Private equity has spent the last five years buying into British accountancy, and the independent practices still standing face a question their founders rarely had to answer: how do new clients find you when the referral network is shrinking? For many, the answer starts with SEO for accounting firms, because the businesses they want to work with now begin their search online.
Understanding how private equity accountancy firms operate, and where they are weaker, gives smaller firms a much clearer view of where they can still compete and win.
How Much PE Activity Is There?
The numbers are hard to ignore. Analysis by Rapport Digital, reported by PQ Magazine, found the number of UK accountancy firms fell from 43,720 in 2019 to 39,975 by 2025, a drop of 8.6%. Crowe estimates that as many as 20 of the UK’s top 60 firms now have private equity (PE) backing, and ICAEW research suggests around a quarter of mid-tier firms have taken external investment, with nearly half of those completing an acquisition in the past year.
Accountancy Europe, which tracked private equity investment in accountancy firms across the continent between 2015 and 2025, found that PE deals rose sharply from 2023 and named the UK as the most active market in Europe. In recent years, PE investment has grown rapidly from a handful of mid-tier deals into a defining trend for the whole accountancy sector.
The Grant Thornton Deal Changed the Conversation
The turning point for many in the profession was Grant Thornton. In 2024, the private equity firm Cinven took a majority stake in Grant Thornton UK, making it the first of the UK’s largest firms to sell control to a PE fund.
After Grant Thornton, the debate inside the accountancy sector moved on. The question was no longer whether private equity houses would enter the market, but how far the first wave of private equity accounting deals would reach.
Why PE Investors Want Accountancy Practices
To PE investors, the accounting sector has unusual appeal. Fees are recurring, clients rarely switch, and cash flow is predictable. The market is also highly fragmented, with thousands of small practices and sole practitioners, which makes it a fragmented market ripe for consolidation.
The usual model is a buy-and-build. PE firms back a platform firm, which then acquires smaller firms, combines back-office functions and cross-sells advisory services across the enlarged client base. Some deals are structured as leveraged buyouts, using debt alongside equity, which raises the pressure to grow quickly. Other PE houses take minority stakes, and business models vary widely between groups at different stages of their private equity journey.
What Private Equity Offers Partners
For partners, what private equity offers is often a route out. Succession planning has long been a problem in the profession, with the average UK accountant now aged 46 according to CCAB figures and fewer students entering. A sale to PE-backed firms can provide a clean exit, external capital for technology and a larger platform for staff.
For many owners of accountancy practices, that is an attractive option compared with an uncertain internal succession or a slow wind-down.
The Investment Cycle Matters
PE investment comes with a clock attached. Funds typically aim to sell their stake within three to seven years, so management teams inside portfolio companies are under pressure to grow revenue and margins over that holding period.
For clients, that can mean changes to fees, service lines and who their day-to-day contact is. For staff, it can mean new targets and new systems. The long term direction of a practice depends heavily on who buys it next.
Audit Firms Face Extra Rules
PE investment in audit firms carries regulatory implications that do not apply to tax and advisory work. UK rules require a majority of the voting rights in audit firms to be held by qualified auditors, so PE-backed groups often separate their audit practice from the rest of the business.
The Financial Reporting Council, which oversees professional standards in the audit profession, has said it is watching PE ownership of audit firms closely. Its attention is on independence, audit quality and how firms manage risks when investors expect returns. Firms whose financial reporting work covers listed or public interest clients face the most scrutiny.
Where Independent Practices Still Have an Edge
PE backing brings central marketing budgets, technological innovation and scale. Consolidated groups build regional websites, run paid search and publish content at a volume a ten-person practice cannot match.
That does not mean independents lose everywhere. Large groups tend to market broad services to broad audiences, and their websites often read the same from one acquired brand to the next. Independent accounting firms win by being specific where consolidators are generic, and by being a trusted partner whose clients know exactly who will pick up the phone.
Specialism Wins Searches
A business owner searching for an accountant rarely types “accountant” on its own. They search for an accountant for their situation: contractors, landlords, dental practices, e-commerce sellers or construction firms. A practice that has looked after twenty dental practices for fifteen years has a credible story to tell, yet its website may still describe “a full range of accounting and tax services”.
A good sector page explains the problems that type of client runs into, such as cash flow around NHS contracts for a dental practice or tax efficiency for a landlord, and shows how the firm has handled them before. That depth convinces prospective clients, and it is what search engines and AI tools look for when deciding which firm to show.
AI Search Rewards Clarity
Pew Research Center found that when Google shows an AI summary, users click a traditional result in 8% of visits, compared with 15% without one. A 2025 study by Ravical found UK accountancy firms estimate that 64% of their business clients consult ChatGPT before speaking to them. Firms with focused, well-structured websites are the ones AI tools find easiest to recommend.
What Smaller Firms Should Do Next
The first things to fix rarely need a large budget or a marketing department.
Choose the Clients You Want
Decide which two or three client types the firm wants more of, and build a clear page for each one. Small practices that do this well often outrank much larger firms for the searches that matter to them.
Get Your Local Profile in Order
Make sure the Google Business Profile is complete and attracting regular reviews. Check that the firm’s name, address and services match everywhere they appear, from Companies House to professional body directories.
Publish What You Know
Answer the questions target clients ask, written by the people who answer them every day. Pages like these share valuable insights that a generic consolidator page rarely offers.
HandL Agency, which works only with finance firms, sees independent practices outperform much larger competitors in local search when they follow this approach. Size helps with budgets. It helps far less when a business owner searches for a specialist and the specialist has explained itself clearly.
Should You Take PE Backing Yourself?
Some owners will weigh an approach from private equity firms, or a minority private equity investment rather than a full sale. Any offer needs proper due diligence on the buyer, the deferred payment terms, how client relationships will be handled and what happens at the end of the investment period. Firms that announce a deal to clients in an open letter keep more trust when they explain plainly what will and will not change.
Whether a deal succeeds for partners, staff and clients depends less on the headline price and more on the fit between the firm’s culture and what PE firms plan for growth.
Independence Can Still Be a Selling Point
Many business owners prefer a partner-led practice where the person they meet is the person doing the work. As private equity accountancy firms grow, that offer becomes rarer and more valuable to the clients who want it.
The independent firms that grow over the next few years will make that value visible online, so the clients looking for it can find them. Referrals will keep coming, and they will still be welcome. They can no longer be the whole plan.
