Charting Asia’s M&As: When do startups usually make an exit?

Investors and founders agree: Many startups don’t really have an exit strategy.

An exit strategy is a plan that gives a company’s investors an option to sell their stake in the firm to another party.

Exit events for startup investors include mergers and acquisitions (M&As), initial public offerings, and even liquidation for those that have filed for insolvency.

So the question is, when is the best time for a startup to exit?

Tech in Asia’s data below could provide the crucial perspective that both founders and investors need to make a well-timed and well-informed exit strategy.

If a startup, for instance, is currently in its series B stage and considering raising a series C round, it would be helpful to know if the exit percentage was smaller in the following stage.

The first chart above shows in which stage startups usually get acquired.

Here below is the time frame when startups in the region choose to go for an M&A after their initial round of funding.

Here’s the average and median M&A deal sizes of startups in Asia.

Here’s a complete view of all M&As in our database. Use the table below to sort the data by column or key in a search query to find a specific acquiree or acquirer.

For more on how we analyze data, feel free to read our research methodology. If you notice any missing or incorrect data, kindly let us know at research@techinasia.com.

Have an idea that can help improve our analysis? Couldn’t find the insights you’re looking for? Send an email to the address above and tell us how we can tweak this piece to cover Asia’s M&A landscape better.

Credits
Writer: Elyssa Lopez
Infographics: Queena Wadyanti and Yeo Cheng Yong
Graphics: Timmy Loen
Editing: Collin Furtado and Jaclyn Tiu