Ideals and Jurimesh partner to bring AI vendor readiness to mid-market M&A

Vendor readiness is standard at the top of the market. Ideals and Jurimesh bring it to the rest.

● Buyers are getting sharper. The average M&A deal now spends 264 daysin the data room, up from 205 in 2020, with data rooms reporting record document volumes.

● Vendor readiness has been out of reach for most mid-market sellers. Traditional services typically run into the tens of thousands of euros, hard to justify on the smaller deals that often need it most.

● AI changes the maths. A vendor readiness scan now runs in 20 minutes on Ideals data rooms, with over 1,000 legal and commercial risk checks, at a fraction of the traditional cost.

LONDON and GHENT, Belgium, May 5, 2026. Ideals and Jurimesh today announced the Integration of their VDR and AI platforms, which will make vendor readiness seamlessly available for mid-market M&A. Dealmakers can run an AI analysis of Ideals data rooms in 20 minutes, performing over 1,000 legal and commercial risk checks at a fraction of the cost of traditional vendor readiness.

It addresses one of dealmaking's most persistent and expensive problems: sellers going to market without the level of preparation today's buyers expect.

Diligence is getting harder, and sellers are paying for it

Buy-side due diligence has become more rigorous. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer reports that due diligence is taking noticeably longer, with data room providers seeing record document volumes. Buyers are diving deeper into target businesses to understand how they operate and the risks they face. A Q4 2025 survey of senior US investment-banking executives by Mergermarket found 45% say a typical M&A deal now takes at least six months to complete, and 73% expect due diligence to become more complex over the next 12 to 24 months.

For underprepared sellers, that means longer Q&A cycles, stricter SPA terms and weaker valuations. KPMG's 2025 M&A Deal Market Study found completing due diligence (41%) ranks among the top three obstacles to closing deals, alongside agreeing on valuation (44%) and navigating regulatory hurdles (41%).

Sell-side preparation is moving down-market

Vendor readiness (sometimes called exit readiness or vendor assistance) is the internal preparation work: scanning the data room for gaps, flagging risks and giving the seller time to fix them before bidders arrive. Vendor due diligence (VDD) is more formal: an independent legal or financial report, commissioned by the seller but relied upon by the buyer and often backed by a reliance letter. Even though the seller pays the fee, the advisor takes on a contractual duty to the buyer.

Vendor readiness is standard in large-cap transactions and has been moving down-market for years, reaching the upper mid-market. The economics still get harder the smaller the deal. Traditional services typically cost tens of thousands of euros and are hard to justify on the smaller deals that often need it most.

Vendor readiness, at every deal size

The integration between Ideals and Jurimesh makes vendor readiness economical at any deal size, including the smaller deals where it hasn't been before. Sellers and their advisors can now prepare and scan their own data room with AI before buyers see it, at a fraction of the traditional cost.

Connected directly to Ideals data rooms via a secure API, Jurimesh runs a vendor readiness scan in 20 minutes. The system structures documents, flags gaps and runs over 1,000 legal and commercial risk checks across the data room.

The result: shorter Q&A cycles, fewer surprises at the table and a stronger seller position. For the M&A market, it brings the rigour of large-cap preparation to the deals that have mostly operated without it.

Ideals:

"By integrating Jurimesh with our VDR, we're giving our customers seamless access to exciting new capabilities in legal review and risk management," said Maksym Kunytsia, VP, Product Management, at Ideals. "It will empower dealmakers to complete their work with greater precision and speed.”

Jurimesh:

"Vendor readiness shouldn't be a luxury good," said Jorrit Willaert, CEO and co-founder of Jurimesh. "AI now does in 20 minutes what used to take a team of associates weeks. Mid-market sellers can finally walk into a process with the same level of preparation as a large-cap deal, at a fraction of the cost."

About Ideals

Founded in 2008, Ideals is a Virtual Data Room (VDR) provider that combines best-in-class functionality and fortress-like security with a client-centric approach. By offering AI-driven efficiency and 10x faster file processing, Ideals helps businesses close deals faster, streamline due diligence and enhance buyer engagement.

With granular access controls, transparent pricing that removes hidden fees, and 24/7 white-glove support, Ideals empowers organizations across M&A, corporate governance, and regulated industries to accelerate their most important transactions with confidence.

For more information, visit https://www.idealsvdr.com/

About Jurimesh

Jurimesh is a Belgian legal-tech company that automates due diligence using artificial intelligence, leveraging legal and commercial know-how and advanced prompting. The platform enables law firms, private equity firms, M&A advisors and corporate M&A teams to conduct faster, more thorough due diligence across all contract types within a virtual data room. Founded in Ghent, Jurimesh serves clients across Europe and the US. Learn more at jurimesh.com.