Greenfield Research Partners

What Greenfield Research Partners does

Greenfield Research Partners (legal entity: Greenfield AI, Inc.) is a Delaware-incorporated, private buy-side M&A advisory firm founded in 2023 and headquartered in Redwood City, California. The firm exclusively serves institutional investors — including private equity firms, family offices, and corporate development teams — with more than $50 million in total assets. Greenfield combines full end-to-end M&A advisory services with a proprietary AI-powered sourcing platform called Greenlight, which integrates market mapping, AI-enabled target qualification, founder engagement, and client reporting within a single system of record. The firm markets itself as a specialist for proprietary acquisition sourcing in markets where founder-owned and family-owned businesses are underserved by generalist advisors, with quoted engagements ranging from add-on acquisition sourcing for platform companies to geographic expansion into specialized markets.

Greenfield's underlying technology stack centers on Greenlight, which aggregates dozens of proprietary, public, and alternative data sources — including commercial databases, government filings, PPP loan data, country-specific databases, and local industry sources — to construct search-specific target universes. The AI Qualification Layer applies NLP across company websites, LinkedIn, press releases, and articles to evaluate targets against client-approved criteria, while the Founder Engagement System supports coordinated multi-channel outreach with company intelligence profiles delivered to outreach professionals before each interaction. A continuous learning system of record feeds client approvals and declines back into target selection logic. No public-facing API, SDK, or third-party model validation is disclosed, and AI capabilities appear focused on text-based retrieval, qualification, and process automation rather than novel model development.

Greenfield operates a partner-led, enterprise field sales go-to-market with no self-serve channels or resellers. Pricing is quote-based and undisclosed, engagements are governed by multi-year written agreements, and securities are offered through a regulatory partnership with Stonehaven, LLC (FINRA/SIPC). The firm maintains a four-person leadership bench — Co-Founder/CEO Will Pacheco, Co-Founder/CTO Sean Durkin, and Partners Kyle Puff and Tierney Cronin — with collective experience spanning RBC Capital Markets, RLH Equity Partners, Arcline Investment Management, Mirantis, Bridgewater Associates, Keystone Strategy, and Booz Allen Hamilton. Reported case studies demonstrate pipeline scale (18,475 regional targets identified for an Asia expansion mandate; 3,250+ North American targets for an electrical safety services platform buildout), though the firm discloses no revenue, funding, or headcount time-series data.

Name

Greenfield Research Partners

Legal name

Greenfield AI, Inc.

Website

https://greenfieldresearchpartners.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Greenfield Research Partners is a private buy-side M&A advisory firm serving institutional investors with $50M+ in assets, using its proprietary Greenlight AI platform to source, qualify, and engage acquisition targets across specialized markets in North America and Asia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Buy-Side M&A Advisory

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Miscellaneous Intermediation (52391)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYFSAEAGAB

Buy-Side M&A Advisory

Financial & Insurance/Financial Advisory, Brokerage & Intermediation/M&A Advisory & Corporate Finance

SECONDARYFSAEAGAJ

Industry-Specialist / Sector-Focused M&A Advisory

Financial & Insurance/Financial Advisory, Brokerage & Intermediation/M&A Advisory & Corporate Finance

SECONDARYBPAHAOAA

M&A Advisory (Buy-Side & Sell-Side)

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/M&A, Transaction & Restructuring Advisory

SECONDARYBPAHAOAG

Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships Advisory (JVs, Alliances, Carve-outs)

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/M&A, Transaction & Restructuring Advisory

Keywords

• Buy-side M&A advisory
• Acquisition sourcing
• Private equity advisory
• AI-powered sourcing
• M&A advisory services

Headquarters

HQ city

Redwood City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. M&A Advisory Services: Full end-to-end buy-side M&A advisory services for institutional investors. The engagement process covers strategy, proprietary acquisition sourcing, target engagement, and transaction support from mandate through close. Engagement is governed by a separate written agreement and involves one advisory partner throughout.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Greenfield Research Partners provides full end-to-end buy-side M&A advisory services for institutional investors, including strategy, proprietary acquisition sourcing, target engagement, and transaction support from mandate through close. The service is delivered alongside Greenlight, the firm's proprietary AI-enabled sourcing platform that combines market mapping, target qualification, founder engagement, and client reporting into one integrated system.

Product overview

Greenfield Research Partners (Greenfield AI, Inc.) offers a unified platform-plus-services model centered on Greenlight, a proprietary AI-powered acquisition sourcing platform. Greenlight comprises three interconnected modules: the Market Mapping Engine for building target universes from multiple data sources, the AI Qualification Layer for evaluating targets against client criteria, and the Founder Engagement System for coordinated outreach. These modules are complemented by full-service Buy-Side M&A Advisory that brings strategy, sourcing, target engagement, and transaction support from mandate through close. The company exclusively serves institutional investors with more than $50 million in total assets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Greenlight AI: Proprietary sourcing platform that connects market mapping, AI-enabled qualification, founder engagement, and client reporting for acquisition sourcing workflows.

Products and services

• Greenlight Greenlight is Greenfield's proprietary AI-powered acquisition sourcing platform that connects market mapping, AI-enabled target qualification, founder engagement, and client reporting within one integrated system. It is used internally by Greenfield to deliver buy-side M&A sourcing for institutional investor clients. The platform is not sold as a standalone product to third parties.
• Buy-Side M&A Advisory Full end-to-end buy-side M&A advisory services for institutional investors with more than $50 million in total assets. The engagement covers strategy, proprietary acquisition sourcing, target engagement, and transaction support from mandate definition through deal close, with a single advisory partner assigned throughout. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed.

Quantifiable outcome

• 18,475 regional targets identified, 450 actionable companies, ~75 qualified management meetings for a $1B+ revenue industrial platform expanding across Asia
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• AlphaSense: Market intelligence and search platform leveraging AI for earnings calls, filings, and expert research. Overlaps with Greenfield's AI Qualification Layer but at a much broader sell-side and corporate strategy scope.
• S&P Capital IQ Pro: Enterprise-grade financial data, company intelligence, and screening platform serving investment banking and corporate development teams. Broad incumbent comparison to Greenfield's data aggregation approach.
• Lincoln International: Global mid-market M&A advisory firm with sector-specialized coverage. Represents the traditional advisor model that Greenfield explicitly positions against — useful comparator for fee structure, deal volume, and industry silo economics.
• Pitchbook: Comprehensive PE/VC data and research platform (Morningstar subsidiary). Provides market mapping and target identification used by institutional investors — a broader incumbent whose data underlies much of the buy-side sourcing workflow.
• Bureau van Dijk (Moody's): Private company data and corporate structure intelligence (Orbis, Mint). A data-aggregator incumbent that Greenfield's Market Mapping Engine competes against for institutional sourcing workflows.

Direct peers

• Affinity: Relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers that uses AI to mine email, calendar, and CRM data to surface warm introductions. Closely comparable to Greenfield's founder outreach and engagement workflows.
• Grata: AI-driven company discovery and market intelligence platform used by PE firms and advisors for sourcing. Closely comparable to Greenfield's Market Mapping Engine and AI Qualification Layer capabilities.
• Sourcescrub: AI-powered deal sourcing platform for private equity and corporate development teams. Directly comparable to Greenlight — both build target universes from aggregated data sources and integrate qualification workflows for buy-side mandates.
• Introhive: Relationship intelligence and CRM data automation platform for professional services firms. Comparable to Greenfield's emphasis on founder engagement and CRM-driven outreach for deal sourcing.

Emerging players

• DealCloud: Deal and pipeline management CRM tailored for M&A advisory, PE, and corporate development. Adjacent to Greenfield's offerings — manages the downstream pipeline that Greenfield's sourcing feeds into.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/greenfieldresearch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Greenfield Research Partners