The DACH HR software market grew to €2.93 billion in 2025 - a 10.5% increase - as consolidation accelerates and AI reshapes vendors' business models. WorkTech Advisory's annual ranking, produced together with Personalmagazin, breaks down the numbers and the trends behind them. Growth loses a step, but stays firmly in double digits The HR software market in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) kept growing in 2025, even if at a somewhat slower pace than in previous

Here comes the update for M&A activity in July 2026. The debate on AI's impact on SaaS business models and valuations keeps running in the background. Statistics from M&A advisors and also from Gain show that especially private equity activity has dropped compared to previous years. As gain states "transatlantic software PE entries and exits are down sharply across both regions: 🇺🇸 US PE exits: from a ~16% average since 2020 to just 10% in 2026 YTD 🇪🇺 Europe PE exits: fro

Here comes the update for M&A activity in June 2026. The debate on AI's impact on SaaS business models and valuations keeps running in the background, but it isn't slowing European HR Tech consolidation down. If anything, observing the HRTech market closely it feels like consolidation is even accelerating further whilst larger PE platform deals become more selective. One dominant theme in June: platform players keep rounding out the employee lifecycle by folding payroll, lear

Here comes the update for M&A activity in April 2026 - a bit delayed due to my stay at Acadian Ventures Summit in sunny San Diego. Whilst the discussions in WorkTech and B2B SaaS continues to focus on the impact of AI on the SaaS business model and B2B SaaS valuations in general, this does not put M&A to a hold but actually speeds up consolidation and in several areas at the moment. A dominant theme across deals worth flagging are the continued build-up of - oftentimes also P

Here comes the update for M&A activity in April 2026 - a bit delayed due to my stay at Acadian Ventures Summit in sunny San Diego. Whilst the discussions in WorkTech and B2B SaaS continues to focus on the impact of AI on the SaaS business model and B2B SaaS valuations in general, this does not put M&A to a hold but actually speeds up consolidation and in several areas at the moment. A dominant theme across deals worth flagging are the continued build-up of - oftentimes also P

Here comes the update for M&A activity in March 2026. Whilst the current discussion in global HR Tech and B2B SaaS focuses on the impact of AI on the SaaS business model and B2B SaaS valuations in general, the were still several acquisitions and mergers communicated in March that were mostly negotiated prior to this discussion. Two dominant themes across deals worth flagging are the continued build-up of PE-backed European payroll/ HR platforms and AI-native add-ons to establ

Here comes the update for M&A activity in February 2026. Whilst the discussion in global HR Tech and B2B SaaS was strongly focusing on the impact of AI on the SaaS business model and B2B SaaS valuations in general, the were still several acquisitions and mergers communicated in February that were probably also negotiated prior to this discussion. Main drivers of this consolidation were again in the payroll segment (combination of payroll outsourcing services and software), in

Here comes the first update for M&A activity in 2026. 2025 has been an extremely busy year in HR Tech/ WorkTech consolidation and with underlying reasons for the enforced consolidation, experts expect this trend to continue into 2026. Main drivers of consolidation expected for 2026 remain: Portfolio extensions of larger (suite) vendors for more up- & cross-selling as well as ensuring AI innovation - often also driven by investors. Market and customer access into untapped ma

Here comes the final update for M&A activity in 2025. 2025 has been an extremely busy year in HR Tech/ WorkTech consolidation and it already looks like this development will continue in 2026. Key drivers of consolidation in 2025 where: Portfolio extensions of larger (suite) vendors for more up- & cross-selling - often also driven by investors. Market and customer access into untapped markets that are especially hard to win in business-critical product areas with low churn or

Following a very active October in terms of HRTech M&A this update summarizes November transactions and there were several ones again in the European HR Tech space. Again, multiple are characterized by established vendors acquiring AI-first vendors. Furthermore, also the payroll and HCM consolidation driven by the HCM and payroll groups continued. Here is the summary for November 2025: 𝐇𝐑𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 📝 Epassi (FI) backed by TA Associates and

After a record-breaking third quarter in terms of numbers of transaction in #HRTech ( Venero Capital Advisors counted 111 - highest since they started recording), analysts and advisors including myself expect the wave of consolidation to continue. Economic environment in combination with new tech advancements as well as a lot of "dry powder" = capital to deploy in private equity continue to boost acquisition interest as well as selling interest at the same time. Also in O

Whilst the August update included some major transactions in HRTech already, this streak continued into September 2025. With more than 100 acquisitions announced in Q3, we are in the midst of a strong consolidation period in HRTech. Also in September there were several transactions of AI-based vendors in the talent acquisition space. Furthermore, also the benefit and payroll consolidation driven by the large employee benefits and payroll groups continued. Here is the summary

Our July Newsletter on M&A already included a sneak peak teasing that August 2025 really has been an exceptional month in #HRTech...

Whilst August in #HRTech started with a big bang on August 1st with the announcement of the planned acquisition of SmartRecruiters by...

As usual, the months before the summer break tend to be busy months for M&A and June has proven this again. With some interesting deals...

Whilst quite a number of merger & acquisition deals in European HRTech for June 2025 have already been announced in the employee benefits...

Whilst the first of 2025 closed with a number of deals in HRTech already, M&A announcements in April have cooled off a bit. Conversations...

The first quarter of 2025 already came to a close and March again brought in several larger deals. At the beginning of the year, it's...

2025 kicked off with several larger deals in the US and that streak seems to continue further into Q1 as well. It's been discussed a lot...

Summary of Monthly M&A Activity in HRTech in Europe