Joshua Port spent enough time at KPMG's M&A practice to understand one truth: dealmakers hate prospecting. The spreadsheets, the database subscriptions, the cold outreach that goes nowhere—it's a grind that eats up hours better spent negotiating terms or sizing up targets.
So Port, all of 26, decided to build something about it.
His answer is Handshaik, a London-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate the early stages of deal sourcing. The company emerged from stealth earlier this year and on May 27 announced it had closed a £1.7 million pre-seed round—about $2.1 million—from more than 20 angel investors, with participation from Port Growth Partners, the investment vehicle of Martin Port (founder of UK software firm BigChange).
Joshua Port also happens to be Martin Port's son. Martin joined Handshaik's board in December, alongside his wife Amanda. Family dynamics aside, the younger Port had already been building the platform in stealth for roughly 15 months before the formal incorporation in July 2024. By May 27, when the funding closed, hundreds of users had signed on.
A Platform Built on Aggregation
Handshaik's pitch is straightforward: it pulls data from Companies House, company websites, news feeds, and assorted other sources, then layers AI on top to help users identify acquisition targets, enrich contact details, and manage outreach. As of late May, the platform claimed to have aggregated 5.5 million company profiles.
The product is aimed at M&A advisors, private equity shops, corporate development teams, family offices—and, somewhat unexpectedly, B2B sales teams looking for leads. Pricing starts at £20 a month for solo users or £100 monthly per team plus £20 per seat, both billed annually. Not cheap for a nascent tool, but perhaps not outrageous if it replaces a patchwork of existing subscriptions.
Users get AI-driven target discovery (the system surfaces companies that match criteria you might not have thought to query), verified contact enrichment (so you're not emailing a CFO who left two years ago), and workflow integrations that plug into existing CRMs. Whether that's enough to justify the cost will depend on how much manual research it actually displaces.
Crowded Territory
Handshaik is hardly alone in chasing this opportunity. The past year has seen a small wave of startups betting that AI can crack open inefficiencies in deal origination—a market segment that has historically resisted automation because relationships and insider knowledge matter so much.
GrowthPal raised $2.6 million in January 2026 to use AI agents for surfacing off-market M&A targets. Thema pulled in $6.2 million the following month for tools aimed at helping PE firms expand their portfolios. And in the same month Handshaik announced its raise, Paris-based Sillage closed a €1.7 million pre-seed for an AI-powered sales signal engine.
Industry sentiment suggests there's real demand. A Datasite survey from early 2025 found that exploring new AI tools ranked as the top operational priority for a majority of dealmakers globally. Whether that translates into sustained adoption—or just a flurry of pilot programs—remains to be seen.
What Comes Next
The company has been hiring. A founding software engineer with stints at Capital One and Opto Investments joined in recent weeks, according to LinkedIn. The team now sits at around 14 employees, a mix of engineers and growth-focused roles.
Handshaik also secured $100,000 in AWS credits late last year through a startup program, giving it some infrastructure runway. The £1.7 million will presumably go toward headcount and product development, though the company hasn't disclosed specific use-of-funds plans.
For now, the challenge is less about building a functional product—hundreds of users suggest they've managed that—and more about proving the platform can deliver enough value to justify replacing the tools and habits dealmakers already rely on. In a market where relationships still close deals, that's a tougher sell than pure technology elegance.
Port, for his part, seems to understand that. He's been in the room where those deals happen. Whether he can convince others to let software do more of the legwork is the real test ahead.
