OK, now. Now we’re going to see more startups acquire other startups

Back in June, I predicted that we would see an uptick in startups acquiring other startups this year. At the time, the venture market was souring and starting to show a divide between startups with years of cash on hand — companies that were also, often, overvalued — and those that were low on capital and would likely struggle to raise new funds.

Well, while I was technically not wrong — it is still 2022 for two more weeks — my prediction didn’t really pan out as I thought it would.

According to data from Crunchbase, as of December 13, 1,291 startups have been acquired by other venture-backed companies this year. This compares to 1,292 in 2021. So while this year is on track to see more transactions than last, it won’t be by a meaningful amount.

But a recent acquisition showed both why we haven’t seen much movement yet and why we expect to see significantly more activity heading into next year.

OK, now. Now we’re going to see more startups acquire other startups by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch