Indian startups chase scale through overseas acquisitions
According to data from Venture Intelligence, in 2025, companies reached the highest level on record by completing 26 foreign deals worth $1.1 billion, while domestic acquisitions reached a four-year high of $4.1 billion in 137 transactions. Incoming deal value fell sharply to $863 million across 24 deals, compared to $3.34 billion across 11 deals the previous year.
After just four outgoing deals in 2021 and 2022 and none in subsequent years, volumes rose to 26 last year, making 2025 the biggest year on record for overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by Indian startups, according to Venture Intelligence data.
Experts told Mint The rise in outbound activity comes as Indian founders seek scale. Many late-stage startups now use acquisitions to add overseas revenue and customers faster than organic expansion would allow.
“The record rise in outbound acquisitions is largely a sign of the maturation of the Indian startup ecosystem. We are seeing ‘category leaders’ in India (especially in SaaS, gaming and deeptech) aggressively acquiring assets in the US and Europe to establish a global footprint or acquire niche IP (intellectual property) not available domestically,” said Amithraj AN, partner at Aeka Advisors. The consulting firm was involved in NXP Semiconductors’ acquisition of US-based Kinara AI for $307 million in October last year.
“Organic growth alone is not enough for late-stage startups raising capital at the highest valuations,” Amithraj said. “Inorganic growth is becoming the fastest means of increasing revenue.”
Valuation squeeze
Some of last year’s biggest overseas transactions came from companies looking to gain access to technology, intellectual property or global customers. Narayana Hrudayalaya acquired UK-based Practice Plus Group Hospitals for $249 million and Lupine acquired Netherlands-based VISUfarma for $222 million.
“In many cases, acquisitions were made to gain a foothold in overseas markets and gain access to technology and customers,” Amithraj said. he said. “In most cases, recoveries from overseas customers are much higher than those in Indian markets.”
Examples of such deals include RateGain’s acquisition of US-based Sojern in November 2025 for approximately $250 million to strengthen its position in travel technology marketing, and Nazara Technologies’ agreement with UK-based Curve Games in May 2025 to enter the global console gaming market.
“We are at the cusp of the evolution of the internet economy,” Rajat Ranjan, managing director of Kotak Investment Banking’s digital and robotics team, told a media roundtable earlier this month.
Ranjan said healthier valuations and improved balance sheets also enable domestic startups to make deals abroad. He added that it makes strategic sense for Indian companies to target regions such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, which share many similarities with India in terms of consumer behavior and market structure.
“We see this trend emerging and expect large deals at various times,” said Abhishek, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) practice leader at PwC. “Consolidation of platforms needs to start happening more, especially in the internet economy and digital space.”
He said the purpose behind these deals is to build scale, increase efficiency and strengthen talent. He added that there is growing interest in talent-based acquisitions, including deals focused on artificial intelligence, new skills and market entry.
Amithraj added that global revenue diversification has also become more important as Indian unicorns prepare to go public.
Linked to IPO, listed players leading
Investment bankers said outside buyouts are increasingly being driven by publicly traded firms or those poised to tap public markets, where scale and diversification are increasingly scrutinized.
“Listed companies can play a bit given their valuations and balance sheet strength,” said Abhishek, adding that deal activity this year is likely to be stronger than last year, across both listed and unlisted companies.
Overall, the past year has seen consolidation across sectors, with much of the M&A (M&A) momentum shifting towards listed targets, according to Kotak Investment Banking’s annual presentation; this accounted for approximately 32% of deal value last year; This rate increased from 23% in 2024.
While annual trends show a decline in inbound deal value, optimism remains.
Amithraj said he has seen a 100% increase in acquisitions by US-based or US-based technology companies looking for quick acquisitions in India. In an impulse acquisition, a smaller company is purchased to add certain capabilities, products, or capabilities to an existing business.
“These are not big market entry bets, but very specific talent acquisitions,” he said. “The buyer integrates the Indian target’s technology stack directly into its global platform.”
He gave the example of US-based Signzy’s acquisition of Bengaluru-based PowerEdge Analytics in November 2025, describing it as a classic bolt-on deal aimed at filling a particular gap in card management technology.
As initial public offering (IPO) markets continue to be active in India, Amithraj said acquisitions have become central to growth strategies.
“Increasing the scale of operations is a key requirement for an IPO,” he said, adding that due to realistic valuations, the discussion has shifted decisively from build to buy.
Industry hot spots
Outbound interest is strongest in deep tech and semiconductors, fintech, gaming and media, as well as direct-to-consumer (D2C) segments, consultants said.
This was driven by global interest in Indian chip design and AI capabilities, as well as regulatory and compliance-driven opportunities in technology and credit infrastructure.
In the gaming space, tightening regulations in India (particularly the ban on real money games) has pushed companies to look abroad for new intellectual property and user bases. In the D2C space, consultants said established players are increasingly turning to acquisitions to unlock scale beyond organic growth.
Other subsectors such as software as a service, enterprise technology, fintech and consumer technology are also seeing an increase in deal activity, according to consultants. Logistics and supply chain companies are also starting to show momentum.
