When startups exit: comparing strategies in Europe and the USA

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of trends toward start-up exits. Exits represent the “end phase” of the start-up process, at least for the founders and the early investors. For high-growth venture-capital-backed companies, exits are often considered the ultimate goal of building a profitable venture. These ventures are intended from the beginning to harvest the financial value created by the business at some point in the future, and return capital to early investors. Design/methodology/approach: The authors tracked 5,744 merger and acquisition transactions that have occurred between European and US tech start-ups since 2012. Data are drawn from CrunchBase, the most comprehensive database of high-tech companies and investors with information on the companies and investors around the world. The authors then compared the trends of acquisitions between European and US companies. Findings: Results show that US companies are far more inclined to make acquisitions than European ones. Acquirers of start-ups, both from Europe and the US, prefer to buy local companies. However, recently, US companies have started to show more interest in European start-ups. Thus, signaling that the European start-up ecosystem is growing and becoming more attractive for US buyers. Furthermore, results show that start-up exits typically happen within a few years after a company’s establishment. Research limitations/implications: The research does not take into consideration the price of the transaction, or the amount of capital invested by venture capitalists in the high-tech start-ups that have been acquired. Further research should address this specific problem by helping European start-ups understand how to plan the exit phase within few years from establishment. Practical implications: The results have important implications both for entrepreneurs/managers and policymakers. Early exit appears to be a global trend among start-ups. This suggests that the exit phase should be properly planned to happen in the very early stage of the start-up process. On the other hand, the research also shows that there is still a gap to be filled in the European start-up ecosystems’ ability to produce exits and create new large innovative companies (the so-called “unicorns”). Originality/value: To date, there has been a little research about exits for young high-tech ventures. This paper will attempt to shed new light on this so far under-explored issue by specifically analyzing exits as financial strategy for investors and entrepreneurs.