M&A advisory for DeepTech companies
DeepTech M&A is thin and idiosyncratic. Most deals are strategic acquisitions by industrial, defense, semiconductor or pharmaceutical primes buying specific capability, IP or qualified production rather than scaled revenue, with a smaller layer of deals from PE platforms and sovereign-backed funds backing late-stage capital-intensive operators. Timing, milestone progress and IP position do most of the valuation work, with revenue multiples often irrelevant.
The buyer set depends entirely on the category: hyperscalers acquire compute, photonics and novel-computing operators; the defense primes acquire materials, sensing and energetics; the industrial conglomerates acquire advanced materials, fusion and energy-adjacent platforms; and a layer of sovereign-backed funds backs late-stage capital-intensive operators. Individual buyer relationships matter disproportionately given how narrow the universe is. Flow has direct access to corporate development across the relevant strategics and to the specialist sovereign and infrastructure investors active in the category.
Flow team has relevant sector experience and has worked with deeptech companies across advanced materials, quantum and photonics, novel computing and semiconductors, energy and fusion technology, and frontier biology platforms.
"DeepTech" KPIs M&A buyers look at
Key metrics strategics and PE buyers look at when analayzing DeepTech M&A targets
TRL stage
Milestones delivered
Patents granted / filed
Capitalised R&D
Non-dilutive funding secured
Strategic partnership revenue
Cash runway (months)
Burn rate
Pilot / LOI customers
Capex deployed vs plan
DeepTech valuations in May 2026
Public DeepTech comps trade at 4.2x EV/Revenue. Median revenue multiple across DeepTech M&A deals was 2.9x in the last 12 months.
4.2x
Median EV/Revenue as of May 2026 for public DeepTech companies
24x
NVIDIA is the highest valued public DeepTech company based on EV/Revenue (excluding outliers)
2.9x
Median EV/Revenue across DeepTech M&A deals in the last 12 months
19x
Median EV/Revenue across DeepTech VC rounds in the last 12 months
Key recent DeepTech M&A deals
$21B acquisition of Exact Sciences by Abbott was the largest DeepTech M&A transaction completed in the last year.
See all DeepTech M&A deals| Logo | HQ | Description | Buyer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov-25 | Exact Sciences |  | Exact Sciences, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. Exact’s Cologuard screening test is a noninvasive stool-based DNA test for colorectal cancer. The company also competes in the precision oncology market with Oncotype DX, a suite of tissue-based genomic tests for estimating recurrence risk and likelihood of benefit from chemotherapy for breast and colon cancer, and OncoExTra, a liquid-based comprehensive genomic profiling test. It also has a pipeline of blood-based tests for molecular residual disease, colorectal cancer screening, and multicancer screening. | Abbott | $21B | 7.7x | |
Oct-25 | Hologic | | Hologic manufactures proprietary products for the healthcare needs of women. The company operates in four segments: diagnostics (44% of total sales), breast health (38%), surgical (16%), and skeletal health (2%). While the company traditionally focused on breast health, the acquisition of Gen-Probe put greater emphasis on commercial diagnostics. The United States accounts for the largest portion of the firm's revenue (69%), followed by Europe (20%), Asia (8%), and other international markets (3%). Hologic is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. | Blackstone | $18B | 4.6x | |
Jun-25 | Sugon |  | Dawning Information Industry Co Ltd is a China-based company engages in the manufacturing and selling of computers and servers. The company also provides industrial solutions and cloud computing services. Its products include server products, safety products, high-performance computing products, infrastructure, storage products, and cloud computing products. It offers integrated information services such as cloud computing and large data, software development, system integration and technical services. | Hygon Information Technology | $16B | 7.7x | |
Apr-26 | Globalstar | | Globalstar Inc is a telecommunications company that derives revenue from the provision of mobile satellite services. Mobile satellite services are typically used by customers where existing terrestrial wireline and wireless communications networks are impaired or do not exist. The company provides communications services such as two-way voice and data transmission. In addition, one-way data transmission is also offered. Both services are offered using mobile or fixed devices. The company is an owner of satellite assets. It has one reportable segment: MSS business. The company generates the vast majority of its revenue within the United States. | Amazon | $12B | 40x | |
Oct-25 | Qorvo | | Qorvo represents the combined entity of RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor, which merged in January 2015. The company specializes in radio frequency filters, power amplifiers, and front-end modules used in many of the world’s most advanced smartphones. Qorvo also has a suite of products sold into a variety of nonsmartphone end markets, such as wireless base stations, cable TV and networking equipment, and infrastructure and military applications. | Skyworks Solutions | $11B | 2.9x | |
Feb-26 | Masimo | | Masimo Corp is a technology company. The company's segment includes healthcare and non-healthcare. The healthcare business segment is a key revenue driver, develops, manufactures, and markets a variety of noninvasive patient monitoring technologies, hospital automation and connectivity solutions, remote monitoring devices and consumer health products. Its non-healthcare segment includes consumer audio business develops, manufactures, markets sells and licenses premium and luxury audio sound products and related integration technologies. | Danaher | $9.9B | 6.6x | |
Jul-25 | Core Scientific | | Core Scientific Inc is engaged in designing, building and operating digital infrastructure for high-performance computing. The business operates in three operating segments; Digital Asset Self-Mining, consisting of performing digital asset mining for the own account, Digital Asset Hosted Mining, consisting of providing hosting services to third parties for digital asset mining, and HPC Hosting, consisting of providing hosting services to third parties for graphics processing unit (GPU) based HPC hosting operations. The majority of revenue is derived from the Digital Asset Self-Mining Segment. | CoreWeave | $9.0B | 19x | |
Feb-26 | Silicon Labs | | Silicon Laboratories Inc Inc is a provider of secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. The company's integrated hardware and software platform, intuitive development tools, industry ecosystem, and robust support help customers build industrial, commercial, home, and life applications. Company make it easy for developers to solve complex wireless challenges throughout the product lifecycle and get to market quickly with solutions that transform industries, grow economies, and improve lives. Company operates in USA, China, Taiwan and Rest of World, with maximum revenue from rest of the world. | Texas Instruments | $7.5B | 9.6x | |
Oct-25 | A | ABB (robotics unit) |  | - | SoftBank | $5.4B | 2.3x |
Mar-26 | Exaware |  | Exaware develops low-power, compact routers using icPhotonics™ technology for high-speed data transfer via electro-optical chip-level information handling. | Actelis Networks | $5.4B | - | |
Jul-25 | S | Spectris | - | Project Aurora Bidco | $5.2B | - | |
Oct-25 | Veeco | | Veeco Instruments Inc is a United States-based company engaged in designing, developing, and manufacturing thin-film process equipment, mainly used for producing electronic devices. The company focuses on semiconductor process equipment that addresses a range of challenging materials engineering problems for its customers. Its products include Laser Processing Systems, Lithography Systems, Ion Beam Systems, SiC CVD Systems, MOCVD Systems, Wet Processing Systems, MBE Technologies, Atomic Layer Deposition Systems, Physical Vapor Deposition Systems, Dicing and Lapping Systems, as well as Gas & Vapor Delivery Systems. The maximum of the company's revenue is generated from sales to the Semiconductor Industry and within China. | Axcelis | $4.4B | - | |
Dec-25 | Celestial AI | | Celestial AI is a semiconductor company building optical interconnects for AI data centers. Its Photonic Fabric interconnects memory pools with compute engines using silicon photonics to achieve over 10 TB/s bandwidth per socket. The technology disaggregates memory from GPUs for hyperscale training workloads. Partnerships include AMD and Samsung for HBM integration. Founded in 2020, Celestial AI locates headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and ships prototypes to cloud providers. | Marvell Technology | $3.3B | - | |
Jun-25 | A | Alphawave Semi | - | Qualcomm | $2.4B | 7.8x | |
Sep-25 | Rivos | | Rivos is a Santa Clara-based startup developing high-performance RISC-V processors for enterprise data centers. The company integrates CPUs, accelerators, and networking silicon into system-on-chips optimized for AI workloads and cloud computing. Backed by over $250 million in funding, it collaborates with hyperscalers on custom silicon deployments. | Meta | $2.0B | - |
Most active buyers of DeepTech companies
Qualcomm, Amazon and Cadence Design Systems are the most active acquirers of DeepTech companies in the last three years.
See all DeepTech acquirers| Logo | HQ | Description | Key acquisitions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Qualcomm | | Qualcomm develops and licenses wireless technology and designs chips for smartphones. The company's key patents revolve around CDMA and OFDMA technologies, which are standards in wireless communications that are the backbone of all 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. Qualcomm's IP is licensed by virtually all wireless device makers. The firm is also the world's largest wireless chip vendor, supplying nearly every premier handset maker with leading-edge processors. Qualcomm also sells RF-front end modules into smartphones, as well as chips into automotive and Internet of Things markets. | Ventana Micro SystemsArduinoAlphawave Semi+2 | 6 | |
 | Amazon | | Amazon is the leading online retailer and marketplace for third party sellers. Retail related revenue represents approximately 74% of total, followed by Amazon Web Services (17%), and advertising services (9%). International segments constitute 22% of Amazon's total revenue, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. | GlobalstarFauna RoboticsRIVR+2 | 5 |
Cadence Design Systems | | Cadence Design Systems is a provider of electronic design automation software, intellectual property, and system design and analysis products. EDA software automates and aids in the chip design process, enhancing design accuracy, productivity, and complexity in a full-flow end-to-end solution. Cadence offers a portfolio of design IP, as well as system design and analysis products, which enables system-level analysis and verification solutions. | ChipstackArm (Artisan Foundation IP unit)INVECAS Technologies+2 | 5 | |
Quantum Systems |  | Quantum Systems is a Munich-based manufacturer of AI-powered drones like Trinity Pro and Vector for defense, security, and emergency response. Its heavy-lift VTOL systems provide BVLOS reconnaissance with EO/IR payloads and real-time data analytics, serving NATO forces, border patrols, and firefighting units in Europe and the Middle East. | FERNRIDESpleenlabNordic Unmanned UK+1 | 4 | |
IonQ | | IonQ Inc sells access to several quantum computers of various qubit capacities and is in the process of researching and developing technologies for quantum computers with increasing computational capabilities. The company currently makes access to its quantum computers available via cloud platforms and also to select customers via its own cloud service. This cloud-based approach enables the broad availability of quantum-computing-as-a-service (QCaaS). The company derives its revenue from its quantum-computing-as-a-service arrangements, consulting services related to co-developing algorithms on company's quantum computing systems and contracts associated with the design, development, and construction of specialized quantum computing systems together with related services. | SkyWater TechnologyVector AtomicOxford Ionics+2 | 4 | |
Netmore |  | Netmore is a Stockholm-headquartered provider of private 5G networks and LoRaWAN IoT connectivity for real estate and utilities. Operating since 2010 across Scandinavia and the UK, the company deploys over 1 million LoRaWAN devices in multifamily housing and smart metering. Netmore's Open LoRaWAN Network covers 50 cities, partnering with Tele2 and British Gas for sub-GHz spectrum access. Its 5G slices support industrial automation in ports like Gothenburg, with fiber backhaul ensuring 99.999 percent uptime. | ActilityArson MeteringEverynet+1 | 4 | |
AMD | | Advanced Micro Devices designs a variety of digital semiconductors for markets such as PCs, gaming consoles, data centers (including artificial intelligence), industrial, and automotive applications. AMD’s traditional strength was in central processing units and graphics processing units used in PCs and data centers. However, AMD is emerging as a prominent player in AI GPUs and related hardware. Additionally, the firm supplies the chips found in prominent game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. | Untether AIEnosemiZT Systems+2 | 4 | |
SoftBank |  | SoftBank is an established, telecommunications services provider in Japan owning a mobile network with around 50 million mobile customers and 24% market share. It also provides some fixed line services, which are mostly resold so are low margin. The company also owns 32.4% of LY Corp, and SoftBank and LY Corp each own 32% of PayPay so SoftBank consolidates PayPay. SoftBank Group sold 33.5% of SoftBank Corp in an IPO in 2018 and has since sold down further to a 40% holding. | ABB (robotics unit)Ampere ComputingGraphcore+1 | 4 | |
Bruker | | Bruker Corp manufactures scientific instruments and diagnostic tests for customers in the life sciences, applied markets, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries. The company operates in segments, namely, Bruker Scientific Instruments (BSI) BioSpin, BSI CALID, BSI Nano, and Supercon Technologies (BEST). The company generates maximum revenue from the BSI CALID segment. Geographically, it derives the maximum of its revenue from United States. | Biocrates Life SciencesNanoString TechnologiesElitech Group+2 | 4 | |
Hexagon | | Hexagon is the global leader in digital reality solutions, combining hardware such as sensors and measuring devices, software, and services. Customers are mainly in heavy industry such as oil and gas, mining, construction, manufacturing, chemicals, and agriculture. Major products include measuring technology, mapping tools, and software. Around 40% of revenue is generated in the Americas, 35% in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and the rest in Asia. | Inertial Sense3D Systems (geomagic software packages unit)Xwatch Safety Solutions+2 | 4 |
Founders and investors we've worked with
We've supported winning builders across DeepTech and beyond.
Boryszew
We provided buy-side advice to Boryszew, a Warsaw-listed diversified industrial group across automotive, metals and chemicals, on industrial software market mapping and target screening for its buy-and-build strategy.
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Element
We provided buy-side commercial due diligence to Element Materials Technology, a London-headquartered global TIC services provider, on a series of potential add-on acquisitions in the testing, inspection and certification space.
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MAILINGWORK
We acted as exclusive sell-side advisor to MAILINGWORK, a Chemnitz-based email marketing software platform, on its sale to French digital marketing leader Positive Group.
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TestSolutions
We acted as exclusive financial advisor to Swiss PE firm Patrimonium on its majority stake acquisition of TestSolutions, a Frankfurt-based software testing and IT services provider.
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Rebellion Pay
We acted as exclusive sell-side advisor to Rebellion Pay, Spain's leading Gen Z neobanking platform, on its sale to Turkish consumer fintech unicorn Papara.
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