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Market ResearchSaaS Roll-ups

SDE multiples hold firm while buyers quietly reprice working capital

Headline multiples in the one to ten million dollar band barely moved this quarter. The negotiation shifted to the peg, where a single definition change can move proceeds by six figures.

OptDeals Research Desk

9 min read

EBITDA multiple trendline, 2025 Q4 to 2026 Q3up 1.0x over the period
7.0x5.5x4.0x
2025 Q42026 Q12026 Q22026 Q3
Median EBITDA multiple by quarter
QuarterMedian multipleTransactions
2025 Q44.8x3
2026 Q15.2x3
2026 Q25.7x4
2026 Q35.8x5

Executive summary

  • Seller discretionary earnings multiples stayed between 3.1x and 4.4x.
  • Buyers recovered value through working capital pegs, not headline price.
  • Escrow periods lengthened from twelve to eighteen months on average.
  • Founders who modeled the peg early kept more of the headline number.
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Across the market

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SaaS Roll-ups6 min read

Vertical SaaS consolidators slow their cadence, raise their bar

The serial acquirers that closed a deal a month through 2025 are pacing themselves. Retention quality, not growth, now decides which targets clear committee.

Retention quality has replaced growth rate as the first diligence screen.

Sector Brief

Healthcare Services5 min read

Dental group transitions live or die on the associate question

Buyers of multi-site dental practices are underwriting the clinician bench before the patient list. Practices without a second producer are discounted sharply.

A second producing clinician materially changes the buyer pool.

Sector Brief

Business Services8 min read

Earn-outs are back, and they are longer than founders expect

Contingent consideration reappeared across the lower middle market this year. The structures are wider, the measurement periods longer, and the disputes predictable.

Negotiate the calculation and the reporting cadence, not just the target.

Founder Playbook

Market snapshot

Median multiples by desk

Computed from tracked transactions with disclosed multiples.

  • Healthcare Services6.7x

    4 tracked transactions

  • SaaS Roll-ups5.9x

    3 tracked transactions

  • Industrial PE Bolt-ons4.8x

    6 tracked transactions

  • Business Services4.5x

    4 tracked transactions

Median multiple
5.4x EBITDA
Multiple range
4.1x - 7.2x
Tracked volume
120M - 195M
Transactions
17 tracked

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