Business Process Outsourcing Market Update – September 2026

Business Process Outsourcing Market M&A Reflects Shift to Skilled Services

The Business Process Outsourcing & Contact Centers sector has reached a complex inflection point. Many companies have shied away from traditional outsourcing services amid a soft U.S. Labor market, increasingly leveraging insourcing, global in-house centers, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents for back-end functions. The Business Process Outsourcing market has been able to adapt and maintain competitive relevance, shifting towards higher-skilled knowledge process outsourcing services. Meanwhile, the Contact Centers segment has been battered by AI alternatives, forcing participants to reevaluate operational strategies and pause inorganic growth initiatives. The sector’s Merger and Acquisition (M&A) market has reflected this dynamic environment. Deal flow has remained strong in the Business Process Outsourcing market year to date (YTD), while contact center transactions have experienced a stark decline.

M&A has become increasingly bifurcated in the Business Process Outsourcing market as higher skilled providers have continued to see robust acquisition interest and pure-play contact centers have struggled to compete with AI rivals. While sector dynamics remain fluid, we expect knowledge process outsourcing to become a cornerstone of market growth and M&A activity.

Bob BalabanManaging Director, Capstone Partners

Knowledge Process Outsourcing Reshapes Business Process Outsourcing Market, AI Poses Threat to Contact Centers

Knowledge process outsourcing has emerged as the next evolution of outsourcing as companies have demanded domain expertise, adaptable workflows, and strategic support from Business Process Outsourcing market participants. This shift has redefined operators’ value proposition—from traditional cost savings to results-driven outcomes such as customer retention, lead conversion, and business expansion. Of note, 67% of surveyed organizations have adopted outcome-based outsourced services, according to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey.¹ Outcome-based adoption has favored knowledge process outsourcing providers, which often price services based on key performance indicators, project milestones, or insight quality rather than headcount or billable hours. This has buoyed revenue and M&A opportunities for outsourced market research, competitive intelligence, data analytics, and intellectual property (IP) service providers, in particular. Notably, global Knowledge Process Outsourcing market revenue is projected to expand at a 17% compound annual growth rate between 2023 and 2030, according to Grand View Research.² Asia captured the majority (77.5%) of global Knowledge Process Outsourcing market share in 2022—pointing to ample white space for U.S. participants.

The Contact Centers segment has been fraught with disruption as AI has permeated the space. Select public players, such as Teleperformance (ENXTPA:TEP), have weathered this pressure through proprietary AI systems. Teleperformance reported double-digit revenue growth for its AI-powered solutions in Q1 2026, though total company revenue fell 6.9% year-over-year (YOY), according to Teleperformance’s Q1 2026 earnings release.³ However, many small- and mid-sized operators have struggled to compete with AI-native contact center software businesses, illustrated by tepid segment M&A activity in YTD 2026. The advancement of AI is expected to continue plaguing pure-play contact centers while effective AI deployment will likely dictate clear winners.

Elevated Private Equity Appetite Drives Sector Deal Flow

M&A volume in the Business Process Outsourcing & Contact Centers sector has exhibited a strong growth trajectory, rising each year since 2021 with an average YOY increase of 22.2% between 2021 and 2025. To date, M&A activity has ticked up by two deals YOY to 32 transactions announced or completed. Sector participants with end market specialization, skilled service offerings, and limited customer concentration have continued to pique acquirer interest—namely from private equity (PE) firms. Private buyer activity has fallen by eight deals YOY while public company-led acquisitions have ticked up by two transactions, resulting in a total strategic volume drop of six deals in YTD 2026. While insourcing headwinds have constrained available acquisition capital for many private businesses, this buyer cohort is expected to reenter the M&A market in order to bolster knowledge process outsourcing offerings and adjust to shifting sector dynamics.

Sponsors have increasingly penetrated the space since 2022, with YTD volume up by eight deals YOY to comprise a record 62.5% of sector M&A activity. Add-on engagements have accounted for the majority (80%) of total PE buyouts to date; however, both add-ons (+seven deals) and platform formations (+one deal) have risen YOY. Favorable lending conditions, ample dry powder reserves, and strict capital deployment mandates have spurred heightened sponsor activity, as noted in Capstone’s 2025 Middle Market Private Equity Index. Financial buyers in the sector have largely targeted Business Process Outsourcing market participants with results-driven outcomes and strong customer retention as the Contact Centers segment has been increasingly cannibalized by AI—a trend likely to continue throughout 2026.

M&A Multiples Expand as Buyers Move Up Market

Business Process Outsourcing & Contact Centers sector M&A multiples have rebounded meaningfully as acquirers have increasingly pursued larger, transformative transactions. Sector deal multiples have averaged 2.5x EV/Revenue and 10.7x EV/EBITDA from 2024 through YTD 2026, marking a notable expansion from the 2022-2023 average of 1.6x EV/Revenue and 6.8x EV/EBITDA. This growth has tracked the broader Business Services industry, in which the average M&A EBITDA has increased from 9.7x in 2022-2023 to 10.4x in 2024-YTD 2026. Elevated buyer appetite for scaled assets has underpinned this rise in valuations. Of note, the average disclosed deal value has spiked to $919.9 million in 2024-YTD 2026 from $235.7 million in 2022-2023. While large-scale engagements have lifted this average, the middle market (less than $500 million enterprise value) has continued to yield the majority (66.7%) of disclosed sector deals from 2024 through YTD 2026, boding well for small- and mid-sized operators in the space.

Business Process Outsourcing Market Leads Sector M&A, Knowledge Process Outsourcing Deals Headline Activity

The Business Process Outsourcing market has continued to lead sector M&A activity to date, comprising a record 81.3% of total transactions. Segment deal volume has risen by three deals YOY to 26 transactions YTD. Strong dealmaking in the Business Process Outsourcing market has been primarily driven by PE-backed participants looking to expand end market-specific service offerings in conjunction with clients’ evolving needs. Notably, sector acquirers have increasingly targeted businesses with exposure to high-growth verticals such as Financial Services, Information Technology, and Healthcare. Conversely, Contact Centers segment M&A has been more subdued, with just six Contact Centers segment deals in YTD 2026 compared to seven in YTD 2025. While many segment operators have leveraged AI to augment human intelligence, the rapid adoption of AI alternatives, such as chatbots and virtual customer experience agents, has thwarted acquisition appetite for contact center service providers.

The Knowledge Process Outsourcing subsegment has undoubtedly headlined M&A activity in the Business Process Outsourcing market. Data analytics, market research, and IP support providers have attracted robust interest from strategic and sponsor-backed acquirers as participants adapt to an operating environment that favors results-driven outcomes. While synergy and end market-alignment have remained key acquisition priorities, measurable service quality has become a critical differentiator to buyers. Several notable Knowledge Process Outsourcing subsegment transactions are outlined below.

• Rep Data Acquires OWL Solutions (May 2026, Undisclosed) – In May 2026, Rep Data acquired OWL Solutions for an undisclosed sum. OWL Solutions provides outsourced market research and survey programming services, specializing in complex survey builds for the Healthcare industry. Rep Data offers outsourced data collection services for primary research organizations, market research agencies, and management consulting businesses. The acquisition is anticipated to bolster Rep Data’s presence in the Healthcare space and enhance service quality through OWL Solutions’ advanced fieldwork readiness capabilities. “Research teams have long been under pressure to move quickly while still protecting quality. But maintaining strong operational controls becomes more difficult when work is split across separate platforms, programming teams, sample providers, fraud prevention tools, fieldwork partners, and analytics systems. By bringing these capabilities together, we can help research teams scale execution more efficiently, strengthen quality controls, and support better research outcomes across the ecosystem,” said Patrick Stokes, CEO and Founder of Rep Data, in a press release.⁴
• FTV Capital-Backed Lean Staffing Solutions to Acquire Lead2Revenue (April 2026, Undisclosed) – FTV Capital-backed Lean Staffing Solutions announced its acquisition of Lead2Revenue in April 2026. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Lead2Revenue provides outsourced customer relationship management, data quality, and document management services for business-to-business sales organizations. The company’s services are expected to strengthen Lean Staffing Solutions’ sales development offerings through measurable, back-end optimization. Lead2Revenue marks Lean Staffing Solutions’ second add-on engagement while under FTV Capital’s leadership, illustrating PE firms’ appetite for inorganic portfolio growth in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing subsegment of the Business Process Outsourcing market. In its first add-on transaction, Lean Staffing Solutions acquired Hubtek’s services operations, which include skilled remote talent outsourcing (December 2025, undisclosed).
• One Call Acquires Data Dimensions (March 2026, Undisclosed) – In March 2026, One Call acquired Data Dimensions from PE firm Thompson Street Capital for an undisclosed sum. Data Dimensions offers information management and business process automation services for the Healthcare, Insurance Services, and Government markets. The company’s mailroom management, electronic document conversion, digital voice recording, and physical/electronic records storage capabilities piqued One Call’s interest in the deal as part of its ongoing strategy to fuse back-end automation with connected care coordination and workflow intelligence. “By integrating Data Dimensions into our platform, we are establishing a connected infrastructure that unifies data, workflows, and payments into a single, continuous system. This shifts how claims are managed and care is delivered—moving from fragmented processes to a more unified, data-driven model across the ecosystem,” explained Nick Mendez, CEO of One Call, in a press release.⁵

Participants’ ability to position themselves as strategic partners will likely dictate sector health in the long term. As a result, the knowledge process outsourcing model is anticipated to remain a key component of the Business Process Outsourcing & Contact Centers landscape, supported by persistent demand for specialized, outcome-oriented services. The outlook for contact centers has been, and will likely continue to be, uncertain until AI’s role in the market becomes clearer. Sector M&A activity is presumed to continue at its current clip, catalyzed by PE penetration of the Business Process Outsourcing segment.

To discuss the widespread impacts of knowledge process outsourcing, provide an update on your business, or learn about Capstone’s wide range of advisory services and Business Process Outsourcing market knowledge, please contact us.

Max Morrissey, Vice President, was the lead Market Intelligence contributor to this article.

Endnotes

1. Deloitte, “Global Outsourcing Survey 2024,” www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-zone3/us/en/docs/services/consulting/2024/us-global-outsourcing-survey-2024-report.pdf, accessed June 3, 2026.
2. Grand View Research, “Knowledge Process Outsourcing Market (2023-2030)” www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/knowledge-process-outsourcing-kpo-market, accessed June 3, 2026.
3. Teleperformance, “First-Quarter 2026 Revenue,” www.tp.com/media/51ob00no/tp-press-release-q1-2026-revenue.pdf, accessed June 4, 2026.
4. Rep Data, “Rep Data Acquires Owl Solutions to Strengthen Survey Build Quality and Fieldwork Execution,” www.repdata.com/blog/rep-data-acquires-owl-solutions-to-strengthen-survey-build-quality-and-fieldwork-execution/, accessed June 4, 20026.
5. One Call, “One Call Completes Acquisition of Data Dimensions,” www.onecallcm.com/about/news-blog/one-call-completes-acquisition-of-data-dimensions/, accessed June 4, 2026.