A private equity firm decides it wants to invest in specialty services.
That is a sensible starting point. It is also rather a large market.
The category includes everything from environmental testing and facilities maintenance to specialized contractors and industrial inspection. The companies differ in their customers, operating models, management requirements, and reasons an owner might consider a transition.
Before a buyer can build a useful target list, it needs to narrow the field.
The challenge is not simply finding an industry that sounds interesting. It is identifying a market the buyer understands well enough to evaluate, where suitable companies exist, and where the buyer has a credible reason to become an owner.
Concrete coatings offers a useful example of how that process can work.
Begin with the buyer’s capabilities
The first step is not to search for a list of “best industries for acquisition.” It is to understand what the buyer is equipped to own.
A private equity firm with experience in multi-location home services may be comfortable assessing residential customer acquisition, local marketing, and field operations.
A holding company with an industrial services background may be better positioned to evaluate commercial customers, project management, and technical installation work.
A family office with no direct operating experience in either area may still find an opportunity attractive, but it should understand what management and outside expertise it would need.
Questions to ask include:
- Which industries does the team already understand?
- What size of company can it finance and support?
- Does it want a new platform or an add-on acquisition?
- What operating resources can it provide after closing?
- How much project or customer concentration can it accept?
- What kind of management team does it need?
Those answers provide a more useful starting point than asking which industries are fashionable.
Move from a broad sector to a specific market
An acquisition thesis often begins with a broad category:
“We are interested in specialty construction services.”
The next step is to identify a more specific market:
“We are interested in businesses that install protective and decorative coatings on concrete floors.”
That is still a broad group. A residential contractor coating garage floors may have a very different business model from a company installing resinous flooring in food processing facilities.
The buyer might narrow the thesis again:
“We are interested in established commercial and industrial flooring contractors that install resinous coating systems for customers in a defined region.”
At each stage, the team should become more precise about what the businesses do, whom they serve, and why they may fit the buyer’s ownership strategy.
A niche does not become attractive merely because it has a specialized name. It becomes worth investigating when the buyer can explain what makes the market relevant.
Separate different business models
Concrete coatings is a useful example because the industry can be divided in several ways.
Residential installers
These companies may coat garage floors, patios, basements, driveways, and other surfaces for homeowners.
A buyer assessing this segment might focus on local brand reputation, sales conversion, customer acquisition costs, crew capacity, and installation quality.
The work may come from a steady flow of individual projects, but a repeatable sales process should not be confused with recurring revenue. Most homeowners do not need the same floor coated every month.
Commercial and industrial contractors
These businesses may install coating systems in warehouses, manufacturing facilities, showrooms, commercial buildings, and other properties.
The buyer might examine customer concentration, relationships with general contractors or facility owners, project size, technical capabilities, and how frequently customers require additional work.
A company with repeat customers may be attractive, but the team should understand whether future revenue is contracted, expected, or simply possible.
Manufacturers and distributors
Some companies make or distribute coating products, decorative materials, preparation equipment, or related supplies.
Their economics can differ substantially from those of installers. A manufacturer may depend on product development and distribution relationships. A distributor may depend on supplier agreements, inventory, and contractor customers.
Combining all three groups into one target list would make the market look larger, but it would not make the acquisition thesis clearer.
Ask what creates demand
Once the market is defined, the deal team should understand why customers buy and how frequently the work occurs.
For concrete coatings, the reasons may include appearance, durability, ease of cleaning, protection of the underlying surface, or a customer’s operational requirements.
The next questions are more important:
- Is the work discretionary or essential to the customer’s operations?
- Does demand depend heavily on new construction or renovation?
- Are customers primarily homeowners, businesses, or public organizations?
- How much work comes from repeat customers?
- How much depends on a small number of referral sources or general contractors?
- What causes customers to choose one provider over another?
The answers help the buyer move from an industry label to an understanding of the business model.
They also reveal whether the market fits the investment thesis. A buyer seeking contracted, highly predictable revenue may assess the opportunity differently from one comfortable operating a project-based business.
Research acquisition activity
A niche industry does not need to be unknown to be interesting. In fact, evidence that other buyers have acquired businesses in the space can help a deal team understand the market.
Concrete coatings has attracted institutional interest.
In 2026, Calera Capital acquired ReVamp Companies, a residential services platform that includes concrete coatings alongside fencing and decking. Vesterra Capital Partners also acquired Shark Coatings, a provider serving residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the Southeast.
Those transactions show that buyers see potential in the category. They do not tell us that every coatings contractor is an attractive target, or that all parts of the market receive the same level of attention.
When reviewing transactions, a deal team should ask:
- Was the target an installer, manufacturer, distributor, or franchisor?
- Was it a standalone platform or an add-on?
- What customers and geographies did it serve?
- What capabilities did the buyer acquire?
- Was the target comparable in size and business model to the companies under consideration?
- What information remains undisclosed?
A transaction involving a national platform may be informative without being directly comparable to a regional contractor.
Do not confuse fragmentation with a lack of competition
A market can contain many independent businesses and still attract considerable buyer interest.
That distinction matters because fragmented industries are often described as opportunities for consolidation. In practice, several acquirers may already be pursuing the same group of owners.
The team should investigate:
- Which firms have completed acquisitions in the market?
- Do those buyers appear to be pursuing additional companies?
- Are strategic acquirers active alongside financial investors?
- Are owners frequently contacted by buyers?
- Do intermediaries specialize in the sector?
- Are there regions or company sizes that appear less covered?
Some answers may be available through public announcements and industry research. Others require conversations with advisors, operators, and owners.
Even then, the team should distinguish evidence from impression. A small number of publicly announced transactions does not prove that few deals occurred or that buyers are uninterested.
Build a map of the market
After developing an initial thesis, the buyer can begin identifying companies.
A market map may draw on:
- Commercial company databases
- Trade associations and industry directories
- Conference exhibitor lists
- State licensing resources, where relevant
- Local business searches
- Company websites
- Acquisition announcements
- Introductions from industry executives and advisors
The objective is to develop a broad view of the market before deciding which companies warrant direct outreach.
For each business, the team should record the information it can verify:
- Company name and locations
- Core services
- Residential, commercial, industrial, or mixed customer focus
- Ownership and leadership
- Approximate size, if a reliable estimate is available
- Whether the business appears independent, acquired, or affiliated with a franchise or dealer network
- Source links and date reviewed
- Reason the company may fit the thesis
- Questions that require further research
A blank field is preferable to a confident guess. If ownership is unclear, the record should say so.
Use AI to build an initial target segment
Once the acquisition thesis is defined, AI tools can help a sourcing team work through a large number of companies and identify those that appear to match the buyer’s criteria.
For example, a team researching commercial concrete coatings contractors might begin with a broad list of flooring and specialty construction businesses. An AI-assisted research process could review company descriptions and website content to identify businesses that appear to:
- Install concrete coatings or resinous flooring
- Serve commercial or industrial customers
- Operate in the buyer’s preferred geography
- Provide related services, such as surface preparation or concrete repair
- Have other characteristics that warrant further research
That initial segment gives the team a more manageable place to begin. It is not yet a qualified acquisition target list.
A company may mention industrial flooring on its website but primarily serve homeowners. Another may offer the right services but have already been acquired. A business may fit the description while being too small, too large, or outside the buyer’s preferred ownership structure.
The sourcing team can review and sort the initial segment into four groups:
- Appears to fit: Available evidence supports further research or outreach.
- Possible fit: Some criteria appear relevant, but important information remains unconfirmed.
- Does not fit: The business clearly falls outside the mandate.
- Insufficient information: Available sources do not support a reliable assessment.
For priority companies, a researcher can then verify services, geography, ownership, leadership, and other information needed before making contact.
For example, an AI tool may identify a flooring company because its website mentions epoxy coatings. Human review might reveal that the company primarily sells materials rather than installing them. That may be an attractive business for another buyer, but it belongs on a different list.
AI can help the team move from a broad market to a more focused group of companies. The sourcing team still needs to determine which businesses actually fit the mandate.
Look for the challenges as carefully as the opportunity
Once the initial list has been researched and prioritized, the deal team can begin investigating operating characteristics that are difficult to establish from a website alone.
In concrete coatings, a buyer might investigate:
Installation quality and warranty exposure
How does the company prepare surfaces, train crews, and manage quality? What happens when a coating fails, and what does the warranty require?
A growing contractor can look very different after the cost of callbacks and corrective work is understood.
Founder dependence
Does the owner personally handle sales, estimates, customer relationships, scheduling, and crew supervision?
If so, the buyer needs to understand whether a management transition is practical and what support the business would require.
Customer acquisition
For a residential contractor, how much business comes from paid advertising versus referrals? For a commercial contractor, how much depends on a handful of customers or general contractors?
Labor and capacity
Can the business recruit, train, and retain installation crews? Is growth constrained by access to qualified people?
Franchise or dealer arrangements
A local company may operate under an independent brand, a franchise, or a dealer relationship. The buyer should understand the applicable contracts, territory rights, supplier obligations, and any restrictions on a change of ownership.
These questions are not reasons to avoid the industry. They are the questions that help a buyer determine which businesses are worth pursuing.
Build the thesis around the buyer’s advantage
After researching the market, the deal team should be able to articulate why its firm could be a suitable owner.
For example, a buyer with a commercial services platform might believe it can support a coatings contractor through recruiting, project management, and introductions to existing customers.
A holding company might offer a founder the opportunity to transition gradually while keeping the company’s local identity.
A buyer experienced in residential services might have capabilities in sales, marketing, and multi-location operations.
Those are examples, not promises every buyer can make.
The acquisition thesis should reflect what the firm can actually provide, along with the risks it understands and the type of management team it needs.
A hypothetical example
Consider a holding company with experience owning regional commercial services businesses.
The firm begins by exploring specialty contractors and narrows its research to commercial and industrial concrete floor coatings.
It maps companies in three states, separates installers from manufacturers and distributors, and identifies businesses that appear independently owned.
An AI-assisted review helps the sourcing team segment the broader list based on the services companies describe and the customers they appear to serve. Researchers then check the priority businesses, confirm what they can about ownership and leadership, and flag missing information.
Several businesses are removed because they primarily serve homeowners. Others remain on the list, but their ownership or size is unclear.
Before beginning outreach, the holding company speaks with an industry advisor and a portfolio company executive to understand installation risks and customer buying behavior.
The result is a smaller list of companies with a clearer reason for inclusion, and a set of questions the team wants to answer in its first conversations.
The research may lead to an acquisition search. It may also reveal that the industry requires capabilities the buyer does not have.
Either outcome is useful. A niche should earn its place in the investment strategy.
Finding a niche is the beginning, not the conclusion
The goal of niche research is not to discover an industry nobody else has heard of.
It is to understand a market well enough to identify relevant businesses, recognize the risks, and explain why your firm could be a suitable owner.
Concrete coatings is one example. The same process can be applied to inspection services, specialty maintenance, environmental businesses, or other industries where the buyer has a reason to develop expertise.
A disciplined team begins broadly, narrows its focus, tests the economics and competitive landscape, and builds a market map grounded in evidence.
Only then does it begin the work of developing relationships.
Would you like a copy of Serica’s Deal Sourcing Playbook? It outlines our approach to identifying target companies, researching ownership, organizing outreach, and using technology to support the sourcing process. Email ben@teamsericaandco.com with the subject line “Deal Sourcing Playbook,” and we would be glad to share it.
Serica & Co. supports professional acquirers with market mapping, acquisition target research, owner outreach, and deal origination.