In May 2026, Autodesk agreed to pay $3.6 billion for MaintainX, a maintenance and asset management software company founded just 8 years ago, and the largest acquisition in Autodesk’s history. Measured against what the business earns today, that is about 27 times annualized recurring revenue: MaintainX expects to exceed $135 million in ARR for 2026, growing at more than 50%. On our estimate of where revenue lands in 2027, the multiple settles at roughly 18 times. For anyone still wondering what acquirers will pay for AI-native software with real traction in the buildings sector, that is the answer. And it should serve as a wake-up call across the industry. The deal is the standout in what our new report, Startups in Smart Buildings H1 2026, confirms as another intense period of smart building M&A: 46 acquisitions of startups completed in the first half of 2026, 4 more than the same period last year. 4 in […]