Buy and build with impact

2025 was a strong year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with 20 add-ons acquired across the Alder portfolio. But what’s the strategy behind the buy-and-build approach and how does it improve our ability to increase our handprint? We spoke to Alder’s Investment Director, Keiward Pham, to find out more.

In a growth phase

M&A is a core pillar of the Alder strategy, alongside organic growth. This year’s significant M&A boost reflects the current phase of Alder Fund II. This proven approach both accelerates existing growth and enables expansion into new geographies, customer segments, and markets. It’s a crucial part of our mission to build companies that accelerate the green transition. Adding new competencies to existing businesses enables us to offer a broader range of solutions to each customer. It also provides access to additional resources, including employees, skills and capabilities and extends the customer offer.

Successful growth is about more than adding new business units. As we scale a company, we aim to create longevity by anchoring growth in mature governance and a shared culture and vision. Add‑ons allow companies to expand their solutions and capabilities, but they also require deliberate integration through, for example, clear onboarding and alignment with Group policies, to preserve strategic direction and values and to ensure long‑term, sustainable growth.

Investing with purpose

Since we introduced the Natural Capital Framework this year (see pages 20-21), we will integrate this thinking into our buy-and-build process going forward.

“It will be really useful to quantify the potential value, or indeed negative results, an add-on could bring to a Group. We aim to use common denominators to compare across our investments – metrics including carbon dioxide emissions, water use or material savings,” says Keiward.

Naturally, any add-on needs to meet, or have the potential to meet, the same sustainability standards as the rest of the Group it is merged with – this remains a core part of the due diligence phase. Keiward explains:

“Before we consider acquisition, we need to make a conscious and informed decision about how the company could enhance the offer of the Group, while avoiding situations where it could have a negative impact.”

Thinking differently

Currently, our team seeks out target companies that fit and bolster our existing platform investments. However, to ensure we truly meet our eight Natural Capital Framework objectives, including climate resilience, ecosystem protection and emission reduction, a new approach is needed. Keiward tells us how:

“We’re developing a new approach that turns the whole process on its head. To challenge the conventional approach of starting with an existing Group and finding the right fit, we begin by identifying a critical environmental issue that needs solving, such as air pollution. Then we build a team of experts tasked with identifying solutions that we could invest in and acquire. I’m really excited about this process and see it yielding impactful results.”

Our approach is to ensure our M&A strategy is as much about bolstering a Group’s economic position as about enabling it to have an even greater influence on today’s most critical issues.

Groups in the Alder portfolio

Since Alder’s ownership, eight of our 12 portfolio companies have been through an M&A process. The figures below show the number of add-ons for the eight companies concerned since we became owners.

Safe Monitoring Group	13 (7 in 2025)
Right Side Group	3 (1 in 2025)
Sustainable Intelligence	13 (4 in 2025)
EcoMobility Group	4 (1 in 2025)
EWGroup	2 (1 in 2025)
eivis	3 (2 in 2025)
Livitron	4 (3 in 2025)
3Button Group	1 (1 in 2025)