Overview
The last five years have presented a highly variable backdrop for UK mid-market M&A, shaped by successive waves of economic disruption, fluctuating capital markets and evolving investor priorities. Against that environment, buy-and-build activity has demonstrated a notable degree of resilience, but not without meaningful shifts in both trajectory and underlying behaviour.
The dataset tells a clear story of expansion followed by recalibration. Deal volumes increased steadily from 708 acquisitions in 2021 to a peak of 902 in 2024, reflecting a period of strong deployment across both private equity-backed platforms and corporate acquirers. That momentum, however, was not sustained. Activity fell back to 614 transactions in 2025, marking a distinct shift in impetus in the market.
It would not be accurate to look at this pattern as a simple boom-and-bust cycle. Rather, it reflects a market responding to a convergence of factors, including rising financing costs, valuation uncertainty and, increasingly, the need to reassess strategic positioning in light of technological change. In that context, the 2024 peak represents not just the high point of activity, but also the point at which many buyers began to recalibrate both strategy and approach.
Looking beneath the headline volumes, the data also highlights a divergence in behaviour between different types of acquirers. Private equity backed platforms completed 2,166 acquisitions across the period, significantly outpacing corporate acquirers at 1,595. However, that greater level of activity is accompanied by greater volatility. Private equity deployment accelerated sharply into 2024 but retrenched more noticeably in 2025, reflecting its sensitivity to financing conditions, investor sentiment and exit dynamics.
Corporate acquirers, by contrast, exhibit a more consistent trajectory. While they too experienced a reduction in activity in 2025, the overall pattern is less pronounced, suggesting a steadier strategic approach to acquisition-led growth. This is consistent with a model that is less dependent on external financing cycles and more aligned to long-term capability building and market positioning.
Taken together, these trends reinforce a central theme of the report: buy-and-build remains a deeply embedded feature of UK mid-market M&A, but its execution is becoming more nuanced. The data demonstrates both the scale of activity and the adaptability of the model, while the recent moderation highlights a shift towards greater discipline and selectivity.
In that sense, the story of the last five years is not one of decline, but of evolution. Activity has expanded, peaked and adjusted, with both private equity and corporates continuing to rely on acquisition as a core lever of growth, albeit in ways that increasingly reflect their differing objectives, constraints and strategic priorities.
“Buy‑and‑build has become an increasingly important feature of UK mid‑market M&A as a deliberately orchestrated strategy for businesses seeking to grow at pace, add capability, build scale and repeatable resilience.”