Private companies in the mobile industry have seen tremendous 661% growth in funding over the past 5 years.
Exits in the space have also followed an upward trend — M&A and IPOs have grown year-over-year in each of the past 5 years. But the 95 exits in Q1’16 were down significantly from the peak of 150 exits in Q2’15.
Using CB Insights data, we tracked exits in the mobile industry starting in 2011.
Annual trends
The yearly graphic illustrates how exits have become increasingly common phenomenon in the mobile space. 2015 saw 17 mobile IPOs and 473 M&A transactions, a total that translates to 28% growth year-over-year.
Notable 2015 exits included Square‘s high-profile IPO, along with video portal Letv.com’s acquisition of a controlling $700M stake in Yongche, a Beijing-based car and chauffeur rental service. 
Quarterly trends
Mobile exits peaked in Q2’15 with 150 exits, among which were 7 IPOs including those of Virginia-based Alarm.com and San Jose, California-based mobile development specialist Apigee, both on the Nasdaq. Since that peak, however, the pace of exits fell significantly, with Q4’15 seeing just 85 exits (including 4 IPOs).
Q1’16 saw a modest rebound up to 95 exits, which is a 12% increase compared to the quarter prior. Notable mobile acquisitions in Q1’16 included those of cross-device marketer Tapad (acquired by Telenor Group) and dating app Grindr (acquired by Kunlun Worldwide).
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