A brand new pattern is taking form within the startup world: AI roll-ups. The playbook is easy: purchase corporations in a fragmented vertical, combine them into one platform, and use AI to spice up effectivity and speed up development.

For tech founders, it’s a strategy to scale by making use of higher tech and sharper processes to present property: shopper bases, gross sales networks, and trade know-how. Performed nicely, this transfer can velocity up go-to-market, create new upsell paths, and broaden into adjoining segments with out constructing the whole lot from scratch. ​AI roll-ups are already attracting VC consideration, particularly from bigger funds with the capital and working groups outfitted to execute.

Nevertheless, the mannequin has its critics. A latest Fortune piece argued that roll-ups make a class mistake, assuming that companies companies can turn into software program companies simply by layering on AI. Whereas some dangers are actual, I don’t assume the mannequin itself is flawed. My view is that roll-ups don’t must chase SaaS multiples to work. Embedding AI into companies can increase margins, velocity up income, and, in some circumstances, create defensible hybrids with proprietary knowledge and AI-powered workflows.

To know why the mannequin can work, it’s essential place roll-ups in context. They’ve been examined in personal fairness for many years — AI has solely upgraded the playbook. Let’s have a look at the place it got here from and why, in the correct fingers, it delivers highly effective outcomes.

The outdated playbook, upgraded with AI

The roll-up mannequin is an outdated instrument now powered by sharper tech.

It bought severe throughout the LBO wave of the Eighties, when personal fairness companies used “buy-and-build” methods to consolidate fragmented industries. A few of these roll-ups collapsed below debt. Others, with tighter execution, delivered excellent returns.

Take Gibson Greetings, a mid-sized greeting card firm acquired in 1982 by an LBO that turned a enterprise college case examine, finishing a $290 million IPO simply sixteen months after the deal, or Hilton Lodges, purchased by Blackstone in 2007. Regardless of the monetary disaster, Blackstone walked away with $14 billion in good points, turning Hilton into one of many agency’s greatest exits. 

Within the 2010s, the playbook resurfaced within the e-commerce aggregator pattern that reshaped Amazon’s ecosystem and digital retail companies. Accel Membership, an organization that acquires, integrates, and scales impartial Amazon and e-commerce companies, illustrates how the pattern of the 2010s paved the best way for at this time’s AI-driven roll-ups. 

The logic hasn’t modified. However now, the motive force is AI. 

Why founders ought to listen 

AI-native startups are actually buying slower gamers to broaden quicker. With a strong platform and playbook in place, founders can add prospects, channels, and income traces with out burning time on chilly begins.

Pioneers, an AI-powered staffing platform, used the roll-up playbook to nice impact. They’d sturdy unit economics however a gradual gross sales cycle. After elevating capital, they acquired just a few conventional staffing companies with main prospects however outdated tech. Plugging their AI engine into that buyer set elevated month-to-month income 5x in only a few months.

One other instance is Dwelly, a UK proptech startup, which is utilizing the identical method. In 2024, the corporate acquired the true property company Lime Property and went on to make an extra acquisition in the identical yr.

These offers show how even conventional service companies, comparable to staffing or actual property companies, may be consolidated and modernised by tech-driven roll-ups. Europe, with its fragmented markets and gradual digitisation, is particularly fertile floor. Many native incumbents nonetheless run on legacy methods, leaving gaps in effectivity and buyer expertise. Roll-ups can speed up market entry, letting founders modernise whole verticals quicker by skipping the gradual ramp of buyer acquisition.

Nevertheless, buying a enterprise isn’t about empire-building, and it solely is smart when it strengthens market place, improves worth supply, or removes structural friction. In any other case, it’s a distraction.

So, is it price it?

For founders with the correct tech, clear imaginative and prescient and working rhythm, the reply is sure. Quick distribution and speed-to-market are vital at this time. And roll-ups present you entry to each by plugging into present buyer bases and optimising fragmented operations. If you may get that proper, you’re rising quick, creating stronger go-to-market engines.

However the deal is just the start line. Success is dependent upon what follows: seamless integration, repeatable upsell, and relentless execution. Performed proper, AI roll-ups create defensible platforms that outlast hype cycles. Performed poorly, they turn into costly errors.