The mergers and acquisitions market in Spain faces 2026 from a position clearer than in recent years. After adjusting after the euphoria of 2021 and 2022, the sector acquired a more rational logic based on Real metrics, input visibility and strategic impact.
Let’s stop the activity, this new context is the basis of feeling a cycle of more permanent and structured operations.
During the last year, a key trend has been confirmed: the market is not cooled, it is professionalized. Buyers and investors maintain liquidity and appetite, but have increased the level of demand. Now you pay less for expectations and more for contrasting store models, solid equipment and the ability to adapt to a more demanding technological environment.
This paradigm shift explains why 2026 is shaping up to be a defining year. Many companies that have gone from strength to strength in the past decade have grown natural Madurese point.
Companies such as Seedtag, Freepik, Cabify, Job&Talent, Fever, Exoticca or Factorial have their characteristics (scope, internationalization and professional structures) of the main M&A processes, as well as with industrial buyers or private equity funds.
The technology sector will continue to be the main driver of the market, with business software and the SaaS model in particular. Over the past five years, hundreds of operations have taken place in this segment in Spain and Portugal, mostly of medium size and with little media visibility.
The following transactions are without embargo they explain the actual market volume and those who will support the activity in 2026.
The fragmentation of B2B software, combined with recurring inputs, increased assets and scalable models, has fueled intense buying activity. Specialized platforms such as BSG – Business Software Group, Total Specific Solutions, Cegid, Visma, Grupo Castilla, TeamSystem or Everfield… concentrate a large part of these acquisitions, while in large operations private equity funds such as HG, Oakley Capital, Silver Lake or PSG are involved.
In all cases, the fire is located in an enterprise with predictability, a low accident rate and the ability to grow organically through integration.
Now for the software, technology consulting is consolidated as the second major center of activity. It is a historically atomized sector that is undergoing an accelerated process of integration. Consultants such as Altia, Izertis, Sngular or Knowmad Mood, together with independent groups such as Hiberus or Oesía and platforms backed by private equity such as Seidor, Plexus or Linkroad, lead to a large number of operations that, although of minor individual importance, support much of the market’s dynamics.
Another significant aspect of the cycle that begins is the development of the seller’s profile. Every now and then, more entrepreneurs explore a venture not through financial weakness, but through strategic foresight. Technological acceleration, the influence of artificial intelligence and the need to constantly invert form in innovation have led many founders to integrate into groups with greater capacity for inversion, technology and access to international markets.
On the buyer’s side, the demand is also greater. Technological due diligence, True business scalability and cultural appeal weigh as much as financials.
In this sense, operations such as CrowdStrike’s purchase of ONUM reflect a growing trend of industrial acquisitions aimed at integrating critical technology developed in Spain and accelerating its global deployment.
In addition, a nascent trend is starting to emerge in Europe, but very visible in the United States: the current trend of technology startups, especially in areas related to artificial intelligence. Companies like Supersonic, Maisa, Rauda, Happy Robot or Multiverse illustrate how the choice of development cycles shortens the time to completion and prioritizes the acquisition of talent and intellectual property over broad trajectories of independent growth.
Together, 2026 will not be marked by lost values until there is intelligent consolidation. The market will move at two speeds: large operations by mature companies and a steady flow of medium-sized transactions that will drive real M&A volume.
For well-prepared companies with predictable arrivals, solid teams and a clear strategy in the face of technological disruptions, next year will offer real opportunities to grow, integrate or culminate a key stage of their development.
*** Pablo García-Villosada, Partner at Bondo Advisors
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