Industry valuation multiples database.

EV/Revenue

Enterprise value divided by trailing 12-month revenue. Useful when a business isn’t yet profitable, or when profit is temporarily suppressed by growth investment. A 2x EV/Revenue multiple means a business doing $1M revenue trades around $2M enterprise value – subject to margin quality, size, and growth adjustments.

EV/EBITDA

Enterprise value divided by trailing 12-month EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation). The standard multiple for mid-market profitable businesses. Most negotiations anchor here. A 10x EV/EBITDA multiple on a business with $500k EBITDA gives roughly $5M enterprise value before adjustments.

SDE multiple

Value divided by Seller’s Discretionary Earnings. Used for owner-operated businesses under roughly $5M revenue. Lower than EV/EBITDA multiples because SDE includes full owner compensation (a bigger number, so the multiple compresses). A 3x SDE multiple on a business with $250k SDE gives $750k value.

Growth band

Typical revenue-growth expectation for the industry category. High-growth industries (software, biotech) trade at meaningful premiums to their earnings multiples. Low-growth industries (retail, trades, automotive) trade closer to their earnings-multiple floor.

Why these multiples vs others you’ve seen

Public-market multiples (from published sources) tend to run higher than what SME owners actually receive. Our SME-adjusted multiples apply a size discount (20-40% below public-market equivalents for businesses under $10M) reflecting reduced liquidity, key-person risk, and buyer-pool size. The Standard report applies the full adjustment with working shown.