We get headlines about the billion-dollar deals, but half of startup M&A involves pre-seed or seed companies.
These acquisitions have a lot of names. Acquihires, tuck-ins, bolt-ons, feature adds - all slightly dour. But these smaller M&A deals can actually be a great success for the founder and tiny teams that join the bigger new mothership.
Of course this data doesn't really tell us much about the actual wealth created in these M&A deals. It's heartening to see that M&A was up 13% year over year, but given the overvaluations that were rampant in VC world probably many of these didn't change hands at the sticker price.
Still - some momentum to build on in 2025. Some more M&A, secondary transactions, throw in a few good IPOs...could be a special year!
#startups #mergers #acquisitions #founders #VC
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