Expanding a European mid-market company into North America is as exciting as it is challenging. Having a financial partner with a local, experienced presence can help significantly.
The US is the world’s largest economy with an attractive business environment, making it appealing for European businesses for expanding their products and services. However, the market is vast and also highly competitive, and understanding all the various nuances from a distance is difficult. This is why Inflexion opened an office in North American in 2025 with an on-the-ground team: to help our European portfolio as well as prospective investments, which were increasingly expressing a strategic rationale and desire to expand into North America, achieve these ambitions.
“Having a team here enables our companies not only think bigger but also more quickly and successfully act on these ambitious with local, experienced knowledge and support,” states Ben Meyer, Partner and Head of North America at Inflexion. The advantages of expanding into North America are clear: the US benefits from a large and growing economy, significant number of customer prospects and acquisition targets, a single currency, deep talent pool, and strong alignment UK legal and business frameworks. This creates fertile ground for mid-market businesses looking to strategically scale internationally through M&A. But, according to Ben, this opportunity comes with challenge, the biggest of which for European firms is the need for a well thought-out expansion plan with long-term commitment.
“You have to invest meaningfully and thoughtfully in people, presence, time and competitive messaging. It’s the same approach we’ve taken with our own internal North American Inflexion team and practice: we’ve built a right-sized, dedicated team on the ground with a defined GTM message and mandate; and we’re taking a deliberate, focused approach with a long-term perspective.”
Razor-sharp focus
The Inflexion North America team, now complete with nine professionals, includes individuals experienced not only with investment-related work but also with building North American practices for foreign investment firms.
By design, this team works collaboratively with Inflexion’s European team. Overlaying this localised North American presence with Inflexion’s long-standing sector focus and expertise across business services, technology, healthcare, industrials, consumer and financial services not only helps to unlock North American opportunities more successfully for Inflexion’s existing portfolio, but also for prospective European investments Inflexion is speaking with.
Indeed, many European businesses (in particular within Inflexion’s own portfolio) have a strategic rationale to enter North America but require on-the-ground expertise to identify, pursue and diligence the right acquisitions — often large, complex and potentially transformational in nature. “We’re supporting transactions in the $75 million to $500 million range, where having experienced, local people really matters. Ultimately, we want to help create transatlantic business champions,” Ben explains.
There’s real enthusiasm across our portfolio management teams. They’ve always valued Inflexion as a collaborative, hands-on, value-added partner and now want our help to accomplish their North American goals.
All this requires focus to be successful, not least owing to the size and pace of the North American market. For this reason, Inflexion has deliberately narrowed the list of initial portfolio companies (and sub sectors) which the North American team is engaged with to a group of companies with strong strategic rationale for entering and scaling in North America, including aosphere, Aspen, Axiom GRC, BES, Curinos, GlobalData Healthcare, Nomentia, Ocorian and Rosemont, with additional support to DSS+ and Celnor.
With the team and office now fully established, the focus for the year ahead is continuing to support the portfolio companies and helping UK and European colleagues bring North American angles to new opportunities.
“The North American team, infrastructure and brand foundation are in place, including several North American acquisitions completed by our portfolio since our practice launch in January 2025,” Ben says. “Now it’s about leveraging this initial success to deliver even more strategic North American acquisitions and angles for our existing portfolio companies as well as prospective European investments.”
Strategic North American acquisition success
Since launch, the team has evaluated more than 125 North American acquisition opportunities, with six already over the line.
Ocorian acquires E78 Fund Solutions
Ocorian, a leading global provider of fund, corporate and fiduciary services, completed its acquisition of E78 Fund Solutions, a respected provider of comprehensive fund administration services in the US. With on-the-ground support from Inflexion’s North American team, Ocorian was able to cultivate relationships locally and navigate US-specific regulatory considerations to progress swiftly. The acquisition adds deep local expertise and scales Ocorian’s global capabilities to more than 700 fund services and regulatory professionals. Inflexion’s investment has been supporting Ocorian to become a global leader of scale since 2016.
dss+ acquires Proaction
In February 2025, dss+ strengthened its North American footprint through the acquisition of Proaction, a specialist safety and operational-excellence consultancy. The deal enhances dss+’s ability to support clients across regulated industries with a strong local team delivering advisory, training and operational transformation services. Inflexion’s North America practice supported US-side engagement and sector connectivity following Inflexion’s investment into dss+ in 2023.
Noventis Safety acquires Global Vision
Noventis Safety’s acquisition of Minneapolis-based Global Vision reinforced Noventis’s position in the wet testing space. The company is a market-leading fire company specialising in the provision of fire pump test meters. Noventis has been working with Inflexion since 2021.
Easyfairs acquires EPC (Energy Projects Conference & Exhibition)
Easyfairs completed its first US acquisition with the purchase of EPC (Energy Projects Conference & Exhibition), the world’s largest energy projects event. This is the company’s sixth acquisition since Inflexion’s minority investment in 2024 and gives Easyfairs a strategic anchor in the high-growth US market.
Aspen acquires Veto Pro Pac
Aspen continued its international expansion through the acquisition of Veto Pro Pac, a US-based provider of premium toolbags and equipment carriers. The deal adds a respected American brand to Aspen’s portfolio and enhances its direct access to US distribution channels. The North America team provided local diligence and industry connectivity across HVAC and trades-adjacent categories. Aspen has worked with Inflexion for many years, initially between 2007 and 2015 and in another partnership since 2020. In 2025 it became one of four Inflexion businesses to join Europe’s largest Continuation Fund, allowing it to continue working with Inflexion to accelerate growth
Axiom GRC acquires IS Partners
Axiom GRC broadened its US presence through its acquisition of IS Partners, a well-regarded provider of audit, attestation and compliance services. Inflexion carved out Marlowe plc's GRC assets in 2024 to create Axiom. The IS transaction strengthens Axiom’s capabilities in risk management, employment compliance and regulatory intelligence — areas where the US market offers significant long-term growth potential. Inflexion’s team supported sourcing and the relationship-development effort.
