BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Consulting to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up buyers
Private equity firms and PE-backed platform consolidators acquiring for roll-up, add-on, or platform plays. Pricing tends to lead the market for fee-viable scale, with multi-bidder competitive processes above the EBITDA floor.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 13.65x across 11 disclosed deals (P25: 11.41x, P75: 16.11x). Median EV/Revenue 1.92x across 16 deals. Median deal value: $288.04M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 17 deals total (17 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of consulting businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (1) · TIC Solutions, Inc. (1) · KKR & Co. Inc. (1) · GI Manager L.P. (1) · Montagu Private Equity LLP (1) · Arcadis NV (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of consulting businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. | Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. | $7389.8M | 11.4x | 3.14x |
| 2025 | NV5 Global, Inc. | TIC Solutions, Inc. | $1783.0M | 10.6x | 1.82x |
| 2024 | FGS Global Inc | KKR & Co. Inc. | $775.0M | 17.2x | 3.33x |
| 2023 | Atlas Technical Consultants, Inc. | GI Manager L.P. | $979.2M | 13.8x | 1.62x |
| 2022 | Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, Inc. | Montagu Private Equity LLP | $193.0M | — | 9.39x |
| 2022 | IBI Group Inc. | Arcadis NV | $656.7M | 13.0x | 1.54x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Private equity acquirers price for scale and roll-up arbitrage. They pay up for businesses that fit a platform thesis — recurring revenue mix above 30%, technician/professional depth, clean financials, and a management layer that survives integration. The same consulting can command 1.5x to 2x the multiple of an individual-buyer transaction simply because the PE buyer is acquiring a platform piece, not an owner-operated shop.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to consulting businesses acquired by private equity / pe-backed roll-up buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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