SKROL Emerges From Stealth to Modernise SMBs and Make Acquisitions Seamless

Small and mid-size business (SMB) acquisitions can be tense, but artificial intelligence (AI) can help make these interactions more seamless. This is what the new offering of SKROL is setting out to achieve as the company emerges from stealth. 

Small businesses are the bedrock of the global economy, representing 99 per cent of all businesses worldwide and employing 61.6 million people in the US alone. However, modernising these 400 million SMBs is the challenge of a lifetime, with 82 per cent failing due to cashflow issues. Fifty-six per cent of owners say digitalisation is too expensive and 84 per cent struggle to find enough people to interview and hire.

With 10,000 baby boomers retiring daily and those aged 55 and up owning about 50 per cent of the small businesses, succession planning is a critical issue facing the $10trillion SMB industry expected to grow in the next five years.

Michael Cassau, founder and CEO of SKROL

SKROL’s vision is to combine the startup world’s access to talent, technology and capital with the stable, tried-and-true business models of SMBs. With pre-seed funding secured, the company plans to acquire 5,000 SMBs over the next four years, leveraging its technology to drive operational efficiency and growth into the next generation.

Unlocking full potential

“Many global economies are grappling with the dual challenge of an aging population and small-to-mid-sized businesses in desperate need of modernisation,” said Michael Cassau, founder and CEO of SKROL. “At SKROL, our mission is to breathe new life into these vital economic engines by equipping them with the three startup cores essential for success: customer acquisition, access to capital and access to talent.

“By preserving the rich heritage of these businesses while integrating innovative strategies from the tech startup world, we will unlock their full potential to drive economic progress for decades ahead.”

Christopher Silva, co-founder and CTO of SKROL

“Artificial intelligence is revolutionising the SMB sector like never before, optimizing operational workflows and business acquisition at an unprecedented pace,” said Christopher Silva, co-founder and CTO of SKROL. “With SKROL’s advanced AI tools, SMBs can easily identify, evaluate and manage opportunities, ensuring sustainable growth and competitiveness in a sector so critical to our global economy.”

What exactly does it do?

SKROL’s proprietary AI-powered technologies, including SKROL Mining, SKROL Flow and SKROL Score, are central to its strategy. They streamline the acquisition process and ensure strategic alignment with SKROL’s goals.

SKROL Mining employs vast datasets to identify potential acquisition opportunities from every region, scanning through more than 500,000 active listings to pinpoint key acquisition opportunities.

Secondly, SKROL Flow allows users to build their own deal flow based on their needs, providing the visibility at the portfolio including aggregated KPIs with the possibility to zoom-in to the deal level, assisting in the creation of tailored acquisition deals.

Lastly, SKROL Score leverages user feedback to refine AI-generated documents while ensuring complete privacy and confidentiality through full encryption and strict NDA compliance.

Expanding the platform

The recent pre-seed funding round, led by David Rosskamp‘s Magnetic Capital – a venture fund known for backing transformative ventures and an early investor in Cassau’s previous startup, Grover – will be instrumental in expanding SKROL’s platform and facilitating its initial acquisitions.

SKROL’s mission is to modernise the small and mid-sized businesses that make up the backbone of the global economy by acquiring and transforming SMBs worldwide, applying the learnings from scaling high-growth tech startups to established businesses and bringing in the human capital required to usher in the next generation of the company.

Rooted in the vision of Michael Cassau, who, after nine years of building Grover into a global success, saw an opportunity to tackle issues in the SMB sector.

Cassau assembled a team of key figures from Grover to spearhead this new venture, bringing in Christopher Silva, co-founder and CTO with 18 years of technology leadership experience, and also Mitja Sadar, co-founder and CFO offering over 15 years of expertise in finance and venture debt.

Together, they form a dynamic team poised to address the unique challenges facing SMBs today, bringing the tech-powered, high-growth strategies of Silicon Valley to the local businesses the economy thrives on.

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