Acquisition winter
In the last five years, ByteDance, the Chinese social media unicorn, made 116 equity investments in startup companies. Other unicorns such as payment company Stripe and crypto firm Circle also made a large number of investments in startups. The most acquisitive companies came from the cryptocurrency sector with 10 out of the 16 most acquisitive unicorns being active in crypto. Fast-growing valuable private companies investing in other startups was a key feature of the recent venture capital boom. Surplus capital provided by eager investors contributed to the acquisition spree. However, venture capital intensity decreased toward the end of 2022.
Source: CB Insights, April 2024.