Using CB Insights M&A transaction and headcount data for Q1'25 so far, we found that tech companies acquired for $100M or more had just 100 employees at the median.
We zoomed in on the companies exiting with teams of 100 employees or under, and they’re typically:
young (7 years old on average)
bootstrapped (a majority have raised under $20M in equity funding)
See the top 10 by valuation-to-employee ratio below.
The top exit by that metric went to Voyage AI, which offers embedding models and ranking tools to improve AI search and retrieval.
With just 19 employees and a price tag of $220M — up 2x since its funding round last September — Voyage AI’s sale to MongoDB equated to $11.6M per employee.
Bon voyage
For MongoDB, Voyage AI represents an opportunity to own more of the AI development process and build customer trust, specifically around output reliability.
This is one of the main hurdles to broader AI adoption.
In a December 2024 survey we conducted on AI agents — the clear next evolution for enterprise genAI deployment — nearly half (47%) of respondents cited reliability & security as a top obstacle.
To address this concern, platforms that help businesses organize, maintain, and leverage their data effectively will become even more important.
Acquisition radar
MongoDB isn’t the only one acquiring AI startups to stitch together more unified AI development tools.
Data management giants Databricks and Snowflake have been on AI acquisition sprees, acquiring 5 AI startups a piece since 2023 — more than any other acquirers globally.
Another top contender is Unstructured, in the data curation space — the company has received previous backing from the venture arms of both MongoDB and Databricks.
Cheat mode: Roy Lee — the Columbia student who built an AI tool to ace interviews at Amazon, Meta, and TikTok — is now in hot water with his university. After he turned down an Amazon offer, someone tipped off Columbia, sparking a misconduct case. The school canceled his hearing, accusing him of planning to record it. Lee denied it and took to X to vent. Reactions are mixed; some call him a tech innovator, and others say he’s tanked his career.
For-profit, for-feud: A judge denied Elon Musk’s bid to block OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit entity, ruling he failed to prove the move would cause irreparable harm. However, parts of his lawsuit — alleging breach of contract and antitrust violations — will move forward. Musk, who recently offered $97.4B to take control of OpenAI, said he’d withdraw the bid if the company abandoned its restructuring. CEO Sam Altman dismissed the offer as a ploy to stall a competitor.
Coin toss on crypto: The SEC is dropping its lawsuit against Coinbase, which accused the exchange of facilitating trading in unregistered securities and improperly running its staking program. The agency has also paused its case against Binance, fueling speculation that it may be rethinking its enforcement strategy on crypto.
Dial-an-appeal: The US Supreme Court shut down BMC Software’s attempt to revive a $1.6B payout, siding with a lower court that ruled IBM didn’t break its contract. BMC accused IBM of replacing its software at AT&T in violation of a licensing deal, but an appeals court ruled the swap was allowed if AT&T requested it.
Billionaire throwdown: As Tesla faces growing backlash — including vandalism, trade-ins, and showroom protests — Elon Musk is pointing fingers. The CEO accused LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman of secretly funding anti-Tesla demonstrations, an allegation Hoffman calls “false.” The dispute played out on X, where Hoffman denied any involvement and suggested Musk is deflecting blame.
Source: X
Chrome and punishment: The Trump administration’s DOJ just renewed its antitrust push against Google, filing a revised proposal on Friday that calls for the company to sell its Chrome browser — and possibly Android. This follows a 2023 ruling that found Google to be a monopolist. Google, calling the proposal extreme, is pushing back. A court hearing has been set for April.
P.S. In case you missed it, CBI now has 10M company profiles you can use to compare partners’ or targets’ management teams, financial viability, likelihood of success, and more.
