Looking at IPO data from January 2021 to October 2025, and Acquisition data from October 2024 to October 2025, we can draw insights to help provide predictive searches targeting those who may be lining up an exit event soon!
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Search Templates:
Finding Companies
For potential tweaks to the above templates, see below
Finding People associated with these organisations
On top of the above People search templates, you'll need to add on the criteria "Collections" as follows:
1. Build the company search you want, and save it to a Collection
2. Build the people search you want - eg. founders with over 40% shareholding in a business
3. On the line that reads Add shareholding criteria OR Add company position criteria OR Add directorship criteria, add the criteria "Shareholding/Person/ Directorship is in a company where"
4. Scroll down to "Collections" and choose the company collection you built earlier.
Executive Summary
A brief summary of the findings and reasoning for the search templates.
Companies who were the buyer when acquiring another company...
On average had a turnover of £30M+, with an EBITDA over £3M, and over 100 employees.
Commonly, these firms had net assets over £3M, and were paying directors over £400k annually
These firms were valued at £15m+, had often scaled up and featured on a high-growth list.
The most common auditors for these firms were BDO, PWC, RSM, Deloitte and EY.
Over half of the acquiring companies has headquarters across London, the South East or the North West.
Companies that were acquired by another company...
On average had a turnover of £15M+, making a profit of £1M+, and were paying directors £200k+ annually.
Were valued at £5M+, and over a quarter had scaled-up at some point.
Many of these were audited by big firms such as Azets, Cooper Parry, BDO, TC Group and PWC.
Over half of the acquired companies had headquarters in the South of England (South East, South West and London).
Companies that have IPO'd since the start of 2021...
IPO’d on the AIM, at a £50M+ market capitalisation
Were profitable, had over 40 employees, had around £1M in Net Assets, and were paying directors £250k+ annually.
On average were valued at £15M+, and had 3 fundraises over their lifetime.
A good proportion had scaled-up at some point, and made an acquisition
Tweaks + Additional Criteria
These are potential ways that you can narrow down your searches to a cohort of companies that are more prevalent to the work you're undertaking.
Often, these elements may make a company more likely to be involved in an exit event.
Specialising in exits defined as having invested in more than 10 companies that have gone on to be acquired or IPO
This is a people search, for those who have worked at C-suite level at an organisation that was acquired or IPO'd, and now has an active C-suite role elsewhere
Methodology behind searches
The below is data taken from the Beauhurst platform, upon which the search templates have been built upon.
IPOs
The underlying data looks at all IPO events from X
The most common exchanges over the January 2021 to October 2025 period were as follows:
Stock Exchange | Number of Listings |
Alternative Investment Market | 63 |
London Stock Exchange | 26 |
Aquis Stock Exchange | 21 |
NASDAQ Stock Market | 11 |
Börse Frankfurt | 6 |
New York Stock Exchange | 3 |
6 different exhanges | 1 |
General Statistics on IPOs
Mean (What % reported this) | January 2021-October 2025 | January 2025-October 2025 |
Announced Amount | £49.0M £7.75m (86.8%) | £28.5M £3.40M (66.7%) |
Market Capitalisation (GBP) | £403M £50.0M (89.0%) | £347M £44.0M (72.2%) |
Financial Analysis
Mean (What % reported this) | January 2021-October 2025 | January 2025-October 2025 |
Turnover | £68.7m (77.2%) | £55.2m £667k (61.1%) |
Operating Profit | £1.13M -£490k (77.2%) | £318k £103k (61.1%) |
EBITDA | £3.39M -£253k (77.2%) | £18.0m -£286k (61.1%) |
Cash | £53.6m £1.12m (83.1%) | £14.5M £333k (72.2%) |
Number of Employees | 215 40.0 (75.0%) | 119 11.0 (55.6%) |
Director Emoluments | £508k £271k (77.2%) | £318k £103k (61.1%) |
Dividends Payable | -£780k £0 (77.2%) | -£740k £0 (61.1%) |
Audit Fees | £183k £30k (83.1%) | £101k £26.4k (72.2%) |
Net Assets | £25.7m £1.26m (83.1%) | £57.7m £841k (72.2%) |
Funding and Grant History
Mean | January 2021-October 2025 | January 2025-October 2025 |
Latest pre-money valuation | £150m £13.5m (66.9%) | £46.1M £27.9M (50%) |
Latest post-money valuation | £162.2m £16.0m (66.9%) | £49.7M £29.2M (50%) |
Latest Turnover multiples following the most recent fundraising | 478 2.97 (18.5%) | 21.0 21.0 (5.56%) |
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Number of grants received | 1.36 0 (99.2%) | 0.17 0 (16.7%) |
Total amount received in grants | £4.67M £1.96M (24.6%) | £214k £214k (11.1%) |
Number of fundraisings completed | 3.39 3 (99.2%) | 2.06 1 (55.6%) |
Total amount received in fundraisings | £58.5m £5.75m (79.2%) | £14.5M £3.05M (55.6%) |
Signals
Signs of growth, innovation and risk
For more information on this, read this page about our Signals!
Signal | January 2021-October 2025 | January 2025-October 2025 |
Equity Fundraising | 78.1% | 55.6% |
Debt Fundraising | 8.0% | 5.6% |
MBO/MBI | 5.1% | 0% |
Accelerator | 10.9% | 5.6% |
10% Scaleup | 40.9% | 33.3% |
20% Scaleup | 37.2% | 27.8% |
High Growth List | 26.3% | 5.6% |
Acquired | 10.9% | 33.3% |
Made Acquisition | 41.6% | 11.1% |
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Academic Spinout | 6.6% | 11.1% |
R&D Grant | 22.6% | 11.1% |
Patent | 11.7% | 0% |
Advisors Involved in IPOs
January 2021-October 2025 | January 2025-October 2025 |
BDO - 15 | Crowe UK - 4 |
Crowe UK - 15 | First Sentinel - 3 |
Goldman Sachs - 8 | Beaumont Cornish - 2 |
Hill Dickinson - 8 | Cavendish - 2 |
Neville Registrars - 8 | Charles Russell Speechlys- 2 |
Alma PR - 7 | Clear Capital Markets - 2 |
Cairn Financial Advisers - 7 | Neville Registrars - 2 |
Citigroup Global Markets - 7 | 45 Firms - 1 |
Clear Capital Markets - 7 |
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Fieldfisher - 7 |
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First Sentinel - 7 |
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Fladgate - 7 |
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Link Group - 7 |
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Panmure Liberum - 7 |
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Berenberg - 6 |
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Liberum Capital - 6 |
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Zeus Capital - 6 |
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Acquisitions
The underlying data looks at all acquisitions from October 2024 to the start of October 2025.
Fund Involvement
256 of the acquisitions found were PE Buyouts, representing 9.33% of the buyers in the acquisitions.
Of these, the most common buyer was Business Angel(s) with 16 acquisitions, followed by GIL Investments, Rcapital and Sullivan Street Partners, all with 3.
Financial Analysis
Mean (What % reported this) | Acquiring Companies | Acquired Companies |
Turnover | £993M (35.4%) | £115M £18.3M |
Operating Profit | £103M £1.71M (35.4%) | £7.61M £968k (26.5%) |
EBITDA | £191M £3.19M (34.9%) | £13.3M £1.5M (26.2%) |
Cash | £118M £914k (57.0%) | £7.61M £242k (93.3%) |
Number of Employees | 2040 99 (49.3%) | 211 19 (83.8%) |
Director Emoluments | £1.16M £412k (35.6%) | £568k £216k (27.1%) |
Dividends Payable | -£41.8M £0 (35.5%) | -£2.93M £0 (26.5%) |
Audit Fees | £377k £9000 (57.0%) | £30.8k £0 (93.3%) |
Net Assets | £354M £2.75M (57.0%) | £18.0M £513k (93.3%) |
Funding Analysis
Mean | Acquiring Companies | Acquired Companies |
Latest pre-money valuation | £259M (17.6%) | £37.1M £5.30M (15.0%) |
Latest post-money valuation | £272M £17.5M (17.6%) | £42.8M £6.12M (15.0%) |
Latest Turnover multiples following the most recent fundraising | 10.1 1.89 (26.2%) | 108 3.10 (18.2%) |
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Number of grants received | 0.45 0 (10.3%) | 0.24 0 (8.20%) |
Total amount received in grants | £2.56M £224k (10.3%) | £934k £225k (8.20%) |
Number of fundraisings completed | 0.76 0 (28.9%) | 0.57 0 (19.6%) |
Total amount received in fundraisings | £59.8M £4.40M (28.9%) | £14.3M £1.59M (19.6%) |
Signals
Signs of growth, innovation and risk
For more information on this, read this page about our Signals!
Signal | Acquiring Companies | Acquired Companies |
Equity Fundraising | 26.2% | 18.2% |
Debt Fundraising | 3.42% | 2.35% |
MBO/MBI | 8.28% | 3.08% |
Accelerator | 4.86% | 4.71% |
10% Scaleup | 43.6% | 26.4% |
20% Scaleup | 33.7% | 19.1% |
High Growth List | 23.8% | 12.5% |
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Academic Spinout | 0.48% | 0.95% |
R&D Grant | 4.20% | 3.87% |
Patent | 5.40% | 3.80% |
Most common auditors
Number represents the number of financial statements mentioned in
Acquiring Companies Top 10 | Acquired Companies Top 10 |
BDO - 61 | Azets Audit Services - 34 |
PWC - 60 | Cooper Parry Group - 32 |
RSM UK Audit - 60 | BDO - 30 |
Deloitte - 55 | TC Group - 30 |
EY - 43 | PWC - 29 |
Grant Thornton - 35 | RSM UK Audit - 28 |
Cooper Parry - 30 | EY - 27 |
Forvis Mazars - 28 | Grant Thornton UK - 23 |
Azets Audit Services - 27 | MHA - 22 |
KPMG - 25 | Forvis Mazars - 20 |
Advisors Involved in Acquisitions
Advisor | Number of Acquisitions Involved With |
Browne Jacobson | 32 |
Hill Dickinson | 28 |
Ernst & Young (EY) | 27 |
Grant Thornton (GT) | 27 |
KPMG | 27 |
KBS Corporate | 26 |
BDO | 24 |
Dow Schofield Watts (DSW) | 24 |
Gateley | 23 |
RSM | 22 |
Addleshaw Goddard | 21 |
Deloitte | 21 |
DLA Piper | 19 |
Christie & Co | 17 |
Freeths | 15 |
Most common headquarters location
On a country level, 78.6% of the Acquiring companies are based in the UK, followed by 8.64% in the United States, 1.85% in Sweden and 1.45% in Germany.
For the UK-based acquiring companies, 30.3% are based in London, followed by 13.8% in the South East, 11.1% in the North West, and 7.17% in the South West.
Scotland accounted for 6.28%, Wales 3.05% and Northern Ireland 1.43%
As for Acquired companies, for those with a UK head-office, 31.2% were headquartered in London, followed by 12.5% in the South East, 7.60% in the South West, and 7.35% in the West Midlands.
Scotland accounted for 6.17%, Wales 2.96% and Northern Ireland 2.87%
👋Get in touch with the team
For any more information on how to run similar searches yourself, what kind of data Beauhurst has, or how you can run similar analysis, please speak to your Support team - their contact details will be found in the Help tab on your account.