Management and technology consulting firm AArete is pursuing acquisitions more actively after a year of looking without closing a deal, two of its top executives said.

Founder and board member Loren Trimble and new CEO Pam Shipley told this news service that the Chicago-based firm, majority-owned by Parthenon Capital, has put fresh resources behind the push. In July, Jeff Berger was appointed vice president of strategy and corporate development to lead M&A.

Trimble said AArete is leaning toward larger deals while staying open to small, niche additions. Ideally, a target is at least 10% of its size on both revenue and EBITDA. It so far has looked at deals valued at roughly USD 250m to USD 300m.

AArete is projecting revenue of about USD 140m for 2026 after ending 2025 with around USD 120m, Trimble said. The business has grown organically at around 15% to 20% a year and at a compound annual rate of more than 30% over its 18 years, he said.

An ideal acquisition target would complement AArete in one of three core areas: strategic management consulting, analytics and data engine, and solutions, Shipley said.

It also is interested in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that enhance clients, strengthen the firm internally, or add a genuine new capability, according to the CEO. Attractive areas include operational efficiency, claims accuracy, and quality of care, extending to niche capabilities such as medical review and auditing, as well as solutions that match clients’ needs amid disruption and regulatory change in the payer and provider markets.

AArete is focused on US targets and expects to fund deals mainly through operating cash and bank debt, Trimble said. Industry multiples have widened over the past year to roughly 8x to 12x-13x EBITDA, he added.

The company’s more active M&A stance follows a quieter stretch. Trimble told this news service in August 2025, about six weeks after the Parthenon deal, that AArete was pursuing acquisitions. Over the following year the firm evaluated Salesforce-focused, AI, and niche companies across its service lines, but none met its criteria and strong organic growth removed any urgency to buy, he said for this report. Its acquisition total stands at three.

Shipley was named CEO on 10 August, succeeding Trimble, who moved to the board after leading AArete for 18 years. Shipley had been an AArete client for many years across several organizations before taking the role, and said the firm’s combination of strategic consulting, analytics, and proprietary solutions made it a “category of one” against other consulting groups.

Shipley most recently was chief strategy officer at managed care organization Centene, after senior roles at Kaiser Permanente and Sharecare. Her arrival deepens AArete’s bench in healthcare payers, its largest vertical.

AArete’s core services are profitability improvement, digital transformation, and strategy and change, with primary verticals in healthcare and payers, financial services, and the public sector. Its Payment Intelligence product finds and fixes the sources of claims problems, and its Doczy solution offers intelligent contract capture and interpretation.

The company has maintained a customer count of around 60 over the past year, with growth coming mainly from more revenue per existing client rather than new accounts, Trimble said. Most customers are based in the US, followed by India and the UK.

Other players in the space include the global management and technology consulting firms Accenture, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, McKinsey, and PwC; healthcare and performance-improvement consultancies including Chartis, Guidehouse, and Huron Consulting Group; and payment-accuracy platforms such as Cotiviti, Machinify, and Optum.

The consulting and payment-accuracy space has seen steady consolidation. This year, Blackstone-backed Chartis acquired Leap AI. In 2025, Parthenon Capital, AArete’s backer, invested in Embark; Huron Consulting Group acquired AXIOM Systems’ payer consulting services division; KKR- and Veritas Capital-backed Cotiviti acquired Edifecs; and New Mountain Capital-backed Machinify acquired Performant Healthcare for about USD 670m.

In 2024, Blackstone-backed Chartis acquired HealthScape Advisors, and Blackstone took a majority stake in Chartis from Audax Private Equity. In 2023, Bain Capital acquired Guidehouse from Veritas for USD 5.3bn.

AArete has approximately 500 employees and close to 100 additional subcontractors, along with an additional office in India. Trimble founded the business in 2008 and completed an employee stock ownership plan in 2018.

The company uses accounting firm RSM US. Its commercial banker is JPMorgan Chase.