Kison Patel: The AI Visionary Reshaping the Future of M&A

Kison Patel is the visionary founder and CEO behind DealRoom, a platform focusing on streamlining the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lifecycle for buyer-led transactions. The company has been honored in the Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest Growing Companies not once, but twice. Apart from this, he founded M&A Science, a global network offering educational courses, hosting events, and producing the award-winning M&A Science podcast with 2 million-plus downloads. 

In this interview, he shares real-world insights from the top M&A professionals to help practitioners redesign their deal-making approaches. Kison is also the author of ‘Agile M&A: Proven Techniques to Close Deals Faster and Maximise Value’, an all-in-one guidebook for modern tech-driven and flexible M&A approaches. Kison is determined to change M&A practices so that he can further harness their potential through modern tools and educational resources to help teams improve efficiency and achieve more value.

Kison Patel’s Journey to Become an Expert in M&A

Almost a decade later, the journey to expertise in mergers and acquisitions began from a startup advisory firm, gaining practical deal experience. Thereafter, he established an independent M&A practice, which only lasted for close to ten years in advising the buy-side and the sell-side transactions. With the onset of the recession of 2008, the focus shifted to distressed deals, which provided a greater understanding of the management of complex transactions. Dissatisfaction with inefficiencies and antiquated methods started to grow over the years, culminating in the inspiration of DealRoom in 2012, a platform meant to transform how deals are managed from conception to completion.

Trends Observed in the Tech M&A Space 

There is a significant advance in document analysis, summarization, and integration planning due to artificial intelligence. Platforms like DealRoom enhance these processes with data organization, integration, and earlier due diligence. Its core advantage is organising and centralising deal data, essential during the initial stages of negotiation. M&A processes often require years of groundwork to solidify relationships or wait until the opportune moment. An opportune moment may include sellers thinking of retirement or private equity investors formulating their exit plan. 

Another big trend is increasing focus on tool connectivity through integrating third-party data sources, customer relationship management systems, and other mixturing tools to support decision-making. For example, information about who sits on a company board or when its private equity firm sold might allow buyers to hone in on their targets more effectively. In addition, increasingly, companies are using M&A to spur innovation and stay competitive, depending on interest rates and the changing regulatory environment. 

Hindrances in Executing Successful M&A in the Tech Sector 

Integration is still the most critical challenge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The priority had previously been risk mitigation through extensive due diligence. Maximising value through integrating good and proper is more challenging. Common culprits to fostering success in technology transactions can include organizational culture alignment, technology infrastructure integration, and achieving synergy targets. The industry is now gradually moving toward a more structured, buy-side approach that anticipates success from day one instead of seeing it as an afterthought. 

Tech M&A Landscape Trends Shaping 2025

It has become evident that there is a transition in M&A from being very transaction-driven to being driven by the buyer. According to this view, the need is no longer for signing off a deal; much more is focused on how to make it work. Technology firms are at the fore now because, by nature, they will tend to adopt those tools and approaches they see as an opportunity for more efficiency: proactive integration planning, underpinned by AI. Thus, they’re realizing the importance of identifying synergies and working through operational overlaps long before a deal closes. 

Then, of course, there are the economic factors: interest rates and regulation. As the scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry appears to be lower, it is expected that large enterprises will increasingly depend on acquisitions as a mechanism for fostering growth and innovation. For many of them, it is considerably faster than developing the capability in-house.

Related Article: Leading Transformation: Insights from Finertech CEO Ragchaabazar Bud