1.2 Percent of Carta Startups Were Acquired in H1 2025

1.2% of startups on Carta were acquired in H1 2025 - and that's a pretty damn good percentage relative to the past few years.

Took a spin through the 502 startups on Carta that were acquired in H1 2025 and compared it to the general population of US startups on Carta by stage.

These percentages are a little fuzzy but still illustrative.

𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹: 𝟭.𝟮% 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝟭 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

That percentage jumps to 2.1% if you exclude pre-seed from the dataset.

Obvious note before jumping into the various stages - wow there are a lot of pre-seed startups! Here defined as any startup that has yet to raise a priced round. So some have raised on SAFEs or notes, but no priced equity.

FWIW, Carta has seen more inception-stage companies sign up through our Carta Launch program in the first half of 2025 than any other 6 month period ever.

𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱

• 138 acquired out of 26,114

• 0.5% acquire rate in H1 2025

𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱

• 113 acquired out of 6,485

• 1.7% acquire rate

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔

• 150 acquired out of 6,006

• 2.5% acquire rate

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕

• 54 acquired out of 2,673

• 2.0% acquire rate

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖

• 29 acquired out of 1,142

• 2.5% acquire rate

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗗

• 8 acquired out of 533

• 1.5% acquire rate

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗘+

• 10 acquired out of 357

• 2.8% acquire rate

What stands out?

Most total acquisitions in the Seed to Series A range (small enough to fit into many potential buyers, but far enough along to have real tech, etc). But the late-stage buys are also intriguing, really healthy percentages there for a half year.

Big caveat: we are unable to see what the actual outcomes are from each acquisition (eg are many of these actually quality exits for founders and employees or are the majority at cost). So the early M&A is probably full of acquihires and the like.

What do you think of the odds?

#startups #founders #acquisitions #startupexits