The SaaS acquisition market looks nothing like it did four years ago. Multiples have compressed, buyers have gotten more selective, and the founders who exit well are the ones who understood that shift before going to market.
In this webinar, Acquire.com founder Andrew Gazdecki and M&A advisor Rainier Nanquil walked through the findings from Acquire’s latest Acquisition Multiples Report, covering real deal data from 2023 to 2025. They broke down where multiples stand today, what’s driving buyer behavior, how to price your startup to attract the most interest, and what you can do right now to increase your valuation before going to market.
The market has normalized. Buyers are more selective. And preparation has never mattered more. This recap pulls the most tactical insights directly from the webinar.
Who Are Your Presenters?
Andrew Gazdecki, Founder and CEO of Acquire.com
Andrew Gazdecki is the founder and CEO of Acquire.com and a lifelong entrepreneur. He bootstrapped his first business, Bizness Apps, to $10 million in annual recurring revenue, which he later sold to a private equity firm in a life-changing acquisition. Since then, he’s sold two more businesses, bought one, and founded the world’s largest startup acquisition marketplace.
Having been on both sides of the M&A table, as a buyer and a seller, Andrew knows how complex and difficult acquisitions can be. He started Acquire.com to fix the complex acquisition process and make it easier for founders to get acquired, and he’s excited to share his knowledge with you today.
Rainier Nanquil, M&A Advisor
With 10+ years in capital markets and M&A, Rainier has guided founders, investors, and operators through over $1 billion in aggregate deal volume. Previously at Empire Flippers, Cushman & Wakefield, and Marcus & Millichap, he brings an operator’s mindset and strategic clarity to every transaction. His goal: help you avoid common pitfalls and close clean, high-value deals.
What Is Acquire.com?
Acquire.com is the best online marketplace for buying and selling SaaS startups. Combining expert M&A advisory and technology, our services help you get Acquire’d fast and maximize your exit.
Since 2019, we’ve helped over a thousand founders sell their businesses, closed over half a billion dollars in deal volume, and registered over 500,000 buyers. Live internationally? No problem – we’re active in over 100 countries and every continent except Antarctica.
Where the Market Stands: A Four-Year View
To understand where the market is today, it helps to understand how it got here. The last four years brought a dramatic shift in how buyers value SaaS businesses, and founders who went to market without that context often came away disappointed. What looked like a declining market was actually something more nuanced, and the data tells that story clearly.
Highlights:
- Near-zero interest rates in 2020 and 2021 pushed SaaS multiples to unsustainable levels, a bubble, and not a baseline
- A 400 basis point rate increase from 2022 onward compressed multiples significantly, dropping from a peak of ~17x down to around 5.5x net income
- The current market is better understood as a return to the norm than a decline in asset prices
- 2026 remains active, with hundreds of deals closing every year
What the 2025 Data Actually Shows
Across 136+ deals that reported their multiples and sale prices, the numbers paint a clear and consistent picture of where deals are actually getting done. The outliers exist, but they are exactly that: outliers. Most deals land within a predictable range, and knowing that range changes how founders should approach pricing.
Highlights:
- The standard range across deal sizes sits between 3 and 5x net income, with outliers above that for exceptionally clean businesses
- Businesses under $100K net income average 3.7x; those between $100K and $1M average 3.9x
- Average days on market: 80 to 90 days
- Well-priced deals regularly close in 30 days or fewer
- Buyers are focused on cash flow first and foremost, not top-line revenue
Why Buyers Are Focused on Profit, Not Revenue
The shift from revenue multiples to profit multiples is one of the most important things sellers need to internalize before going to market. Buyers today are underwriting acquisitions based on cash flow, not top-line growth.
Highlights:
- High profit margins, year-over-year growth, and years in business are the clearest signals buyers rely on
- Buyers expect a risk-adjusted return on their investment within 3 to 4 years, and profit is how they get there
- Nearly all acquisitions closing on Acquire.com today come from profitable businesses
A Market More Stable Than It Looks
Compared to public markets, where multiples swing dramatically, the Acquire.com marketplace has shown a remarkably consistent flow of buyers and deals over the past three years. The buyers driving that consistency are not opportunistic. They have specific return targets, defined investment ranges, and a clear picture of what a good deal looks like.
Highlights:
- Net income multiples across 2023, 2024, and 2025 have stayed within a predictable range
- Buyers on the platform are typically looking to invest a few million and see a return within 3 to 5 years
- Deals pencil because the math works: price within the right range, and buyers can underwrite the acquisition with confidence
- Price within that range, and you can almost certainly expect a solid number of offers
How Asking Price Affects Buyer Interest
Fair market pricing does more than make a listing look reasonable. It directly affects how many serious buyers will engage, sign an NDA, and move toward an offer. Once a business is priced even modestly above that range, buyer interest starts to fall off quickly, and the process becomes harder than it needs to be.
Highlights:
- Price at fair market value, and roughly 60% of the active buyer pool will engage seriously
- Deals priced correctly regularly see 50+ NDAs signed and 10 to 12 offers
- Price is 5 to 10% above market, and serious buyer interest drops to around 30%
- Price 10% or more above market, and most buyers move on without telling you why
- The first 30 days are critical: overpricing at launch can extend your timeline to 90 or even 120 days
- Founders who test the market at inflated valuations typically end up reducing the price anyway, and losing momentum in the process
- Starting at fair market value from day one leads to more offers, more competition, and better outcomes
Getting The Asking Price Right Improves More Than Valuation
Pricing affects far more than the headline number on a listing. It shapes buyer visibility, deal speed, diligence friction, and how much cash a founder is likely to take at close. A business priced within the right range gives buyers fewer reasons to hesitate and creates stronger conditions for competitive offers.
Highlights:
- More buyers, more competitive bids, and more urgency to close
- A larger cash component at close, since competitive deals favor cash-heavy structures
- A well-priced deal is easier for buyers to justify internally, which means less due diligence friction
- Every buyer has a buy box. If your listing falls outside their saved search range, they never see it at all
Cash At Close Reduces Risk For Founders
A higher cash component gives founders more certainty at the point of exit. It creates a cleaner break, lowers exposure to future business risk, and reduces the chance that part of the purchase price will depend on outcomes the seller can no longer fully control.
Highlights:
- Earn-outs and seller financing aren’t inherently bad, but they increase the risk of not seeing the full amount
- Market disruptions, AI shifts, or a bad quarter post-close can all affect whether earn-out targets are met
- A clean break from the business means less risk, happier investors, and seed money for whatever comes next
- Pricing your business correctly from the start is the single biggest lever for a clean, cash-heavy deal structure
What You Can Do Right Now to Increase Your Valuation
Founders do not need a complicated playbook to improve valuation. The core levers are still the same: grow profitably, run a cleaner business, deepen what makes the product valuable, and prepare early for diligence. What buyers want is a business that is efficient, defensible, and easier to take over with confidence.
Highlights:
- Increase profitability and revenue. Growing from $1M to $1.5M in revenue over six months directly increases what your business is worth
- Cut expenses. Go through your P&L as if you were the buyer: unused subscriptions, underperforming ad spend, and bloated tools all compress your margins, and your multiple
- Develop your IP and deepen your moat. Double down on what customers love most
- Increase operational efficiency. Document your SOPs so the business can run without the founder. Buyers always ask how much time the founder spends in the business
- Prepare for diligence early. Clean your P&L, build your data room, and audit your own business before going to market
Final Takeaways
The acquisition market hasn’t collapsed. It has matured. Multiples are stable, buyers are active, and deals are closing every day. But the window for easy exits at inflated valuations has closed, and the founders who exit well are the ones who accepted that reality early.
The data is clear: price your business at fair market value, maximize profitability before you go live, and structure your documentation so buyers can move fast. Those three things alone will put you ahead of the majority of sellers in the market today.
If the numbers here made you think about your own exit timeline, Acquire’s free SaaS Valuation Tool is a strong first step, and Guided by Acquire provides expert support to help you get exit-ready with the right structure from the start.
Q&A
What’s the biggest mistake founders make when pricing their startup for sale?
Not pricing at fair market value. The data is clear on where buyers are active and what deal structures are getting done. Founders who go in with emotional or inflated expectations often have to reduce the price anyway after testing the market, and they lose momentum in the process. The goal is to align expectations with reality from day one: know what buyers are looking for, understand what deals are closing at, and price accordingly.
What kind of startups sell the fastest?
Profitable startups with clean financials and prepared founders. A full data room, clear documentation, and a high profit margin at fair market value are the attributes that consistently generate the most buyer interest. When those things are in place, it usually shows, and experienced advisors can tell early on when a deal is going to move fast.
What metrics matter most to buyers when evaluating a startup?
Profit margin is at the top of the list, followed by year-over-year growth and time in business, with three or more years being a strong signal. Buyers also look closely at churn, founder dependence, and whether SOPs are documented. At the end of the day, what buyers want is strong retention and predictable revenue.
As a buyer, how reliable are income and profit statements?
Generally very reliable, though it depends on the quality of the founder's financial bookkeeping. Not every founder comes in as a financial expert, so the quality of the data can vary. That said, clean financials are a key requirement when evaluating any acquisition. If you need help getting there, the Acquire advisory team can assist.
We have a SaaS for Latin America and Spain. Does this work in your marketplace?
Absolutely. Acquire has Spanish-speaking advisors on the team and has closed acquisitions in the region, including a $10M+ deal in Latin America with a buyer based in Spain. If your business is based in Latin America and your primary language is Spanish, there is a full team ready to support you, along with thousands of buyers on the platform who are actively interested in those businesses.
Is it better to sell your startup when it’s growing or when growth slows down?
Buyers pay the most for businesses with momentum and a clear reason to believe that growth will continue. That said, it is nearly impossible to time a sale perfectly. The more practical question to ask is whether the business is stable, profitable, and generating revenue that is likely to hold. Those are the same questions every buyer will ask, and if the answers are strong, the timing is as good as it needs to be.
What can founders do today to increase their valuation before selling?
Increase profitability, cut unnecessary expenses, document operations and get SOPs in place, and start planning early. Acquire works with founders three, six, and even twelve months before they are ready to go to market. The goal is to make sure that when the time comes, the valuation is solid, the documentation is ready, and the exit is as clean and smooth as possible. Meeting with the team early is the single best way to apply all of this data specifically to your business.