February: M&A appetite still high for corporate-backed startups, but valuations down

GCV’s data on exits for corporate-backed startups in February shows that the market is in a strong position relative to the last two years, even though exits were lower than the January 2025 and December 2024 figures.

There were 44 exits in February, compared with 56 in January and 47 in December. A large part of the drop from January is accounted for by a fall in US exits, of which there were 12 fewer in February.

But although February’s exit tally was lower, it still represents an uptick over the past two years.

The total capital raised — where the size of the exits was disclosed — is not such a clear story of strength, however. While the $2.78bn total is nearly double the February 2024 figure, with a 76% increase in exits, it is still towards the lower end of the monthly totals seen over the last year.

The exits makeup was skewed towards acquisitions, as is often the case, with 37 in the month. There were four IPOs — a modest amount, but more than we saw in any of the last three months.

The top 5 acquisitions

Anthos Therapeutics

Anthos Therapeutics, which makes pharmaceuticals treating cardiovascular disease, was acquired by its former investor Novartis, for $925m in cash upfront, with up to $2.15bn in development and sales milestones agreed.

Novartis, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, made two large acquisitions in 2024 as well. It acquired the German biotech MorphoSys for $2.9bn in February 2024 and Mariana Oncology for $1bn in May.

MorphoSys’s drug pipeline covers a range of diseases, but many of its in-house developments — like Mariana Oncology — focus on cancer. Cancer treatment is often at the heart of Novartis’s strategic collaborations, including through CVC investments and joint venture agreements. GCV’s CVC Funding Round Database does not record any recent investments in cardiovascular disease-focused startups.

Mantl

Mantl, a fintech company which provides a platform for banking customers to open an account on any device, was acquired by Alkami, a digital banking solutions provider, in a $400m deal.

One of Mantl’s previous investors was Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Alphabet is frequently the most prolific corporate investor in GCV’s monthly data roundups. When investing in fintech, it often targets payment technology companies. For example, last year it took part in the $430m funding round for the UK digital bank Monzo.

Minimalist

UK consumer products giant Unilever acquired the Indian skincare brand Minimalist for $350m, in which it had previously been an investor. Minimalist brands itself as having simple solutions to skincare problems and transparency through highlighting the main active ingredient on the packaging.

Unilever had invested via Unilever Ventures, its CVC arm, which has offices in Mumbai and London. It has made a number of strategic investments into Indian cosmetics startups, including the $5m series A round for RAS, a luxury skincare brand, in January, and the $4m series A raise for the hair care brand Arata in December 2024.

Kinara

US semiconductor startup Kinara, which makes AI processors for machine learning, was acquired by the Dutch multinational chipmaker NXP Semiconductors for $307m. One of Kinara’s earlier investors is the American-Taiwanese semiconductor and solid-state drive maker Silicon Motion.  

NXP was also featured in GCV’s January exits roundup, when it acquired TTTech Auto, an Austrian autotech software developer. Kinara serves a broader market, designing chips for edge AI applications, where generative AI can run on devices such as medical equipment, industrial machines or security cameras.

Drata

Drata, a US compliance automation company, acquired SafeBase for $250m. SafeBase makes a cybersecurity assessment tool that helps its customers to perform security reviews.

SafeBase was previously backed by Comcast, the US media company, and Zoom, the video conferencing software developer.

IPOs: Healthcare and robotics

Healthcare startups led the way for corporate-backed startup exits on the IPO market in February, accounting for three of the four recorded for the month.

Maze Therapeutics

Maze Therapeutics raised $140m. It is a US pharmaceutical startup that makes precision medicines, where genetic makeup is considered, for more targeted treatment. One of its most advanced treatment programmes in development aims to treat a form of kidney disease that certain gene variants make more likely; Maze claims the variation could affect 13% of African Americans.

The startup’s earlier investors include Alphabet, which often invests in healthcare. In 2024 it took part in the funding round for a number of precision medicine biotech startups, including Santa Ana Bio and Accent Therapeutics, which make immunology and cancer therapies, respectively.

Aardvark Therapeutics

Another US healthcare startup, Aardvark Therapeutics went public, raising an undisclosed amount. It also targets metabolic diseases, developing small molecule therapies for obesity and rare genetic disorders.

One of the drugs Aardvark is developing is a weight-loss pill designed to treat hunger. It will go beyond just activating the GLP-1 hormone, which is how market-leading weight loss drugs currently operate, and will also stimulate CCK, another hormone which is thought could combat some of the GLP-1 drug-induced side effects.

BioVersys

Switzerland’s BioVersys was the third corporate-backed healthcare startup to IPO, raising $99.1m.

The company makes antibiotics designed to combat drug-resistant infections. For example, its pipeline includes a drug for treating tuberculosis, an infectious disease that was nearly eradicated by effective antibiotic treatments before multidrug-resistant strains became more common in the 1980s.

RoboSense

RoboSense, a Chinese robotics company that makes components for robotics that are used in the automotive industry, raised $128.6m in its IPO.  

One of the startup’s investors was BAIC Motor, a Chinese carmaker. BAIC has invested in a number of robotics and autotech startups since 2023, including Tongyu Automotive, which makes AI-based driving systems, and GalaxyBot, which makes robots designed to carry out human labour tasks like factory work.