Mergers and Acquisitions Associate

About Ancora Ancora

is building AI-native accounting software that replaces traditional management systems. We combine a technology platform that automates operational accounting work with a roll-up strategy: acquiring and consolidating accounting firms across Italy. We're venture-backed, Milan-based, with first studio acquisitions underway. The product is greenfield, zero legacy code, modern stack, built from scratch. We own the problem end-to-end: we build the technology, acquire the firms, and operate the service.

About the Role Ancora's thesis depends on a simple, compounding advantage: we need to acquire and integrate more accounting studios, faster and better, than anyone else in Italy. Most of our targets are senior professionisti, often in their 50s and 60s, who have built their firm over decades and tend to be sceptical about anything labelled \"tech\" or \"consolidation\".

As

M&A Associate (aka Dealflow Associate) , you are the person on the other side of that conversation. You proactively identify the right studios, you start warming them up, you explain who Ancora is, what we are building, and how a deal with us looks. The relationship and the trust come first; the term sheet comes after.

This is roughly 70% of the role: identifying targets, opening conversations, qualifying, and bringing senior counterparties along to a real first meeting with the founders. The remaining 30% is execution support on live deals, where you help with due diligence, financial analysis, and the logistics of getting a deal to closing.

The non-negotiable trait is

people maturity . You spend most of your time on the phone with people twice your age, who have run their own business for decades. You need to be kind, respectful, genuinely curious, while also being firm and not letting yourself be brushed off or talked down to. Most candidates can do one or the other. The best ones do both. What You'll Do Build the target map.

Identify and prioritize Italian accounting studios using public data (Camera di Commercio, Albo, LinkedIn, Google Maps), third-party sources and referrals. Density-first geography, ownership intent, succession dynamics. Open conversations and warm targets up.

Lead the multi-channel outreach (email, LinkedIn, phone, in-person follow-up where it matters). The first conversation is rarely about a transaction; it is about credibility. You earn the second meeting. Tell the Ancora story well.

Explain who we are, what we are building, why we are different, and how a deal with us looks. Adapt the message to the partner you have in front of you. Stay accurate, never overpromise. Qualify carefully.

Run first screening conversations with studio owners. Assess size, client concentration, P&L indicators, ownership intent, succession dynamics, and cultural fit. Filter signal from noise. Manage the CRM and pipeline.

Keep the pipeline clean, updated, and decision-useful. Drive weekly and bi-weekly reviews with the COO and founders. No conversation falls through the cracks. Support deal execution.

On qualified targets, help run due diligence: normalize P&Ls, analyze revenue quality and client concentration, build valuation references, support LOI drafting and closing logistics. Feed the operating model.

Surface patterns, objections, pricing dynamics, and market intelligence to the founding team. Every conversation should make Ancora a little smarter about the market.

What We're Looking For:

Must Have 2–4 years of experience

in roles where you have proactively built and managed relationships with senior counterparties: investor relations, M&A boutique, investment banking, private equity, business development, strategic partnerships, search fund, fundraising, advisory, or B2B sales toward decision makers. People maturity.

You can hold your ground in a conversation with a 60-year-old professionista and still leave them feeling respected. Warm without being soft, firm without being abrasive. Strong written and phone presence.

You build trust in five minutes. People who do not usually pick up the phone, pick up for you. Execution discipline.

Clean CRM, relentless follow-ups, process orientation. You do not lose leads, you do not drop conversations, you close loops. Financial literacy.

You can read a P&L, understand normalization, and engage in a basic valuation discussion. You do not need to be the modeller, but you need to understand what the numbers mean. Italian native or near-native , with professional English.

Nice to Have Background in M&A boutique, investment banking, private equity, transaction services, search fund, or roll-up platform. Investor Relations or fundraising experience at a scale-up, asset manager, PE firm or venture fund. Direct exposure to accounting, tax, or professional services firms. Experience with outbound tooling (Apollo, Instantly, Lemlist, Clay, HubSpot, Salesforce). Useful, not core. Familiarity with the Italian SME landscape and the world of commercialisti.

Mindset Trusted by default.

People want to talk to you. Senior counterparties take you seriously. Kind but firm.

Respectful without being submissive. You do not take a soft \"ci pensiamo\" as a no, and you do not take a hard one personally. Proactive.

You do not wait for inbound. You build the funnel and you keep it full. Operator, not pure analyst.

You care about deals advancing, not about the most elegant model. Executional machine.

What you say you will do, you do. Always. People who work with you stop checking up on you within a month.

Why This Role is Interesting Direct leverage on a thesis.

The number of studios Ancora closes this year depends in large part on what you do every day. A real roll-up from day one.

You are not running a spreadsheet on theoretical targets. You own a live pipeline with real conversations. Craft of relationship-driven origination.

You build a personal network of senior professionisti and a reputation in a market that values both. This is a skill you keep for the rest of your career. Exposure to everything.

Sourcing, relationship-building, qualification, DD, valuation, negotiation, closing. In most firms these are five different jobs; here it is one role. Founder proximity.

You work directly with the founding team and the COO. Your judgment shapes acquisition decisions. Category-defining market.

Italian accounting is fragmented, mandatory, recurring, and has never been consolidated properly. You build the map.

What We Offer Office First.

Collaboration is easier and more effective in person in our Milan HQ. You can work from home up to 30% of the time, with three core days in the office. Compensation.

€50,000 gross annual salary + performance bonus tied to pipeline and deal milestones (we expect the bonus for this position to be 20-30k in 2026, 30-40k in 2027) Equity.

Meaningful stock options package, with 0 strike price and strong upside potential given the stage of the company. Benefits.

Meal vouchers (10 euro x day) and fringe benefits (1k x year). Team.

Reports directly to COO. Works closely with the founding team on every active deal. Autonomy.

Strong voice on sourcing strategy, target prioritization, and outreach playbook. Growth.

As the platform scales, clear path toward deeper deal ownership and, over time, broader corporate development scope.

How to Apply Send your CV to

with a brief note on why this role interests you. Tell us about one real relationship you built with a senior counterparty (in M&A, IR, BD, sales, or otherwise), what made it work, and what you actually got from it.

We're an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.