Webidoo, a Chicago- and Milan-based AI technology company, is targeting seven acquisitions over the next 12 months as it builds out what it describes as an operating system layer for small and medium-sized businesses, co-founder and CEO Giovanni Farese told this news service.

Webidoo is targeting a 9-to-1 acquisition ratio: nine digital marketing agencies or web companies for every one vertical technology company it buys, Farese said.

Primary targets are US-based businesses generating USD 2m-USD 5m in annual revenue across a customer base of at least 3,000 SMB clients. The company prefers founder-led businesses without institutional investors, which it considers easier and faster to transact with, he said.

The acquisition logic centers on converting existing customer bases onto Webidoo’s platform, preserving core staff while replacing external freelance capacity with proprietary AI tooling, and then cross-selling and upselling across its product suite. Target companies will be structured with earn-outs tied to client base conversion and revenue uplift, he said.

“Small businesses did not have people to manage AI implementation, while large enterprises have thousands of people dedicated to this. Small businesses now have AI agents,” Farese said.

Compressed SaaS multiples have made the digital agency segment particularly attractive from a valuation standpoint, Farese said. Many targets have built durable client relationships with SMBs over years but have not integrated AI into their offerings, creating what he described as a straightforward synergy opportunity between target customer bases and Webidoo’s agentic technology stack.

For vertical technology targets, representing roughly one in ten acquisitions, Webidoo is focusing on companies that have developed specialized software and AI solutions across core business domains including marketing, sales, operations, HR, and security, Farese said. These acquisitions are intended to enrich Webidoo’s AI operating layer with best-in-class capabilities. Although such companies generally trade at higher valuations than agency targets, they offer significant strategic value by expanding Webidoo’s product ecosystem and creating additional monetization opportunities across its SMB customer base, he said.

To source and screen deals, Webidoo has built an internal AI-powered pipeline processing approximately 200,000 potential targets. The system uses the company’s own AI agents to read documents, conduct preliminary assessments, and generate deal dossiers, replacing what would otherwise require a team of analysts, Farese said. The in-house team is also working with a network of specialized advisors to support the M&A strategy, Farese said.

The company is prioritizing US targets for speed of execution, citing language, currency, and deal velocity as key advantages over other markets. It is also evaluating targets in emerging markets, though at a significantly lower priority, he said.

Webidoo posted USD 18m in revenue and USD 3m in EBITDA in 2025. The company projects revenue exceeding USD 20m and EBITDA of USD 4m for 2026, representing year-on-year growth of approximately 35%. The company was EBITDA-positive at over USD 1m in 2023 on revenue of USD 12m, as previously reported.

The company closed a USD 25m growth round in May 2026, led by IXC3, the growth-stage fund affiliated with Azimut Group, with participation from existing investors 8a+ and TIM Ventures.

The round was structured entirely as equity. Farese said the company plans to layer venture debt and bank financing on top of the equity base, with leverage-friendly lenders specifically aligned to M&A strategies already identified, which would multiply the capital available for acquisitions beyond the headline raise.

As the acquisition pipeline continues to develop, Webidoo is assessing whether market conditions and the quality of available targets may justify an additional fundraising round within the next seven to eight months, Farese said. The objective would be to accelerate the execution of its M&A strategy, leveraging the results of the first acquisitions to demonstrate the scalability of its model and strengthen the investment case.

The size of the funding round could increase significantly if the company shifts toward larger US targets in the USD 10m-plus revenue range, in which case the round would likely need to double to support the acquisition cadence, he said.

“In the next round we want to tell the story of the M&A model, almost setting aside technology as a commodity. Investors respond better to aggregation than to a bet on a single vertical,” Farese said.

IPO plans

Webidoo is targeting a Nasdaq listing in the 2028-2029 timeframe, contingent on market conditions and the valuation environment for AI-adjacent technology stocks, Farese said.

The company is already in early conversations with investment banks and is preparing its accounting consolidation under US GAAP-compatible principles, including at least one audited consolidated balance sheet, he said. Current advisors are predominantly biotech-focused and the company is actively seeking additional advisors with digital and technology sector expertise, Farese said.

Its investor IXC3 is active across digital transformation and energy sectors. Farese said the lead investor’s director brings prior Nasdaq experience and has previously guided companies through public listings, which he described as directly relevant to Webidoo’s own IPO preparation. The relationship also opens networking channels the company intends to use actively, he said.

Farese said the company views a public listing primarily as an acquisition accelerator, providing a tradeable currency for deals and improving deal velocity rather than as a near-term liquidity event. The anticipated wave of high-profile AI listings, including from companies such as SpaceX and Anthropic, is expected to generate broader investor appetite for AI-adjacent technology stocks that Webidoo intends to capitalize on, he said.

Founders currently hold a 56%-57% stake and maintain board majority. Two new board members have been added reflecting the new investor base, with the governance structure being deliberately built toward public-company standards, he said.

Webidoo has received and declined at least two acquisition approaches, Farese said. One came from a large domain registration and cloud services company that approached Webidoo as a component to bolt onto its existing SMB stack rather than as a platform in its own right.

A second approach came from a software aggregator focused on building scale through multi-vertical roll-ups. Neither valuation nor strategic fit was sufficient, he said, adding that in both cases the acquirers viewed Webidoo as a piece rather than the engine, which was the central reason for declining.

The company does not rule out an exit via M&A as a strategic alternative but is not pursuing one, Farese said.