SoftwareOne–Crayon Shows What’s Possible in Swiss M&A
In Switzerland, total M&A deal value grew significantly last year, thanks to larger average deal sizes. There were 464 M&A deals in 2024 — down 4 percent from the year before — but total value surged more than 50 percent, from $72 billion to $115 billion. IPO activity followed a similar pattern, with marquee listings like Galderma’s $2.6 billion IPO and Sunrise’s return to the Swiss exchange in November.1, 2
Global geopolitical and economic uncertainty has kept investors cautious, but Switzerland’s stable regulatory environment and low interest rates have helped keep it attractive for dealmaking, based on PWC’s 2025 outlook.3 Heading into the new year, many expected a more active 2025.
That momentum is starting to show up in the market, as one of the year’s standout transactions just closed: SoftwareOne’s public takeover of Crayon, advised by Jefferies.4
The deal brings together two major players in software and cloud solutions. Valued at $1.5 billion, it’s the largest pan-European transaction in two years and the only Swiss-led acquisition since 2022 to top the $1 billion mark.
The deal is notable for a few reasons. First, it marks Jefferies’ first public buy-side takeover in Switzerland for a local corporate client. The transaction follows the appointment of Vincent Thiebaud as Head of Switzerland Investment Banking in June 2024 — a move that reinforces Jefferies’ commitment to growing its presence in the DACH region.
More fundamentally, the structure and execution of the transaction broke new ground in the Swiss market. The offer included a 40/60 mix of cash and stock, a structure not commonly seen in Switzerland. It delivered a premium of up to 40 percent for both SoftwareOne and Crayon shareholders and was financed through a mix of new equity and fresh capital, all while preserving SoftwareOne’s dividend policy and investment-grade profile.
Executing the deal required coordination across two regulatory systems — Swiss and Norwegian — as well as a dual listing in Oslo to accommodate Crayon’s investor base. Jefferies secured early commitments from key shareholders and helped convert skeptics into supporters, ultimately winning backing from over 90 percent of Crayon shareholders, including the Norwegian Pension Fund.
Despite a 55 percent decline in SoftwareOne’s valuation in the months leading up to the announcement, the deal went forward, underscoring the strength of the strategic rationale. The combined company is expected to generate CHF 80–100 million in cost synergies and position itself as a global leader in software and cloud services. Jefferies also managed antitrust and regulatory approvals across more than ten jurisdictions, adding yet another layer of complexity to an already ambitious cross-border transaction.
The SoftwareOne–Crayon deal reflects the kind of cross-border activity that’s still possible in Switzerland, even in a cautious market. It also points to a more flexible approach to deal structuring, shareholder engagement, and regulatory coordination — one that may become more common as dealmaking picks up. With stable fundamentals and signs of renewed momentum, Switzerland remains a reliable platform for companies looking to make strategic moves, both at home and abroad.
- https://www.galderma.com/news/galderma-launches-ipo-six-swiss-exchange-and-sets-price-range-0 ↩︎
- https://www.six-group.com/en/newsroom/media-releases/2024/20241115-sunrise-listing.html ↩︎
- https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/strategy/m-and-a-industry-trends-2025-outlook.html ↩︎
- https://www.softwareone.com/en/investors/softwareone-crayon ↩︎
A Dramatic Shift in The Credit Secondaries Market – Continuation Vehicles Become Mainstream
The credit secondaries market is surging and should be the fastest-growing segment of the secondaries market for years to come. A record number of investors entered the market for credit secondaries in 2024, a year marked by several marquee transactions and the growth in general partner (GP)-led deals, including continuation vehicles. Halfway through 2025, this trend continues to accelerate at a fast pace.
Based on Jefferies’ advised transactions and our credit secondaries market survey, the volume of credit secondaries transactions rose from $6 billion in 2023 to $10 billion in 2024. We expect the volume of credit secondaries transactions to increase to $17+ billion in 2025, representing a CAGR of 70%+ since 2023.
Meanwhile, the mix of transaction type in the credit secondary market is changing rapidly. The survey found that in 2024, 62% of transaction volume were limited partners (LPs) selling commitments in credit funds (i.e., LP-led), while 38% were led by GPs. In the second half of 2024, GP-led deals picked up, and Jefferies expects GP-leds to account for more than 70% of transaction volume in 2025.
In many ways, private credit secondaries are situated where the much larger private equity secondaries market was approximately five or so years ago.
Private equity secondaries remain the dominant force today, with volumes exceeding $160 billion annually and expected to reach $200 billion by the end of 2025. Private credit secondaries, while a fraction of the size, are growing quickly and could reach $40+ billion by 2027.
A perfect storm of factors is driving the growth of the credit continuation vehicle market:
- LPs Desire for Liquidity: LPs are increasingly seeking liquidity solutions, as traditional exit routes (M&A and IPOs) have continued to experience a slow recovery, resulting in lower-than-expected distributions. In some cases, the extended hold periods have led to fund leverage being paid down faster than anticipated, resulting in less optimal debt-to-equity fund ratios and diminishing fund returns.
- Inflows of Dedicated Capital: There is a significant influx of capital specifically targeted at credit secondaries with the appropriate cost of capital. Historically, investors were targeting mid-teens-plus returns, but with capital from dedicated secondary credit funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and alternative asset managers, among others, targeting direct lending (low double-digit returns) and opportunistic credit (mid- to high-teen returns), the market is ripe for continued growth. This has led to attractive pricing and an increased appetite for scaled, diversified portfolios.
- Blue-Chip Lender Adoption: A number of blue-chip private credit managers have utilized continuation vehicles to provide comprehensive liquidity solutions for their respective LP bases, given the narrowing bid-ask spread in the market and benefits afforded to all stakeholders. This adoption continues to fuel considerable interest from other private credit managers.
- Challenging Fundraising Conditions: As private credit funds encounter headwinds in a challenging fundraising environment, continuation vehicles enable GPs to access dry powder while providing their LPs with an optional liquidity event that locks in attractive returns today. This can be particularly relevant for direct lending funds where leverage facilities are accelerating their paydown, thereby deteriorating the funds’ go-forward IRR.
- Regulatory and Market Shifts: Tighter bank lending standards and evolving regulations have pushed more activity into private credit markets, as borrowers value the speed and flexibility of these solutions. The private credit market has grown substantially since the 2008 Financial Crisis, with tremendous amounts of capital ready to be “unlocked” through credit secondary solutions.
- Emergence of Specialist Strategies: As the credit secondaries market continues to deepen, appetite for more opportunistic credit strategies (including mezzanine, opportunistic, venture, and annual recurring revenue, among others) will continue to develop.
The Jefferies survey also identified significant changes in credit secondaries pricing. With a growing base of dedicated capital able to underwrite credit secondaries transactions at the right cost of capital, pricing has been enhanced materially for both LP and GP-led transactions. GP-led transactions for direct lending portfolios, in particular, priced between 95% and 100%.
All of this helps explain why credit secondary volume in the first half of 2025 was driven primarily by GPs. So far this year, there have been five credit secondaries transactions that exceeded $1 billion (Jefferies advised clients on three of them).
While more secondary credit investors prefer senior-secured, sponsor-backed direct lending portfolios, 2024 also saw many transactions with more diverse risk profiles close. Of the $10 billion in transaction volume in 2024, the Jefferies survey found 65% was in direct lending, 19% in opportunistic transactions, and 16% in mezzanine transactions.
The estimated dry powder from dedicated pools of capital in the market today exceeds $20 billion. The credit secondaries market is getting deeper and more diverse, and Jefferies has continued to identify new investors who are actively entering and in the process of evaluating their entry into this market.
The perfect storm of tailwinds propelling the credit secondaries market – and continuation vehicles in particular – shows no signs of abating, and investors are likely to find compelling opportunities in this market for the rest of 2025 and beyond.
Making Sense of the Head Spinning Changes in Fixed-Income European ETFs
Amid a global influx of capital and a constant drive for innovation, fixed-income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are becoming increasingly numerous, accessible, and convenient. This market has recently become more transparent and automated, enabling investors to manage risk in ways they may not have been able to before.
This trend is prompting many large institutional investors to take a closer look at European fixed-income ETFs as essential tools for managing their risk and cash, as well as assessing liquidity in the fast-moving and changing credit bond market.
In recent years, investors seeking European fixed-income exposure have faced barriers to liquidity, access, and transparency. In the U.S., you can trade in deep government and corporate bond ETF markets in readily accessible and centralized exchanges. By contrast, each ETF in Europe is often listed in several countries and traded in over-the-counter transactions. Upon further examination of the underlying bond market, across European investment-grade and high-yield bonds, approximately 60% trade daily or weekly, another 30% trade a few times a month, and 10% trade barely at all. European bonds also typically have higher minimum denominations of $100,000.
However, surging investor interest and product innovation are invigorating the market. Fixed-income ETFs in Europe have now surpassed the $500 billion AUM mark, growing at a rate of more than 15% annually.
Regulatory tailwinds, such as MiFID II and ESG regulations, have all boosted demand for ETFs, growing the client base and introducing new use cases. Factors making fixed-income ETFs more attractive include the easing cycle of central banks, the rebalancing away from dollar assets into euro assets, and the pace at which the market tends to move. By 2030, we forecast that the global fixed-income ETF AUM will grow to $6 trillion, with actively managed fixed-income ETFs exceeding $1.5 trillion.
Many of the new entrants to this market in recent years are global macro and systematic hedge funds, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, large asset managers, and a growing portion of retail aggregators.
The market has also quickly moved beyond simple index mainstream trackers. Now, providers offer a wide variety of fixed-income ETFs, including core, active, tactical, duration-managed, and ESG-focused options. New offerings hit the market regularly, becoming increasingly sophisticated to deliver access to every corner of the fixed income market. For example, it was only within the last three months that the Jefferies fixed-income ETF desk began to encounter and trade AAA-rated CLO ETFs and private credit ETFs.
When institutional investors decide to trade in European fixed-income ETFs, they derive significant benefits from working with an authorized participant that has extensive experience in this market.
Authorized participants can facilitate large block trades directly with ETF issuers through the primary market, independent of the volume available in the secondary market, according to State Street.1 This is especially important for fixed-income ETFs, where large orders might otherwise move market prices or not be fully executed on the exchange.
Additionally, authorized participants can help ensure that ETF prices remain close to their net asset value by creating or redeeming shares in response to supply and demand imbalances, according to VanEck.2 This reduces the risk of trading at a significant premium or discount. By trading directly in the primary market, authorized participants can achieve more cost-effective large transactions, as it avoids the bid-ask spreads and market impact costs associated with secondary market trades.
Authorized participants optimize primary bond baskets by examining the distribution of risk the ETFs are tracking across multiple factors, such as duration, spread, compression, and industry. They then select bonds within each of these risk buckets to keep the fund aligned with its benchmark or objective functions. Selecting bonds is truly at the core of this new protocol of trading. With abundant data and technology, Jefferies has developed a complex scoring mechanism to assess liquidity and momentum across tens of thousands of bonds. An authorized participant negotiates with ETF issuers by uploading a proposal for the primary basket. The ETF issuer will then respond with suggestions, pushbacks, and agreements.
When an authorized participant can act as a market maker, it can often find the best prices and provide immediate liquidity. At Jefferies, we maintain substantial capital on our balance sheet that can be readily deployed at any time for fixed-income ETFs, offering clients quotes based on multiple layers of liquidity.
The European fixed-income ETF market increasingly resembles a Damien Hirst pointillist painting, with thousands of individual dots representing multiple layers of bonds’ liquidity and alpha. It’s up to the authorized participant to see the whole picture and help clients find the best combination of options to meet their alpha generation, risk mitigation, and liquidity needs.
Strategics Return to the Table as Tech Deal Sentiment Improves
The Jefferies 2025 Public Tech Conference brought together top bankers, investors, founders, and tech executives to discuss the sector’s key trends and developments. The insights below are drawn from interviews and panels with conference attendees.
When tariff announcements rattled markets in early April, no sector took a bigger hit than technology. Public tech stocks fell sharply — led by mega-caps like Apple, whose global manufacturing footprint left them especially exposed, according to Reuters.1
The turbulence sparked fears that the long-anticipated rebound in dealmaking might stall. With policy uncertainty clouding the outlook and earnings under pressure, many expected M&A activity to pause.
Two months later, tech has proven remarkably resilient, according to EY.2 Through May 2025, tech led all sectors in M&A activity, with 165 deals valued at $100 million or more and a cumulative deal value of $236 billion. In April alone, technology accounted for nearly 60 percent of all billion-dollar-plus deals.
Jefferies spoke with senior tech bankers at its annual Public Tech Conference about what’s driving the market — and where things might go next.
Strong Public Listings Paired with Renewed M&A Momentum
In recent weeks, several large tech companies have completed successful IPOs — including eToro, the Israeli multi-asset trading platform. The company continues to trade more than 20 percent above its May debut price.3 Jefferies served as lead bookrunner on the $713 million offering.
“A month and a half ago, there were positive vibes, but no deals were happening,” said Evan Osheroff, Managing Director in Software Investment Banking at Jefferies. “Fast forward a month later, I want to say we’ve seen ten plus billion dollar deals across TMT. We’re seeing large-cap strategics actively pursue M&A.”
That view was echoed by Stefani Silverstein, Global Head of Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) M&A at Jefferies, who described just how much sentiment has shifted over the past two months.
“When we last spoke, it was April showers. We’ve reached May flowers,” she shared. “There’s been a real evolution, and folks are risk-on, looking to be acquisitive. Deals that should get done, do get done.”
A recent Jefferies survey of tech IPO investors reflected the same shift in tone. Risk appetite is high, and IPOs are still seen as the preferred route for alpha generation. Investors pointed to growth and unit economics as top priorities and expressed renewed confidence in software, which many expect to lead the next wave of public listings.
Tech Earnings Beat Expectations & Strategics Target AI
Some of the optimism may stem from recent tech earnings, which offered an early read on the impact of tariffs. Many results came in stronger than expected. As Barron’s reported, investors can breathe a sigh of relief: tech companies remain on solid ground. As big tech leans further into AI and software, many are proving less exposed to tariffs than other industries.
“We had the tariff uncertainty hit and the S&P went all the way down below 5000. We’ve come roaring back, which is obviously a great sign. Q1 earnings turned out to be fine,” said Ron Eliasek, Chairman of Global TMT Investment Banking at Jefferies. “This quarter’s going to be really interesting to watch because we have, obviously, all the uncertainty of April kind of factored in.”
Strategic buyers, in particular, are back in the game — many focused on AI infrastructure and enablement. Nearly every company is looking to fill gaps or speed up capabilities in their existing tech stacks, and acquisitions are the fastest way to get there.
“There’s a tremendous amount happening with AI financing,” explained Steve West, Vice Chairman for Technology Investment Banking at Jefferies. “Every large company and established company is looking to complement what they already have, with potential acquisitions of AI companies.”
Attendees at Jefferies’ Public Tech Conference broadly expect a steadier cadence of tech dealmaking in the second half of the year, supported by public market momentum, strong earnings, and the continued push to integrate AI. But they also caution that policy uncertainty and challenging conditions, including high rates, mean the market hasn’t fully stabilized. There’s clear momentum, but also a healthy degree of watchfulness.
Opening IPO Window: Strategy, Storytelling, and Liquidity
At last year’s Private Growth Conference, expectations were high that the IPO market would reopen — and by year’s end, the data looked encouraging.
The Jefferies 2025 Private Growth Conference brought together hundreds of top bankers, investors, founders, and tech executives to discuss the sector’s key trends and developments. The insights below are drawn from interviews and panels with conference attendees.
Activity was still below historical norms, but U.S. proceeds were up more than 50% year-on-year, and IPOs raised nearly four times as much as they had in 2022. Some of the year’s biggest offerings came out of the tech sector, including ServiceTitan and Reddit. Both are now trading above their listing price.
This year, that optimism hasn’t gone away, but it’s tempered by recent volatility in public markets. Uncertainty around trade policy has many companies holding back, even as a strong pipeline of IPO-ready names sits in wait.
At the 2025 Private Growth Conference, Jefferies caught up with leading bankers, founders, and executives across tech to hear what they expect in the second half of the year.
Tariff Jitters Slowed Momentum, but the Rebound May Be Quick
“For three years, we’ve thought the IPO market was ready to open. This year, conditions are different,” said Becky Steinthal, Head of TMT Equity Capital Markets at Jefferies. “There’s never been a higher-quality cohort of private tech companies . . . but we need more market stability. It’s an unusual dynamic.”
One of those companies is Klarna, the buy-now pay-later provider whose highly anticipated IPO was delayed as tariff news rattled markets. Another is Cerebras Systems, an AI chip company that filed to go public in September, but hasn’t yet confirmed the timing or size of its forthcoming public offering.
Fortunately, many investors believe the current holding pattern will last days or weeks, not months. “The lag between markets recovering from tariff volatility and the IPO market coming back is going to be really narrow,” Steinthal shared. “This is the most excited I’ve seen investors about the IPO market in years. They’re going to need fewer data points before jumping into IPOs.”
Gaurav Kittur, Co-Head of Global Internet Investment Banking, echoed this sense of pent-up demand. Public investors and private companies want access to each other, he explained. They just need the conviction to move.
“Next-generation tech leaders have stayed private, so public investors haven’t had real access to those exciting companies,” Kittur said. He believes once a few strong deals go out, momentum will follow: “It’ll probably be a trickle, then a flood.”
In the days since the Jefferies conference, the trickle has begun, marked by a series of successful offerings.
Israeli stock brokerage eToro debuted on NASDAQ with Jefferies as a lead underwriter, raising nearly $310 million as shares closed up nearly 30% on day one. And just this week, stablecoin issuer Circle jumped 168% in its NYSE debut after pricing above the expected range.
Honing Your Pitch While the Market Waits
As many top companies remain cautious, tech leaders are preparing to make the most of the window when it opens.
“We want to go public as the leading travel technology company — not in third or fourth place,” said Dakota Smith, President and Co-Founder of Hopper. The travel data provider and marketplace is eyeing a public listing that could value the business at up to $10 billion.
“That’s what we’re focused on now,” Smith added. “Sharpening the narrative, making sure the client book and revenue growth are strong, and starting to get that story out there.”
Becky Steinthal also underscored the importance of sharp messaging, something many tech leaders are using the current quiet period to refine.
“Companies need to tell a really strong story on unit economics,” she said. “It’s not just about showing profitability; they need to prove they can be a big, bad, self-sustaining business.”
Alternative Paths to Liquidity for Companies in Wait
With IPOs still sluggish, many companies are exploring alternative paths to liquidity. If the big exit isn’t on the table yet, how can they deliver some liquidity to investors and employees in the meantime?
“We see a ton of activity on both the private and the public side,” said Evan Osheroff, Managing Director for Software Investment Banking at Jefferies. “It’s the same old adage: things have been quiet the last couple of years. Companies need to go, private equity needs to go. Everyone wants distributions to paid-in capital (DPIs) and liquidity returned to their shareholders.”
“If you’re a private company eyeing the IPO market, [you’re pursuing] more secondary ways to kick the can down the road,” he added. “We’re doing a lot of these right now: secondary tenders for investors trying to sell, but don’t necessarily want the market to know it’s them selling.”
Osheroff also noted that partial liquidity events can be just as important to employees as to private equity or venture investors. “These alternatives serve early- and late-stage investors—and, I’d argue, most importantly, employees.”
When the Spigot Opens
Despite short-term volatility and the pause it’s created, many insiders remain confident that capital formation is close at hand, with IPOs poised to be part of the broader rebound.
“The world has been waiting for the spigot to open on capital formation broadly,” said Raphael Bejarano, Global Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Jefferies. “That extends beyond IPOs.”
As for the uncertainty coming out of Washington, Bejarano believes clarity is near. “We’re going through a period of recalibration. There’s a new administration and, frankly, some dramatic changes. But it can’t last forever for a whole slew of reasons. When stability returns, the spigot is likely to open.”
For companies with strong fundamentals and a clear story, the message from investors is simple: be ready.
Ravi Mhatre on Venture Capital’s Role in the Age of AI
The Jefferies 2025 Private Growth Conference brought together hundreds of top bankers, investors, founders, and tech executives to discuss the sector’s key trends and developments. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.
In April, Jefferies hosted Ravi Mhatre, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, at its annual Private Growth Conference. Mhatre runs one of the most active venture capital funds in Silicon Valley, where he’s led investments in Snapchat and other major tech ventures.
Here, Mhatre shares his thoughts on how AI is accelerating growth in enterprise settings, the evolving role of venture capital in funding innovation, and raising capital in a post-tech bubble world.
Explosive Enterprise Growth, Fueled by AI
In just two years, AI technology has gone from a novelty to a broadly adopted system. In enterprise sectors — where adoption cycles are typically much slower — companies are leveraging AI for growth at rates Mhatre describes as “stunning.”
It would be a mistake to assume this growth is confined to specific pockets of industry, Mhatre notes. “We’re in a world where we are supply-constrained on expertise that people want. AI is providing an amplifier effect to let more of that expertise be available.”
From helping doctors see more patients by reducing their administrative burden to enabling developers to write better software, AI is driving significant revenue growth for the companies that use it. Recent estimates suggest that AI could generate over $15 trillion in additional revenue for businesses by 2030.
The Role of Venture Capital in an AI-Driven World
Realizing this growth will require significant capital. Mhatre believes that venture firms will play a key role in providing it.
“Venture capital has had to be much more of an institutional force in the capital markets ecosystem,” explains Mhatre. The scale of investment needed to support today’s breakthrough technologies is now much larger. The average investment in deep tech, or technologies that aim to solve the world’s most complex problems, has reached $100 million or more per deal.
Traditional sources of capital, like public markets and private equity, often can’t support these investments. Their short-term return focus can be limiting, Mhatre argues. In contrast, venture capital is built to take a long view on innovation and value creation.
Venture also brings a deep understanding of the technology stack, regulatory dynamics, and strategic paths businesses must navigate to scale. “We know what it takes for a company to go from something new and innovative, that didn’t exist, to something that can be a major part of economic activity,” Mhatre explains.
This level of support has positioned venture capital as the go-to source of funding for innovative companies.
Raising Capital in a Post-Tech Bubble World
While there is still plenty of capital available for technology innovation, Mhatre suggests that this is a prime moment for companies to reflect on their product stack.
“Companies need to buy forward,” he says. That means having a clear vision for how products will evolve alongside AI and other emerging technologies. Meanwhile, mature companies must figure out how to compete with AI-native challengers drawing growing shares of budget and attention.
For some, this will mean pivoting to become an AI-forward company in their target markets. For others, it may mean figuring out how to operate successfully as a company that may not be as high-growth in the future.
This Might Be the Tipping Point for AI
As AI systems become more sophisticated, reliable, and capable, demand will only accelerate. Companies will have to keep up. This is one trend that Mhatre believes won’t go away, even amid regulatory uncertainty and a murky macroeconomic outlook.
Mhatre describes the power of the tipping point: core technology trends tend to move forward on their own cadence. If one idea doesn’t work at first, there will always be another trend that drives progress.
“At some point, when these tipping points come together, you get large before and after moments in technology,” he says. “That’s happening on an ongoing basis in AI.”
How Marc Lore is Building the AI-Powered Future of Food
The Jefferies 2025 Private Growth Conference brought together hundreds of top bankers, investors, founders, and tech executives to discuss the sector’s key trends and developments. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.
In April, Jefferies hosted Marc Lore, Founder & CEO of Wonder, at its annual Private Growth Conference. The serial entrepreneur — best known for founding and selling Diapers.com and Jet.com — shared insights on his latest venture: a food service platform that’s redefining restaurant economics.
Lore’s experience with Wonder offers a window into how entrepreneurs can rethink legacy industries with technology, vertical integration, and a clear long-term vision.
A Restaurant Group that Owns a Delivery Platform
Wonder — part restaurant group, part delivery platform — is aiming to make high-quality meals more accessible, efficient, and consistent. With 30 restaurant concepts under one roof, it delivers everything from burgers to Korean BBQ straight to customers’ doors, all through a single app.
“Think of us as a restaurant group that owns a delivery platform,” said Lore. “Imagine if Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and Five Guys all got together and said, ‘let’s cook all our same stuff in the same kitchen . . . and let’s build our own delivery network so we control the experience end to end.’ That’s how we’re reverse engineering the business.”
Since opening its first location two years ago, Wonder has expanded to 50 locations across the Northeast. Its growth plan includes reaching 200 locations by 2026, with a standalone IPO targeted for 2028.
Owning the Entire Customer Experience
Today, Wonder’s competitive advantage is its vertically-integrated model. As a company, they own all restaurant brands on their platform, which means no royalty payments and unlimited scaling opportunities. It also controls the cooking tech, kitchen operations, and delivery network, enabling faster service and consistent quality.
This control allows Wonder to claim 95 percent on-time delivery. Their model works particularly well in suburban and less densely populated areas, bringing a range of food options to places with more limited restaurant choices.
Billion-Dollar Technology Investment
To achieve restaurant-quality food without a traditional kitchen setup, Wonder invested over $1 billion in software engineering, culinary engineering, and food science.
“We’re able to cook 30 different cuisines and match the quality of best-in-market with only two or three distinct pieces of electric cooking equipment,” Lore explains. Wonder’s proprietary tools can sear steak in six minutes without flames, cook pasta without water, and bake pizza in 90 seconds.
But equipment is just one part of the equation. Wonder also developed sophisticated software, like sequencing algorithms, to ensure food from multiple restaurants finishes cooking at the same time and arrives hot.
M&A as a Strategy Accelerator
Wonder has expanded quickly through strategic acquisitions. Over the past two years, it has acquired meal-kit service Blue Apron, the creative studio Tastemade, and the delivery platform GrubHub. Lore describes his M&A philosophy as “opportunistic” and focused on advancing their core strategy.
“In the case of Blue Apron and Grubhub, those are businesses that we were organically building anyway,” Lore notes. “We’re not looking at acquisitions as some sort of holding company. We have a clear vision and strategy.”
The AI-Powered Future of Food
Lore’s vision is for Wonder to become a comprehensive “super app” for food. The company aims to integrate all of the ways to eat in one platform, from first-party restaurants and third-party local delivery to meal kits and reservations.
“Our ultimate goal is to autonomously feed families breakfast, lunch, and dinner according to their budget, health goals, and the foods they love,” says Lore. The next step, he says, is to use AI to support better ways of feeding families.
“Imagine making efficient use of all your groceries, not wasting any food, solving for your health goals while taking the burden off of having a meal plan completely off the table.”
There’s No Substitute for Great People
While Wonder’s tech and operations are core to its growth, Lore credits his team above all.
“I think the common theme is just surrounding myself with great people,” he reflects. “Creating a culture that not only identifies and attracts the best talent, but also gets the best out of them.”
With plans to reach $5 billion in revenue by 2028, Wonder is positioned to transform how Americans access and consume quality food, making it healthier, more convenient, and more enjoyable in the process.
Tariffs, Valuations, and Cautious Optimism: The Outlook for Tech M&A
The Jefferies 2025 Private Growth Conference brought together hundreds of top bankers, investors, founders, and tech executives to discuss the sector’s key trends and developments. The insights below are drawn from interviews and panels with conference attendees.
Global M&A value rose steadily in 2024, driven by a surge in billion-dollar-plus deals. Tech megadeals led the way, with 16 transactions topping $5 billion — more than any other sector.
Last year’s growth was supported by healthy private sector balance sheets, expansive fiscal policy, and renewed appetite from strategic buyers. Still, slower-than-expected rate cuts and rising antitrust scrutiny created some friction.
At this year’s Private Growth Conference, dealmakers struck a tone of cautious optimism. Both sponsors and strategics are eager to transact, and with the right conditions, many expect activity to pick up. The question is whether recent volatility will get in the way.
Cautious Optimism, Even as Tariff Uncertainty Lingers
“I think everybody, as they entered 2025, was hopeful the environment would be strong, both on the equity side for IPOs and on the M&A side,” said Stefani Silverstein, Co-Head of Global TMT M&A at Jefferies. “On the M&A side, we’ve seen that play out. There’s been strong momentum. Deal volume has kept pace with last year, but the number of deals has increased.”
Tech M&A deal volume rose 4.8% in Q1 from Q4 2024, reaching 1,145 deals. That’s a 22.2% increase from the same quarter last year. However, much of that activity came before the tariff announcements in March, which roiled public markets and private sector confidence.
“There still isn’t a lot of data [on tariffs’ impact]. . . but there are a number of processes that were close to signing where it’s still very much on track,” Silverstein said. “I think, in the cases that have gone cold or been cut short, financing has become a bit more challenging.”
The tariff outlook remains uncertain, with potential exemptions by product or trade partner still on the table. But the lack of clarity has many business leaders in a wait-and-see posture, raising the risk of slower deal activity ahead.
Jon Gegenheimer, Managing Director in Technology M&A at Jefferies, shared a similar view.
“There’s no doubt that the recent tariff news has been disruptive to the point of an arrest of the market,” he said. “Decision makers have shifted right back into a wait-and-see mode, with a lot of people thinking about late summer, Labor Day, that sort of time frame for potentially a restoration of M&A activity in tech.”
Both Gegenheimer and Silverstein noted that more steadiness in the news cycle would help dealmakers better forecast demand and move forward with confidence.
Dealmakers Watch as Antitrust Tone Starts to Shift
Beyond tariffs, antitrust headwinds remain top of mind. Under President Biden, federal agencies pursued dozens of cases against major tech firms, leading several companies to abandon planned mergers.
“For years, the major tech companies moved into strategic segments via acquisition, but that window is essentially shut for the time being because of the regulatory scrutiny,” said Gaurav Kittur, Co-Head of Global Internet Investment Banking at Jefferies, at the time.
Entering 2025, it wasn’t yet clear how President Trump would handle antitrust enforcement. While many expected a lighter touch, members of his administration have also expressed concerns about big tech’s impact on competition.
“You also have individuals who’ve publicly called for more freedom in M&A,” said Jon Gegenheimer, “but at the same time, endorsed novel antitrust theories. Those statements are at odds.”
Still, after Capital One’s $35 billion acquisition of Discover received the green light, dealmakers are hopeful the regulatory chill is beginning to lift.
“There’s a view that we may now be in a more open environment,” Kittur said. “And as a result, we’ll probably see more of the large tech players actively pursue the areas of growth they want to acquire into.”
Strong Fundamentals and Narrowing Spreads
Many of the ingredients for strong dealmaking are in place: private equity has dry powder and a renewed risk appetite; a strong cohort of private companies is waiting in the wings; and more strategic buyers are at the table than we’ve seen in years.
So what needs to happen for deal activity to pick up in the coming months?
First, dealmakers need to regain confidence in the markets.
“Ultimately, investor and CEO confidence is what drives M&A activity,” said Ron Eliasek, Chairman of TMT, Head of Software at Jefferies. “We think this volatility is short term, and we’re still expecting a busy back half of the year. But when you see that volatility on your screen every day, it chips away at confidence.”
Second, the gap between buyer and seller expectations needs to keep narrowing. Valuation dislocation remains one of the biggest hurdles — especially for venture-backed companies.
“The bid-ask spreads have narrowed year after year. They’ve narrowed again,” said Evan Osheroff, Managing Director in Software Investment Banking at Jefferies. “Business health is actually strong. But if you thought your valuation was X two weeks ago — or two months ago — you’re not suddenly going to accept five times revenue today.”
For now, optimism is cautious but palpable. Deal pacing may be uneven today, but most expect steady transaction activity in the back half of the year.
“Investors are still looking for good opportunities, and what surprised me at this event over the past couple of days is how pervasive that sentiment is,” said Raphael Bejarano, Global Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Jefferies. “Despite all the background noise, investors are here. They’re focused on finding the best companies, understanding them, and identifying angles through which to invest.”
Secondaries Get a Second Wind
In April, several measures of economic and policy uncertainty exceeded levels last seen at the start of the COVID pandemic.
Although this volatility may have delayed the long-awaited resurgence of M&A and IPO activity, it also reinforced the appeal of secondary transactions as a tool for GPs and LPs to rebalance portfolios, free up or raise cash, and buy time to position for more favorable exits. No matter what the rest of 2025 holds, GPs and LPs should be surveying options in a secondary market that is broader, deeper, and more diverse than ever before.
As reported by Jefferies, global secondary volume hit a record of $162 billion last year, a 45% increase over 2023. This exceeded the previous record of $132 billion in 2021. LP transactions accounted for $87 billion of last year’s volume, and GP-led transactions contributed $75 billion, fueled by:
- An expanding buyer universe: Last year, global dedicated available capital reached a record of $288 billion, which is coming in from more sources than ever before. In addition to ever-increasing fund sizes from established and new traditional secondary investors, we expect nearly one-quarter of all secondary capital raised in the next 12 months to come from evergreen retail vehicle capital (e.g., ’40-Act funds).
- More creative liquidity solutions: While 84% of GP-led secondary transactions were via continuation vehicles (and half of which were single asset), the LP transaction landscape has expanded well beyond direct portfolio sales to include preferred equity, managed funds, and SPV-affiliate transactions.
- Competitive pricing: The average pricing of LP-portfolios reached 89% of net asset value (NAV) last year, a 400-basis point increase over 2023, spurred by rising public markets, ample supply of quality and newer vintage portfolios, and lower interest rates. Although many Q1 2025 transactions came in at a slightly lower percentage of NAVs due to market uncertainty and volatility, buyers and sellers are still generally more aligned on price than in 2022 and 2023.
Something else has shifted in the secondary market as well. Several years ago, many LPs and GPs we spoke to saw the secondary market as a place to dip into to solve unforeseen problems in their portfolios or deal with unwelcome macroeconomic developments. Today, they are utilizing secondary markets more programmatically, managing portfolios serially via annual or bi-annual secondary sales.
For GPs, secondary transactions offer a reliable path to generate DPI in an otherwise uncertain environment and raise substantial fee and carry paying capital. For many GPs, conducting a single-asset transaction for a high-performing trophy asset can raise as much new fee-paying capital as their latest flagship fundraise. At the same time, continuation vehicles enable them to hold onto and reinvest in their existing assets while waiting for a better IPO or M&A window. LPs increasingly rely on these transactions to manage liquidity, rebalance portfolios, comply with regulations, or optimize exposure to specific asset classes. This helps explain how the Jefferies Secondary Advisory team was able to execute on 18 deals in Q1 2025 – 7 GP-led and 11 LP-led – totaling $9 billion in transaction volume.
As the year progresses, we expect strong interest in secondary strategies, be they buyouts, real estate, or venture, regardless of the market environment. Suppose public market volatility persists, and IPO and M&A activity remain muted. In that case, secondaries will continue to be a viable alternative for GPs and LPs for the same reasons they were over the last few years. However, if IPO and M&A activity picks up, that will also likely deliver better pricing for LP portfolios in the secondary market and drive even stronger benchmarking valuations for GP-led transactions. That’s precisely what happened in 2021, when IPO and M&A activity were record-breaking, and so too was the volume of secondary transactions, which was the second highest year on record ever.
Amid immense uncertainty, secondaries have a second wind that will likely keep blowing no matter what the market throws at investors in 2025 and beyond.