Reports: A Comprehensive Insight into our Sectors

Enterprises are digitising more products, processes and services than ever before. At the same time, they are migrating them to the cloud for efficiency, scalability and corporate agility. These trends are driving growth across all segments of the IT Services sector, keeping firms with relevant expertise in hot demand.

M&A in the Enterprise Software sector has remained remarkably robust. In fact, in terms of M&A volume, the sector saw the second highest number of M&A deals. Strategic buyers are continuing to account for a higher proportion of deals in the sector, with the share of private equity acquirers having dipped since the pandemic. However, private equity acquirers are paying significantly higher EV/revenue and EBITDA multiples than their strategic counterparts.

The sector experienced a decline in deal numbers throughout 2023. Relative valuation multiples also showed a downward trajectory. However, M&A volumes have continued to track higher than in the years preceding the pandemic, and there has been increased deal activity in 1Q2024.

M&A in the Enterprise Software sector has remained remarkably robust. In fact, in terms of M&A volume, the sector saw the third highest number of M&A deals in 1H2023. 

Two years on from the largest-ever number of deals recorded in a six-month period, we’re continuing to see strong M&A momentum within the automotive sector. Challenges abound for legacy OEMs, however.

Organisations continue to face the challenge of finding, keeping and developing new hires to their full potential. Combined with AI- and technology-based advances, these motivations are driving the HRTech market. As a result, what used to be a slow-moving corporate technology space a decade ago is now a multi-billion-dollar market of HR cloud solutions to address the needs for the future of work.

The global real estate technology market, or “Proptech”, is set to thrive in the coming months.

The fintech industry continues to grow and break records. Changes are being accelerated by the shift away from cash, the boom in electronic payment transactions, and the application of innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

An increasing number of software and services firms now specialise in facilitating ESG reporting capabilities. Over the past five years, they have garnered interest as M&A targets. 

There is growing appetite to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital solutions to solve many of medicine's pressing problems. This was been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Enterprises have been forced to rapidly digitise their products, processes and services. Lockdown measures around the world have accelerated the move to digital. Working from home has required better IT capabilities, whether in-house or outsourced. This has generated a need for reinforced cybersecurity: while the world is focused on the health and economic threats posed by Covid, cyber criminals are undoubtedly capitalising on this crisis. 

Technological advancements have radically transformed the ways in which insurance is offered, and the software used by insurers to adequately deliver insurance products. 

Artificial intelligence continues to sweep through all industries horizontally, changing software and technological processes as we know them. AI is the key source of transformation and disruption used by many corporations to stay afloat and remain competitive –by virtue of assistance, augmentation and automation it can contribute to various processes.

Since the last edition of Hampleton’s AR/VR report, the industry has kept making significant strides, with increasing amounts of funding flowing to later-stage companies in particular to accelerate the development of AR/VR technology in a wide variety of applications, ranging from retail to industrial manufacturing and from healthcare to energy and power.