Smaller Startup Teams Are Getting Acquired More Frequently

Smaller Startup Teams Are Getting Acquired More Frequently

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

June 6, 2023

Since 2019, the share of acquisitions involving startups with 10 or fewer employees has grown every year—reflecting the rise of acquihires and feature-grab...

LinkedIn: Smaller Startup Teams Are Getting Acquired More Frequently

Which startups get acquired?

Seems to be a trend towards younger, smaller startups over the years.

Since 2019, 1,804 Carta cap table startups have been acquired. Each progressive year, the slice of acquisitions with 10 or fewer employees has grown.

So far in 2023, 38% of acquired startups have had 10 or fewer employees.

Some of this trend is just Carta knowing about a lot more small startups in recent years thanks to our Launch program, etc. But I do think there's a real trend in the underlying market as well.

Also interesting that acquisitions peaked last year and so far have not kept pace in recent months.

#cartadata #m&a #startups #acquisitions

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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