# 200 Startups on Carta Were Acquired in Q3 2025

**Author:** Peter Walker  
**Read time:** 1 minute  
**Published date:** November 17, 2025

A record 200 Carta startups were acquired in Q3 2025—with 50% at pre-seed or seed stage and active buyers spanning other startups, Big Tech, and PE firms.

New record - 200 startups on Carta were acquired in Q3 2025.

5 things to know about today's M&A environment for startups:

- Clear return to dealmaking after the down period of 2023. There are active buyers in the market now (other startups, Big Tech, and PE shops).
- About 50% of acquisitions involve companies in pre-seed or seed stage (so not very far along the journey). Another 25-30% are Series A.
- However, Q3 2025 saw a new record for Series B acquisitions as well with 26 companies. So this is not simply an acquihire phenomenon.
- Getting acquired 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 that everybody on the cap table made money.
- Yes, AI is playing a bigger role here. At least 30% of acquired companies in 2025 have been AI companies (and the percentage has climbed each quarter).

Good luck on your next deal!

Author: [Peter Walker](/content/author/peter-walker/index.html)  
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.