When startups get acquired, the deal is either a home run for investors, a money-losing distress sale, or something in-between.
These in-between exits don’t generate a lot of buzz, but collectively they add up to a tidy sum. Last year, for instance, U.S. startup purchases under $300 million 1 brought in about $8.7 billion altogether, Crunchbase data shows.
These small and mid-sized deals are not a long-term growth area for M&A, by many measures. The total deal value of purchases between $100 million and $300 million last year was still below levels routinely reached nearly a decade ago, as charted below.
Moreover, the total value can add up to just a fraction of a single, larger exit. Google’s just-completed $32 billion purchase of Wiz, for instance, is worth more than 4x all these sub-$300 million deals put together.
Even so, we’re up from prior lows. Startup purchases in this range hit a low point a couple years ago and have rebounded since, with this year off to a brisk start as well.
Smaller deals shrink more
Smaller disclosed-price acquisitions of under $100 million are also well below peak. The volume and value of these deals hit a low in 2024 and has made somewhat of a comeback since, as charted below.
These sub-$100 million purchases are a mixed bag for returns. Investors might recoup solid profits from companies that raised a few million in seed funding and sold for prices in the tens of millions.
In other cases, startups sold for considerably less than the sums they raised in venture investment. Using Crunchbase data, we aggregated a few examples of such deals from the past year. It includes companies with known struggles, such as Rad Power Bikes, which filed for bankruptcy before selling to an acquirer this month.
No power buyers
Notably, there is no “power acquirer” for small and mid-sized startup purchases. Out of 181 sub-$300 million startup acquisitions since 2024 there was no buyer with more than two such deals, per Crunchbase data.
That said, there are companies with a larger number of funded startup purchases, just without reported prices for all or most. Examples include Cisco, Cloudflare, CoreWeave, Databricks, Eli Lilly, Workday and Wonder, among others.
When price isn’t disclosed, it’s hard to gauge how founders and investors fared on the deal. That said, most of the more active buyers can certainly afford to pay well. Whether they choose to do so is another matter.
*This is only disclosed-price purchases. Most startup acquisitions do not have a disclosed price.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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