February saw 16 PE-backed acquisitions across Europe, representing a 20% decline year-over-year. At the same time, this presents the lowest number of monthly acquisitions in the last 12 months.
Number of announced PE-backed acquisitions over the past 12 months*
- Number of PE-backed Acquisitions
Roll-Up Market Insights
PE-backed acquisitions in Europe declined in February by 20% year-over-year, as well as by 36% from January.
50% of the remaining 16 acquisitions were conducted in the UK, followed by Denmark (2), Italy (2), Turkey (1), Ireland (1), Cyprus (1), and Luxembourg (1). 6 of the overall acquisitions were made by US-based companies.
This month’s case study: Litera
Litera is a software provider for law firms and document-intensive organizations. The company offers document drafting products to create, proofread, compare, clean, and distribute content quickly and securely, as well as transaction management tools to create a secure, collaborative workspace and automate the signature process. Founded in 2001 in Chicago, USA, the company employs between 500 and 1,000 FTE.
Since 2020, Litera has acquired a total of 17 companies:
- Litera Acquisitions
Litera’s most recent acquisition, conducted in February 2025, was the acquisition of Peppermint Technology.
Founded in 2010 in Nottingham, UK, Peppermint Technology is a leading provider of legal service platforms which bring together the applications and data which legal advisors and consultants require to operate their business.
The acquisition of this LegalTech company represents Litera’s 19th overall acquisition listed on Crunchbase since Litera was acquired by Hg Capital.
Legal and regulatory compliance tech markets face PE-backed consolidation
As previously reported by Business Insider, the legal and regulatory compliance tech market is being rolled up by multiple global PE-firms and their platform companies, including Litera.
Relevant PE-investors in this industry include:
Hg Capital, General Atlantic, Knox Capital, K1 Investment Management, Vista Equity Partners, GI Partners, and TA Associates.
Two of the relevant investors, K1 Investment Management and Hg Capital, have been involved with Litera:
- In 2016, K1 acquired Litera and pursued a first phase of add-on acquisitions with other legal enterprise software companies. According to Litera in Business Insider, the company was able to triple its revenue and double its product portfolio during its K1 ownership.
- Three years later, K1 sold Litera to Hg Capital, where it now presents one of 11 legal and regulatory investments of Hg Capital. During its Hg Capital ownership, Litera now conducted its 19th publicly known add-on acquisition with Peppermint Technologies in February 2025.
- With Litera, Hg Capital followed its investment approach of identifying fragmented sub-niches in the broader legal tech industry, acquiring a skilled player in that niche, and conducting add-on acquisitions to grow the platform company to a niche leader.
*All data from CrunchBase, as of March 11, 2025.
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