Even as India’s startup exits held broadly steady at $7 billion in 2025, strategic sales saw a striking comeback – surging nearly 15-fold to cross $1 billion after a near-wipeout the year before. Led mainly by four major deals, the share of strategic sales in overall exits nearly doubled from 7% in 2024 to 15% in 2025, as per a recent report by Bain & Company and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA).
Among the key deals was Kinara AI, which makes AI-led neural processing units (NPUs). The company was acquired by US chip giant NXP Semiconductors for over $300 million in October, marking the largest strategic sale of last year. Buy-now-pay-later startup Axio was acquired by existing investor Amazon for roughly $155 million, while wealthtech platform Fisdom was bought by broking unicorn Groww in a $150 million deal.
Besides these, skincare brand Minimalist was picked up by Hindustan Unilever for nearly $140 million, signalling continued appetite among large consumer conglomerates for online-first D2C brands.
Together, these four deals accounted for roughly three-quarters of all strategic exit value in 2025. The higher number of large deals drove average exit value across strategic sales to about $75 million, from just $7 million in 2024. In absolute numbers, there were 14 strategic sales in 2025, compared to 10 in the year before.
What do VCs say?
“Large companies preparing for public listings are strengthening their businesses through both organic growth and acquisitions, driving the spike in strategic deals,” says Abhishek Prasad, managing partner at Cornerstone Ventures. The firm exited three companies from its Fund-I, all through strategic acquisitions.
Auxano Capital’s Brijesh Damodaran agrees, adding that 2025 saw a ‘buy over built’ approach, after a static period, to secure high-moat tech and market leadership instantly. “This momentum looks like the preferred play now, as the IPO window has become more selective, forcing high-quality startups to view strategic exits not as a “Plan B,” but as a primary liquidity event,” he says.
Cornerstone’s Prasad adds that two of their portfolio companies were acquired by Indian unicorns, primarily for IP expansion and platform capabilities, while the third acquisition was done by a NYSE-listed company, seeking to enhance their technology and execution capabilities.
Aside from $100 million-plus deals
Besides these $100 million-plus deals, IPO-bound Udaan acquired retail-tech startup ShopKirana for $90 million last year, while another B2B platform Jumbotail acquired Solv, a B2B commerce and financial services platform, for $50 million.
Strategic acquirers prioritized faster execution, valuation certainty, and assets offering clear synergy and capability-building potential, the report says.
Despite the surge in strategic exits, public market routes remained the dominant channel, accounting for 67% of total exit value. IPO-led liquidity surged further in 2025, with five IPOs generating exits of $100 million or more in, compared to just two in 2024.
Notable listings included Groww (about $670 million in VC exits), Lenskart (about $475 million), Dr. Agarwal’s Healthcare (about $255 million), Urban Company (about $170 million), and Pine Labs (about $165 million).
Secondary sales, however, dipped marginally in 2025, as the number of large secondary exits ($100 million+) fell from seven deals in 2024 to four last year. Buybacks stayed negligible as founders conserved cash (similar to 2024), reflecting a continued focus on liquidity over stake repurchases.