Small and mid-sized startup acquisitions remain below their 2021 peak, with U.S. deals under $300 million generating about $8.7 billion last year. This represents a recovery from recent lows but still falls short of levels reached nearly a decade ago. The total value of purchases between $100 million and $300 million has yet to match pre-pandemic highs, according to Crunchbase data.

These in-between exits often fly under the radar compared to headline-grabbing billion-dollar acquisitions. For context, Google's $32 billion purchase of Wiz alone exceeds the combined value of all sub-$300 million startup deals. While the market has rebounded from 2023 lows, the recovery remains uneven across deal sizes. Acquisitions under $100 million also show improvement but remain well below their peak.

There's no dominant buyer pattern in this segment - no company has completed more than two sub-$300 million acquisitions since 2024. Active acquirers like Cisco, Cloudflare, and Databricks show no clear consolidation trend. The lack of price disclosures makes it difficult to assess whether founders and investors are seeing strong returns. While these smaller deals collectively represent significant capital movement, they underscore how the startup exit market remains fragmented and below historical highs.