M&A Buzz Centers on Data Software Startups

We just published our list of more than 160 enterprise software startups that could be acquired this year. To compile it, we screened hundreds of privately held companies and singled out those worth more than $1 billion that haven't raised a publicly announced financing since June 2024. To understand the M&A forces across enterprise software, I spoke with more than 30 founders, investors, and bankers. 

The list has nearly doubled since we last put it together. The reason: as AI takes center stage, venture capitalists have shied from backing traditional software companies and are pouring their money into AI instead. Stock prices for publicly traded enterprise software companies have fallen at least 30% in the last year, dimming the older startups’ prospects for an IPO—especially when SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are seen to suck up much of the available investor demand.