 · 00:04 UTC ·@PrivatEquityGuy ·1 min read

Brief

PrivateEquityGuy’s interview with Eric (and Patrick Grove) connects lessons from Stockholm’s Swedish Serial Acquirers to Catcha Digital’s buy‑and‑build: 14 acquisitions (eight in 12 months), a decentralized holding across digital media, B2B exhibitions and vertical software, a 99:1 rejection rate on targets, and emphasis on culture, capital allocation and applying Constellation-style playbooks as AI boosts event value.

Why it matters

Swedish Serial Acquirers is an annual March conference in Stockholm with 200+ serial acquirers and capital allocators; Eric’s 2026 takeaways: learn from companies 5–7 years ahead, walk away from expensive deals, decentralize operations, avoid heavy integration for every acquisition, and the biggest challenge is building culture across decentralized businesses after rapid M&A.

Key details

  • Catcha Digital (Eric with Patrick Grove) has executed 14 acquisitions—eight in 12 months—creating a permanent holding for digital media, B2B exhibitions, and vertical software while rejecting roughly 99 out of 100 acquisition opportunities.
  • Their playbook borrows from Constellation/Roper/Danaher-style buy-and-build and a software acquisition strategy; they argue B2B trade exhibitions are exceptional businesses and expect live events to become more valuable in the AI era.
Source evidence

Every March, there is a conference in Stockholm called Swedish Serial Acquirers, bringing together more than 200 serial acquirers and capital allocators in one room.

Eric has attended for years, and he keeps going back. Some of his key takeaways from this years's event:

  1. Learn from companies that are 5-7 years ahead, not necessarily those that are already giants.

  2. Easier to learn from someone just ahead of you than from someone like Constellation 30 years later.

  3. Walk away from expensive deals.

  4. Operate more decentralised.

  5. Not every acquisition needs heavy integration.

  6. The biggest challenge is building culture across decentralized businesses after doing eight acquisitions in a short period of time.

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