Key figures
- Alphabet, Google’s parent, made the most startup acquisitions between 2000 and the first half of 2024: 222 deals worth $16.6 billion.
- Microsoft is second with 140 and Cisco third with 134.
- Salesforce spent the most, $61.5 billion, on only 63 acquisitions. Cisco ($59.8 billion) and Microsoft ($50.1 billion) follow.
- 11 of the 15 companies are American. The others are Accenture (Ireland), Siemens (Germany), Roche (Switzerland) and Samsung (South Korea).
- Together the 15 made 1,318 of the 2,532 deals in the dataset, about 52% (our arithmetic).
Startup acquisitions by company, in text
Title: Companies Acquiring the Most Startups. Subtitle: Acquisitions made between 2000 and H1 2024. The chart is styled after the arcade game Pac-Man, with a dark background and ghost characters. Bars show the number of startup acquisitions and are coloured by country (USA, IRL, DEU, CHE, KOR); a dotted trail links each bar to a circle sized by total deal value.
| Rank | Company | Country | Startup acquisitions | Total deal value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alphabet | USA | 222 | $16.6B |
| 2 | Microsoft | USA | 140 | $50.1B |
| 3 | Cisco | USA | 134 | $59.8B |
| 4 | Accenture | Ireland | 119 | Undisclosed |
| 5 | Apple | USA | 102 | $6.5B |
| 6 | Meta | USA | 98 | $23.5B |
| 7 | IBM | USA | 93 | $21.5B |
| 8 | Amazon | USA | 76 | $10.7B |
| 9 | Oracle | USA | 76 | $7.6B |
| 10 | Salesforce | USA | 63 | $61.5B |
| 11 | Intel | USA | 57 | $4.9B |
| 12 | Siemens | Germany | 40 | $2.5B |
| 13 | Qualcomm | USA | 34 | $3.1B |
| 14 | Roche | Switzerland | 32 | $20.3B |
| 15 | Samsung | South Korea | 32 | $1B |
Annotation: “Silicon Valley companies are responsible for about a third of all startup acquisitions.” Footer: “Source: Mind the Bridge with the support of Crunchbase. Includes data about 2,532 corporate-startup M&A transactions completed between 2000 and H1 2024, restricted to Fortune Global 500 companies.” Visual Capitalist logo.
Volume and value tell different stories
The ranking is by number of deals, and the deal values do not follow the same order. Alphabet’s 222 deals average about $75 million each, while Salesforce’s 63 average close to $1 billion (our arithmetic from the chart). Apple made 102 acquisitions for $6.5 billion in total, about $64 million each. Roche, a pharmaceutical group, made 32 deals worth $20.3 billion. Accenture, fourth by number with 119, does not disclose a total.
Mind the Bridge’s report says that Silicon Valley companies completed 814 startup deals, 33% of the total, which is the “about a third” quoted on the chart [2]. It also finds that six of the ten largest startup acquirers are Silicon Valley companies, and that North American companies acquire startups at four times the rate of European ones [2].
What the wider report found
The report, titled The End of the Startup M&A Era?, tracks a fall in deal numbers after a peak in 2021. Fortune Global 500 companies bought 209 tech startups in 2021, 145 in 2022 and 111 in 2023, while the money invested rose to $62.1 billion in 2023, a sign of fewer but larger deals [2]. In the first half of 2024 it counted 59 deals worth $45.5 billion [2].
Most targets are young. The report says 46% of acquired startups were five years old or younger at the time of the deal, and another 35% were between six and ten years old [2]. Among acquired startups that had raised money, the median had raised between $10 million and $50 million [2].
Notes on this infographic
- Amazon and Oracle are tied on 76 deals, and Roche and Samsung on 32; the chart lists them in the order shown.
- The report’s methodology defines tech companies as firms in tech and digital industries, founded since 2000, with at least one funding round since 2010, and says biotech, life sciences, pharma and semiconductor companies are not included [2]. Roche’s count should be read with that in mind.
- Visual Capitalist’s article says startups are typically acquired “6 years after their founding (46%)” [1]. The report’s figure is that 46% were five years old or younger [2].
- The data covers only acquirers in the Fortune Global 500, so large private or smaller listed buyers are not included.
Questions about startup acquisitions
Which company has acquired the most startups?
Alphabet, Google's parent, made the most startup acquisitions between 2000 and the first half of 2024, with 222 deals worth $16.6 billion. Microsoft is second with 140 and Cisco third with 134. The figures come from Mind the Bridge with the support of Crunchbase and cover 2,532 deals by Fortune Global 500 companies.
Which company has spent the most on startup acquisitions?
Salesforce spent the most, $61.5 billion, on only 63 acquisitions between 2000 and H1 2024. Cisco ($59.8 billion) and Microsoft ($50.1 billion) follow. Salesforce's deals average close to $1 billion each, compared with about $75 million for each of Alphabet's 222 deals.
How many startups did big companies acquire in 2023?
Fortune Global 500 companies bought 111 tech startups in 2023, down from 145 in 2022 and 209 in 2021 [2]. The money invested rose to $62.1 billion in 2023, a sign of fewer but larger deals [2]. In the first half of 2024, Mind the Bridge counted 59 deals worth $45.5 billion [2].
How old are startups when they are acquired?
Mind the Bridge's report says 46% of acquired startups were five years old or younger at the time of the deal, and another 35% were between six and ten years old [2]. Visual Capitalist's article gives a different reading, saying startups are typically acquired "6 years after their founding (46%)" [1]. Among acquired startups that had raised money, the median had raised between $10 million and $50 million [2].
Sources
- Bruno Venditti, Visual Capitalist, Ranked, The Companies Acquiring the Most Startups (2000-2024) (24 October 2024), the publisher’s article for this chart.
- Mind the Bridge, The End of the Startup M&A Era? Tech Startup M&A 2024 Report, the data source named on the chart.
Last reviewed 30 October 2026
