Over the last five years, the developer tools space has seen YoY exit activity top 20%. More than 10 companies exited via M&A last quarter.
From bug tracking to code sharing networks, the developer tools market has expanded rapidly. But while funding to the developer tools space grew 77% YoY through Q1’13 to $646M, growth in exit activity thus far has been relatively tame.
Until last quarter, that is.
M&A activity in the developer tools space jumped 140% from Q1’13 behind acquisitions by Intel, Facebook and CA Technologies among others. Q2 also saw a developer tools-centric public offering in Greylock Partners-backed Rally Software which provides a cloud-based platform for agile software development. The chart below details exit growth over the past five years within the developer tools marketplace.
Details on the most active acquirers in the Developer Tools Space can be found on the ‘Research’ tab, after logging in to CB Insights. This research is only available to paid subscribers with access to CB Insider.
Over the past two years, developer tools acquisitions were primarily either small capabilities acquisitions or acqui-hires, but that trend appears to be changing based on H1 2013 exit activity. As sentiment on the Developer Tools market has become more favorable, companies in the space are now raising larger amounts of financing. As shown below, YoY growth in the average amount raised prior to exit has jumped over 160% over the past two years.
