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Eric and Patrick’s Catcha Digital has completed 14 acquisitions — eight in the…

2026-08-06 · 20:44 UTC ·@PrivatEquityGuy ·2 min read

Brief

Catcha Digital — led by Eric and Patrick — has executed 14 acquisitions (eight in the last 12 months) to create a permanent home for market‑leading digital media, B2B exhibitions and vertical software businesses. The team applies a decentralized holding‑company model, strict deal discipline (rejecting ~99/100 targets), and capital allocation lessons from serial compounders; Patrick’s notable track record includes a $100M Murdoch investment in 2014 and a ~ $560M exit to REA Group in Feb 2016.

Why it matters

Eric and Patrick’s Catcha Digital has completed 14 acquisitions — eight in the past 12 months — building a buy‑and‑build platform focused on digital media, B2B trade exhibitions, and vertical software.

Key details

  • Patrick previously secured a $100M investment from Rupert Murdoch after a June 2014 meeting; that company was acquired by REA Group (News Corp) in Feb 2016 for ~ $560M, and Patrick has taken six companies public.
  • Catcha Digital runs a decentralized holding‑company model, rejects roughly 99 of 100 acquisition opportunities, emphasizes ‘buy good businesses, make them perform, turn profit into cash,’ and follows playbooks from Danaher, Roper and Constellation Software.
Source evidence

The story of raising $100M from Rupert Murdoch, all the way to building a buy-and-build platform through 14 acquisitions.

Eric and Patrick have acquired 14 companies (eight in the past 12 months).

Eric is younger and is in a great position because he can learn from... and literally soak up the information, knowledge, and experience of Patrick, who has taken six companies public.

One of Patrick's greatest exits came back in 2016:

Following a meeting with Rupert Murdoch in June 2014, he invested $100 million in the company. In February 2016, the company was acquired by REA Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation, for approximately $560 million, making it one of the largest acquisitions of an ASEAN internet company.

When I asked Eric what he had learned from Patrick about buying and operating businesses, he went back to the very basics:

"Patrick has a very simple philosophy. Don't buy sh*t businesses. Buy good businesses. Make them perform. And once they perform, turn profit into cash."

Video

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