2025 Year-in-Review
A Firmwide Reflection Across Execution, Sourcing, Valuation, and Investment
Firmwide Overview
As we reflect on 2025, it is clear our industry found itself at an inflection point. After a prolonged period defined by volatility, uneven buyer appetite, and a persistent “wait-and-see” posture among many business owners, the market is finally showing early signs of regained momentum. The end of 2025 marked one of the most active periods in recent memory, driven by a convergence of stabilizing interest rates, clearer expectations around inflation, greater discipline in credit underwriting, and the early stages of AI-driven productivity gains across corporate America’s more traditional sectors.
At CriticalPoint, we’ve spent the year leaning into this moment, not by reacting to headlines, but by preparing our clients for optionality, clarity, and control over their own strategic outcomes. We continue to advise operators and funds across the country. 2025 validated our belief that preparedness is the single most durable advantage a business owner can possess. Whether in financial advisory, deal sourcing, sell-side readiness, valuation planning, or private capital and private credit, the same theme echoed throughout the year: uncertainty is the new normal, and decision-makers who embrace forward-planning are outperforming those who wait for market conditions to become “perfect.”
Internally, this was also a year of meaningful growth. We welcomed an exceptional group of new colleagues across Execution, Sourcing, Valuation and Investment, adding depth to our sector expertise, expanding the sophistication of our advisory services, and elevating our ability to serve owners, funds, and financial sponsors.
In 2025, CriticalPoint expanded its sector expertise and advisory team by adding additional accomplished investment bankers. Bob Woolway deepened CriticalPoint’s food, agriculture, and restaurant coverage, having focused on these sectors and completed numerous transactions across the food supply and customer chain. Doug Gonsalves and Paulette Soetanto expanded the firm’s Technology practice, bringing decades of M&A, capital formation, and cross-border experience to better serve entrepreneurs, sponsors, and executives in a rapidly evolving market. Alex Chefetz further strengthened CriticalPoint’s platform with over 30 years of Consumer-sector dealmaking experience, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to senior-level execution, trusted relationships, and results-driven advice.
Looking ahead to the rest of this year, we believe 2026 will mark a more normalized deal flow, with capital continuing to move down-market, private credit playing an increasingly constructive role in transaction structures, and business owners seeking counsel earlier in their strategic journey and at their most critical moments. Below, we highlight key themes and accomplishments across each of our Lines of Business.
A major highlight was the success of our first Business Summit, held here in Southern California. This kind of in-person experience is rapidly becoming one of the most meaningful ways we help founders prepare for liquidity. Through focused sessions led by seasoned operators, our Business Summit equips business owners to become well-prepared sellers, from financial, strategic, and emotional angles. The market response has been overwhelmingly positive, with several founders finding a clear and actionable strategy to make use of our Seller’s Roadmap.
We also formally launched the Executive Alliance Program, expanding our extended network of subject-matter experts and enhancing our ability to support both sponsors and operators with deeper credibility.
Execution
2025: A Year of Hesitation, Not Inactivity
Sourcing
Valuation
Investment
2025 reinforced that corporate sellers are increasingly pursuing the divesting of non-core divisions or underinvested business units. Supply-chain volatility, tariff uncertainty, rapidly evolving customer acquisition dynamics, and continued pressure on labor markets are contributing to a surge in carve-outs and divestiture activity across the mid-market. CriticalPoint’s Investment team spent the year focused on solving complex operational challenges that emerge when business units and divisions are divested after corporate sellers deem them outside of their core strategy.
