Leaky Robot
Currently reviewing 3,000+ companies a year

From leaky
to legendary.

We acquire stagnant tech companies and undervalued online marketplaces, patch what's broken, and rebuild them into businesses worth keeping. We don't just fix the leaks — we make the machine worth running again.

See what we've fixed
150+
companies backed since 2012
€2m+
profit rebuilt at PixAlert alone
60–80%
typical cut in tech overhead

Companies we've acquired

Scout Data
ArtGallery.co.uk
Superfood Market
IDappcom
PixAlert
Scout Data
ArtGallery.co.uk
Superfood Market
IDappcom
PixAlert
How we work

Two kinds of
company we take on.

Both share the same problem: real value, buried under old technology, thin resources, or a founder with nothing left to give. We buy in, not just buy out — so we can actually fix it.

Project EV — Escape Velocity

The stagnant, undervalued and overlooked.

Companies that got most of the way there and stalled. Loyal, sometimes blue-chip or government clients. A founder who's ready to step back. Tech that's outdated but stable — worth more to fix than to replace.

8+ years old Founder semi-retired 4–15 staff €500k–€5m turnover Sticky clients
Project AI — Marketplaces

Modern marketplaces, overengineered.

A huge number of today's marketplaces were built with far more custom engineering than they'll ever need — big dev teams, big infrastructure bills, and a codebase that's now a drag on the business. We swap that over-built tech for no-code infrastructure and AI, and the platform runs better, cheaper, and more profitably almost overnight.

No-code + AI rebuild Cuts tech overhead 75–80% lower tech cost Higher margins, same GMV
Start to finish

What actually happens
after we say yes.

01
Find the ones nobody's watching
We review thousands of companies a year, looking for the ones that did fine but never made it all the way to orbit.
02
Buy in, not just buy out
We take control of the business — not a minority stake — so decisions can actually get made and acted on.
03
Cut the drag
Accounts, marketing, sales, tech, grants and funding get pulled from a shared team across every company we run, instead of each one carrying its own overhead.
04
Rebuild the tech
Usually a no-code rebuild, sometimes with AI layered in for support, search or fraud detection — cutting tech costs by 60–80%.
05
Let it run
Profitable, well-documented, and boring in the best way. No hype cycle, no burn — just a business that keeps its promises.
Receipts

Companies we've
actually fixed.

No case study theatre — these are the real numbers from businesses we've taken on, in the order we took them on.

PixAlert
€2m+
profit since 2016 acquisition

A 17-year-old company losing €180k a year, with €4m in retained losses, when we took it over. Now consistently profitable at €100k–€250k annually.

IDappcom
2x
acquisition cost returned in 3 years

Cyber-security specialist serving McAfee, Trend Micro and Juniper. Went from ~£100k annual losses to close to £200k in profit after our 2020 acquisition.

JoinFoodChain
2x
turnover growth, 2022 → 2023

Bought this chef-supplier marketplace's assets for £30k after COVID nearly killed it. 2023 turnover more than doubled, closing in on its old £500k/month peak.

Qiq.ie
Wk 1
turned profitable

A Just Eat competitor that had fallen from €300k to €100k a month. Profitable from week one of our December 2022 takeover, with a no-code relaunch underway.

artgallery.co.uk
−80%
tech cost after no-code rebuild

The oldest online art gallery in the world, sales down 70% under a previous owner. A no-code rebuild cut costs sharply — it's growing and profitable again.

Next case study: possibly yours.

Let's talk →
Why we're not guessing

Built on 150
companies' worth
of lessons.

From 2012 to 2018 we ran the Lucey Fund, reviewing thousands of businesses a year and backing 150 of them with a central team spanning finance, marketing, sales, development and grant funding.

Idea-stage startups turned out to be a hard way to make money — most founders couldn't code, hadn't run a tech project, and had no customers to lean on. Companies with real revenue, real customers and paid bills were a far better bet. That's the whole thesis behind Leaky Robot.

3,000+
businesses reviewed per year
80+
person central team, shared across portfolio
"EV companies were the best part of the fund. They already had product-market fit, paying blue-chip customers, and money to cover their own bills — we just had to remove the drag."

— On why we shifted from early-stage venture to acquiring stable, stalled companies

Who we work with

Built for three kinds
of conversation.

Owners ready to step back

You built something real, but the fire's gone or the tech's aged out from under you. We'll buy it, keep the team, and keep it running properly.

Overengineered marketplaces

Running a marketplace on a tech stack that's bigger, slower and more expensive than it needs to be? No-code and AI now do in weeks what used to take a dev team years — at a fraction of the cost, with the savings going straight to your margin. We can rebuild your stack, or run it alongside ours.

Entrepreneurs & operators

Curious how we find, price and run EV and AI companies, or want to bring us a deal? We're always open to a conversation.

The operators

We're not advisors.
We do the work.

Ian Lucey Founder

Ian Lucey

CEO & Founder

Ran the Lucey Fund 2012–2018. Built the thesis: buy stalled businesses with real bones, cut the drag, let them run.

in ✉
Technical Lead Tech

Name Here

Technical Lead

Cuts legacy codebases, drives no-code rebuilds, and drops tech costs by 60–80%. No slide decks involved.

in GH
Commercial Director Commercial

Name Here

Commercial Director

Rebuilds revenue models for businesses that have the product but lost the commercial edge.

in ✉
Marketplace Lead Marketplace

Name Here

Marketplace Lead

Specialises in reviving online platforms — trust, GMV, and engagement. Has rebuilt from near-zero.

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Investor relations

Investor Relations

This section is coming soon. Details on funding, financial reporting and investor communications for Leaky Robot will be published here.

Get in touch

Talk to Leaky
Robot.

Ask our AI concierge whether your company or idea is a fit, or skip straight to booking time with the founder. Either way, a real person reads every conversation.

✓ No sales script — just a straight answer on fit
✓ Confidential by default — we sign NDAs on request
✓ Usually hear back within one working day
🤖
Leaky Robot concierge

AI-assisted · a human reads every chat

Online
Hey — I'm the Leaky Robot concierge. Tell me a bit about your company, marketplace, or idea, and I'll help figure out if we're a fit. Or just hit "Book a call" any time.
Talk to us