Startup acquisitions are wildly difficult. Out of some 42,000 startups on Carta this year, 288 have been bought so far in 2024.
Now - obviously there's a large percentage of that 42K that are 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁! They are building, growing, staying on the fundraising track (most are trying the venture capital path).
But the overall narrative around many startups is that they are much more open to acquisition than they used to be given the difficult fundraising market. And investors may be pushing for more M&A given IPOs are thin on the ground.
But pushing is not the same thing as completing. Potential buyers like PE, big tech, and other startups have not really increased their activity level in recent quarters. Between 140 and 150 startups are acquired every quarter from the Carta dataset but there has been no rush to buy.
So heads up to founders - the old adage that startups are bought, not sold, seems to be holding true.
This M&A market is lukewarm at best.
#cartadata #M&A #startups #acquired #founders
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