Considering each the historical growth in the project industry and the variety of companies supported by the project, it shouldn’t be surprising that Peer-to-Peer mergers in the startup ecosystem are becoming more and more common. With an 18% increase in the variety of takeover of startups supported by VC by other buyers supported by VC in the first half of 2025 and probably more such offers, I wanted to share some lessons drawn each on the side of shopping for and selling such transactions.
For the conciseness, I focus on lessons pulled out in relation to two specific topics for each startup team considering this path out: the means of identifying the right partners and managing key electoral districts.
Defining the “industrial logic” of connection
When assessing potential companies to connect, consider primarily industrial logic. Is your market growing quickly enough that you’re feeling the need to gain a larger share on your existing market?
If the answer is “yes”, it will lead you to a more look towards potential, old competitors. This will be a difficult selection for many founding teams.
But if your market is indeed an accident in the right place and at the right time, joining forces can create a significant scale, especially if your organization is not the largest supplier in space.
We have seen several cases in which two smaller participants on the market used this approach to have a sufficient scale to accept the leader of the market share or make it public. We see it, for example, in connection between Forge Global and Sharepost (*5*)Forgewho created a sufficient scale to successfully compete Nasdaq private market and also finally make public.
Selection between competitors and neighboring market players
On the other hand, if you think that your organization’s product ought to be a part of a larger apartment for customer support, it will probably be an easier path that potentially opens much more partnership options in neighboring markets.
One of the most interesting exercises was a meeting with clients to review the every day flow of labor, because this might help determine which products or services are used before or after yours, and thus help discover ideal candidates to mix.
Let the flow of the partner’s partner’s guide work
Being a member of the management board of two companies that applied this approach to identification and ultimately the acquisition of other startups, in each cases I discovered that customers accepted data from the SaaS offer purchased companies and sent it to other offers as a part of work flow.
In each cases, Enterprise customers asked if they may integrate two offers to cooperate via AP, and in one case two different customers will recommend the connection, which we finally did.
Asking customers for a connection is a powerful motivator. It also gives two companies the opportunity to review their clients to understand not only how common they are used together, but also to discover the possibility of selling cross in the future.
In addition, the arrival of AI agents will emphasize the automation of labor flow. Relations with clients, data resources and understanding of startups in neighboring areas will turn out to be priceless resources and will propel a significant ramp in merger and the takeover of peer-to-peer.
Managing the expectations of stakeholders outside clients
In hand with the number of partners, he manages other constituencies except customers at the table. A successful connection requires purchase from boards, shareholders and key managers of each companies to normally meet.
Here you would like to manage not only ongoing implementation in the industry, but also expectations. The expectations regarding the management of a combined company, valuation, property and management are obvious aspects.
One of the complexity of the output process is that you simply manage them in two different scenarios and compare each: you contrast the expectations of what happens in the case of a potential connection compared to what happens if you stay on the current path of the company.
Balancing valuation, leadership and management fears
While Peer M&A will be complicated in management, in reality if each teams see a higher condition together than independent, management and shareholders canil it to find a solution that works.
Where there is Wola, there is a way that always draws on creativity or compromises that have not been provided at the starting of the process. In particular, if industrial logic is strong, there are solutions that will be easily achieved if the pages are reasonable and there is mutual interest in making it occur.