BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Saas 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 22.87x across 31 disclosed deals (P25: 12.53x, P75: 42.03x). Median EV/Revenue 5.1x across 109 deals. Median deal value: $858.28M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 115 deals total (115 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of saas businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Thoma Bravo, L.P. (14) · Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC (8) · Francisco Partners Management, L.P. (4) · Hellman & Friedman LLC (3) · Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (2) · E2open, LLC (:EOPN) (2)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of saas businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. | Sphere 3D Corp. | $5.4M | — | 0.35x |
| 2025 | Core Scientific, Inc. | CoreWeave, Inc. | $9700.4M | — | 27.84x |
| 2025 | Jamf Holding Corp. | Francisco Partners Management, L.P. | $1945.8M | 45.4x | 3.17x |
| 2025 | MeridianLink, Inc. | Centerbridge Partners, L.P. | $2053.5M | 42.0x | 6.70x |
| 2025 | ON24, Inc. | Decision Street, LLC | $196.0M | — | 1.30x |
| 2025 | Olo Inc. | Thoma Bravo, L.P. | $1602.4M | — | 5.10x |
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 saas 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 saas 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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