Flippa Launches LaurenAI to Unlock Millions of Off-Market Online Businesses by Matching Buyers and Sellers Seamlessly

Flippa, one of the world's leading platforms to buy and sell online businesses, has announced the launch of LaurenAI, a proprietary AI-powered deal sourcing and outreach engine designed to transform how digital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are done.

For more than a decade, Flippa has been home to thousands of business owners and investors looking to transact across a wide range of digital assets, from Shopify stores and Amazon FBA businesses to SaaS companies, mobile apps, and YouTube channels. Yet for every seller who comes forward, there are multiple buyers searching for opportunities that may never make it onto the platform. That imbalance was the spark behind LaurenAI.

"At any one time, we have around 4,000 to 6,000 businesses for sale on Flippa, but for every business that sells, there are 100s, if not 1000s, of buyers that miss out," says Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa. "LaurenAI was built to bridge the gap—uncovering businesses not yet listed for sale and connecting them directly with high-intent buyers."

LaurenAI leverages a proprietary large language model–powered web spider, machine learning valuation tools, and advanced mathematical matching techniques like graph neural networks to map millions of online businesses. It then builds custom deal pipelines tailored to each buyer's mandate. The result is a personalised, AI-powered investment bank for everyday entrepreneurs.

According to Hutchison, traditionally, accessing "off-market" businesses has been the privilege of large investment banks and seasoned M&A professionals working on eight- or nine-figure deals. Smaller businesses, often valued between $100,000 and $10 million, were overlooked. "We like to say Flippa is the investment bank for the 99%," explains Hutchison. "LaurenAI takes that ethos even further. It gives buyers access to a pool of businesses they could never have reached before, without the gatekeeping and cost that has defined traditional deal sourcing."

The process begins with the buyer creating a mandate. Using natural language, buyers can simply tell LaurenAI what they are looking for, whether that's an e-commerce store in the toy niche, a SaaS business with less than 5% churn, or a YouTube channel with 50-60% average watch time. LaurenAI refines the mandate through a series of prompts, drilling down into metrics such as profit margin, traffic levels, AOV, churn rate, or geographic location. Once the mandate is set, LaurenAI instantly produces a personalised pipeline of matched businesses.

Buyers can then review, curate, and select which businesses they'd like to approach. From there, LaurenAI handles personalised outreach. Drawing on Flippa's insights from thousands of buyer–seller conversations in its Deal Room, LaurenAI rewrites outreach messages in a way that maximises engagement. Business owners, even those who had not considered selling, are far more likely to respond when contacted by a real, interested buyer.

"The magic is in the speed and accessibility," says Hutchison. "Instead of taking months to discover and negotiate a deal, buyers can go from mandate to negotiation in hours, not months. That changes the entire dynamic of digital M&A."

Importantly, LaurenAI is fully integrated into Flippa's end-to-end platform. Once a match is made, every part of the transaction can be handled seamlessly within Flippa, from data integrations with QuickBooks Online, Amazon, and Stripe, to standardised legal documents, escrow payments, and even reps and warranties insurance. This makes Flippa one of the few platforms where buyers and sellers can complete the entire lifecycle of a deal, from discovery through execution.

Hutchison notes that LaurenAI maps and indexes over 1 million businesses monthly across the open web, accelerating the number of potential opportunities for Flippa's fast-growing buyer pool. LaurenAI is positioned to become the most powerful digital deal sourcing engine on the market.

"Online business ownership is no longer niche, it's mainstream," Hutchison notes. "People are building real, viable high quality businesses on Shopify, Amazon, YouTube, iOS and Android ecosystems, among others. For buyers, LaurenAI represents a chance to proactively hunt for the perfect asset, not just wait for a listing to appear. That's a game changer."

As the digital economy continues to expand, LaurenAI signals a shift in how everyday investors, entrepreneurs, and operators can participate in the world of M&A. By automating what was once a high-touch, exclusive process, Flippa is making it possible for anyone to identify, acquire, and grow an online business.

"LaurenAI is about empowerment," Hutchison says. "It gives people the tools and opportunities tailored for the world of digital entrepreneurs. That's the future of online business M&A, and it starts now."