But that's often not the case, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows. This year, a number of larger acquisitions of private companies involved startups that haven't disclosed a new investment for more than four years. Several of these acquisitions are quite recent ' and in some cases, quite large. The standout is Uber's purchase earlier this month of ezCater, a platform for catering and workplace meals, for $2.3 billion in cash. The deal comes nearly five years after Boston-based ezCater raised its last reported venture funding round. That's not the only one. A number of companies whose names might feature on a playlist of 2021 boom-era unicorns have sold to acquirers in recent months, including one-time highfliers like Airtable, Headspace and Miro. In many cases, companies are selling at valuations which, while not puny, are still far below their former peaks. To illustrate the extent to which these aging startups are finding acquirers, we used Crunchbase data to put together a list...
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