The past few years have been dynamic for M&A. Rising interest rates, inflation and a host of other issues have brought uncertainty across numerous sectors. But still, deals are getting done.
Kicking off this year’s Philadelphia Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, Bank of America’s Jim Dever and Fritz Franz, Archetype Solutions Chetan Bagga, PeopleShare’s Ryan Clark and SeventySix Capital’s Chad Stender share their experiences operating in this market and discuss what it takes to get M&A deals done in today’s environment. Here’s an excerpt:
“We always talk about, any business, you need to innovate, acquire or you get your ass kicked, you fall behind. And where we specifically play is on the early-stage side — seed to Series A, Series B. And I would say, overall, from a macro, things are really compressed and tight. There's dry powder, no doubt. But a lot of the M&A that's happened across the last 18 months — down rounds, recaps, predatory — it's not that healthy growth that I think we're going to see moving forward into 2025 and beyond. So, things are still tight. Companies need that capital to really help them grow and scale. But things really flipped overnight — where it was low interest, capital was flowing, and then interest rates spiked, and it was really hard for these early-stage companies to get the capital they needed. And also, revenue wasn't their key driver. A lot of funds weren't leading with, ‘Are you cashflow positive,’ which most startups aren't. And all of the sudden, that became the mandate.” - Chad Stender SeventySix Capital managing partner.
You can catch the full panel discussion on the podcast.
