From build to buy: Indian startups chase scale through overseas acquisitions

In 2025, companies pursued 26 outbound deals worth $1.1 billion, the highest on record, while domestic acquisitions touched a four-year high of $4.1 billion across 137 transactions, data from Venture Intelligence showed. Inbound deal value declined sharply to $863 million across 24 transactions, compared with $3.34 billion across 11 deals a year earlier.

After just four outbound deals across 2021 and 2022 and none in the years that followed, volumes jumped to 26 last year, making 2025 the biggest year on record for outbound mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by Indian startups in both value and volume, Venture Intelligence data showed.

Experts told Mint the pick-up in outbound activity comes as Indian founders pursue scale. Several late-stage startups are now using acquisitions to add overseas revenue and customers faster than organic expansion would allow.

“The record jump in outbound acquisitions is largely a sign of the Indian startup ecosystem maturing. 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) that isn't available domestically," said Amithraj A.N., partner at Aeka Advisors. The consultancy firm was involved in NXP Semiconductors’ acquisition of US-based Kinara AI for $307 million in October last year.

“For late-stage startups that raised capital at peak valuations, organic growth alone often isn’t enough," said Amithraj. “Inorganic growth becomes the fastest lever to add topline revenue."

Valuation squeeze

Some of the largest outbound transactions last year came from companies looking to acquire technology, IP or access to global customers. Narayana Hrudayalaya bought UK-based Practice Plus Group Hospitals for $249 million, and Lupin acquired the Netherlands-headquartered VISUfarma for $222 million.

“In many cases, acquisitions have been made to gain a foothold in overseas markets, access to technology and customers," Amithraj said. “In most cases, overseas recoveries from clients are far higher than those in Indian markets."

RateGain’s acquisition of US-based Sojern in November 2025 for about $250 million to strengthen its position in travel-tech marketing, and Nazara Technologies’ deal with UK-based Curve Games in May 2025 to enter the global console gaming market, are among examples of such deals.

“We are at the cusp of an evolution of the internet economy," Rajat Ranjan, managing director at Kotak Investment Banking’s digital and robotics team, said at a media round table earlier this month.

Ranjan said healthier valuations and improving balance sheets have also enabled domestic startups to pursue overseas deals. It makes strategic sense for Indian companies to target regions such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, which share several similarities with India in terms of consumer behaviour and market structure, he added.

“We are seeing this trend emerge and expect large deals at various points in time," said Abhishek, technology, media, and telecom (TMT) practice leader for deals at PwC. “Consolidation of platforms should begin to happen more, particularly in the internet economy and digital domain."

The intent behind these deals, he said, is to build scale, improve efficiency and strengthen capabilities. He added that there is growing interest in capability-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 for public listings.

IPO-bound, listed players lead

Investment bankers said outbound acquisitions are increasingly being driven by firms that are either listed or are preparing to tap the public markets, where scale and diversification are under greater scrutiny.

“Listed companies, given their valuations and balance sheet strength, can play around a bit," Abhishek said, adding that deal activity this year is likely to be stronger than last year across both listed and unlisted companies.

Broadly, the past year has seen consolidation across sectors, with much of the M&A (merger and acquisition) momentum shifting towards listed targets, which accounted for about 32% of deal value last year, up from 23% in 2024, according to Kotak Investment Banking’s annual presentation.

While year-on-year trends show a decline in inbound deal value, optimism remains firm.

Amithraj said he is seeing a rise in 100% buyouts by US-based or US-headquartered technology companies looking for bolt-on acquisitions in India. In a bolt-on acquisition, a smaller company is purchased to add specific capabilities, products, or talent to an existing business.

“These are not massive market-entry bets but highly specific capability buys," he said. “The acquirer integrates the Indian target’s tech stack directly into its global platform."

He cited the example of US-based Signzy’s acquisition of Bengaluru-based PowerEdge Analytics in November 2025, calling it a classic bolt-on deal aimed at plugging a specific gap in card management technology.

As initial public offering (IPO) markets remain active in India, Amithraj said acquisitions are becoming central to growth strategies.

“Increasing the scale of operations is a primary requirement for an IPO," he said, adding that the debate has shifted firmly from build to buy due to realistic valuations.

Sector hotspots

Advisers said outbound interest has been strongest in deeptech and semiconductors, fintech, gaming and media, as well as the direct-to-consumer (D2C) segments.

This has been driven by global interest in Indian chip design and artificial intelligence capabilities, along with regulatory- and compliance-led opportunities in technology and lending infrastructure.

In gaming, regulatory tightening in India—particularly the ban on real-money gaming—has pushed companies to look overseas for new intellectual property and user bases. In the D2C space, advisers said established players are increasingly turning to acquisitions to unlock scale beyond organic growth.

Other sub-sectors within software-as-a-service, enterprise technology, fintech and consumer technology are also seeing heightened deal activity, according to advisers. Logistics and supply chain companies are also beginning to show momentum.