Data Room Readiness: Traditional Industries 2026
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Traditional Industries Show Uneven Digital M&A Readiness
Real estate, climate-related businesses and life sciences recorded stronger data-room demand, while manufacturing, education, healthcare and consulting activity declined.
Data-room activity varied considerably across traditional industries during the analyzed 2026 period, according to anonymized corporate platform usage.
Climate and sustainability recorded normalized growth of 47.95%, followed by real estate and PropTech at 38.08% and life sciences at 23.29%. Finance remained comparatively stable, increasing by 3.56%.
Several established sectors moved in the opposite direction. Manufacturing and engineering declined by 54.21%, education by 50.68%, consulting by 28.27% and healthcare by 23.48%. Legal and compliance decreased by 13.70%, while energy fell by 11.23%.
The results suggest that traditional industries are adopting secure digital document workflows at very different rates.
Real estate and climate-related activity lead growth
Climate and sustainability recorded the strongest increase, although the category grew from a relatively small starting base.
Businesses in this sector may use data rooms for infrastructure investments, environmental reviews, project financing and regulatory documentation.
Real estate and PropTech also recorded strong growth. Property transactions often require secure access to ownership records, leases, valuations, financing agreements, environmental reports and tenant information.
The results indicate that structured digital document sharing is becoming more common across property and climate-related projects.
Life sciences grows while healthcare declines
Life-sciences activity increased by 23.29%, while healthcare declined by 23.48%.
Life-sciences companies may use data rooms for research partnerships, licensing agreements, fundraising, acquisitions and regulatory submissions.
Healthcare organizations face similarly complex documentation requirements, but transactions may involve longer approval processes and different document-management practices.
The contrasting results show that closely related regulated industries do not necessarily follow the same adoption pattern.
Manufacturing and education record the largest declines
Manufacturing and engineering recorded the largest decline, falling by 54.21%.
Manufacturing due diligence may involve equipment records, supplier agreements, physical assets, environmental obligations and engineering documentation. Some reviews also require inspections that cannot be completed entirely through a virtual data room.
Education declined by 50.68%. Transactions in the sector may involve public institutions, nonprofit organizations, real estate, research partnerships and complex governance requirements.
These declines do not necessarily mean that fewer transactions occurred. They may reflect longer transaction cycles or slower adoption of dedicated data-room platforms.
Professional and regulated industries also weaken
Consulting declined by 28.27%, legal and compliance by 13.70%, and energy by 11.23%.
Consulting and legal firms may manage data rooms on behalf of clients rather than being classified as the main company involved. This can make their activity harder to interpret through industry labels alone.
Energy transactions often require extensive documentation covering infrastructure, environmental obligations, licenses and government approvals. The moderate decline may therefore reflect project timing rather than a major reduction in underlying activity.
Finance remained broadly stable, increasing by 3.56%.
Digital preparation remains important
Regardless of industry, companies preparing for a transaction may need to organize financial records, contracts, ownership documents, employment agreements, intellectual-property records and regulatory information.
Creating a structured data room before due diligence begins can help identify missing documents and reduce delays once buyers, lenders, investors or advisers request access.
The findings show that adoption is developing unevenly across traditional industries. They do not establish that sectors with declining activity are completing fewer transactions.
Methodology
The analysis is based on anonymized corporate activity observed through the Orangedox platform during the analyzed periods in 2025 and 2026.
The comparison uses a projected 2026 baseline calculated from 2025 activity. Growth rates were normalized to reduce the influence of changes in marketing activity.
The figures measure observed corporate users rather than unique transactions and may also include fundraising, audits, portfolio reporting or general document sharing. The findings describe activity within the analyzed Orangedox dataset.
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