BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a staffing agency 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 11.69x across 5 disclosed deals (P25: 8.61x, P75: 18.16x). Median EV/Revenue 1.28x across 7 deals. Median deal value: $208.31M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 8 deals total (8 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of staffing agency businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Advent International, L.P. (1) · Executive Platforms Inc. (1) · General Atlantic Service Company, L.P. (1) · Kingsway Financial Services Inc. (1) · Learning Technologies Group plc (:LTG) (1) · Hanover Investors Management LLP (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of staffing agency businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. | Advent International, L.P. | $1001.5M | 7.7x | 0.87x |
| 2024 | Board.org LLC | Executive Platforms Inc. | $103.0M | — | 7.00x |
| 2023 | HireRight Holdings Corporation | General Atlantic Service Company, L.P. | $301.6M | 11.7x | 2.54x |
| 2022 | Csuite Financial Partners LLC | Kingsway Financial Services Inc. | $12.1M | — | 1.28x |
| 2021 | GP Strategies Corporation | Learning Technologies Group plc (:LTG) | $406.4M | 9.6x | 0.84x |
| 2020 | ClearStar, Inc. | Hanover Investors Management LLP | $20.7M | — | 0.96x |
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 staffing agency 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 staffing agency 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
What's your staffing agency worth to private equity / pe-backed roll-up?
Get an instant valuation range for your business. Backed by 25,592 real M&A transactions.
Engine-grounded estimate. Comparable private equity / pe-backed roll-up deals on the full results page.