Total disclosed deal value reached $700M in the first three months of 2025. Buyers preferred to keep their M&A strategies private as only 10% of deals announced their transaction values.

Let’s start by looking at dealmaking activity in the Blue-Collar Software sector during the first quarter of 2025, which was robust with 77 deals seen. At that pace, transaction volumes would exceed the 10-year high achieved in 2024. Dealmaking volumes have been on a powerful upward trend since 2022 as toolbelt industries continue to digitize. Financial and strategic buyers were eager to pursue acquisitions in this space as PE firms were the buyers in 30% of these transactions.

During the first three months of 2025, no buyer made more than one acquisition in the Blue-Collar Software sector. Strategic acquirers included Mews Systems, Motorola Solutions and FedEx. Financial buyers included Main Capital Partners, Francisco Partners and MidOcean Partners. The buy-and-hold company Banyan Software also made one acquisition in this sector during the first three months of 2025.

After peaking in 2021, VC funding for Blue-Collar Software firms continued to dry up throughout the first quarter of 2025. The median VC investment was $4.25M, well below the median disclosed M&A transaction value of $60M. Companies have instead been encouraged to pursue M&A strategies for growth and liquidity.