SaaS Marketplace eCommerce Business Services FinTech EdTech

SaaS · Sector methodology

SaaS business valuation,
financial modelling & cash runway.

UK SaaS trades at 3.5x to 9.5x EV/Revenue. Above 30% ARR growth puts you at the upper end; mature SaaS bridges to EV/EBITDA.

Where you land is set by NRR, churn and Rule of 40. IVSC-compliant, signed by a named consultant.

Discover your Value Gap →See valuation tiers ↗

EV / Revenue range

3.5x to 9.5x

EV / EBITDA range

15x to 35x (where EBITDA positive)

UK listed peers · mid-2026 · indicative only

Why different

Why SaaS valuations are different

SaaS businesses look nothing like the legacy industrials most valuation textbooks were written for. The unit economics flip the order of operations: customers are acquired up-front at a cost, repaid over a multi-year retention window, and the value of the business compounds with every percentage point of net revenue retention. A standard DCF that ignores these dynamics will underprice a high-growth SaaS by an order of magnitude.

Public-market SaaS comparables (UK-listed and US-listed) trade on EV/Revenue rather than EV/EBITDA while growth is above ~25% per annum. That is because GAAP earnings understate the steady-state economic profit of a subscription business: most operating costs are growth-stage CAC, not run-rate operations. A defensible SaaS valuation has to disclose this explicitly, then bridge to EV/EBITDA at maturity.

HMRC SVM accepts EV/Revenue for high-growth software businesses but expects the analyst to triangulate against DCF and a Rule of 40 sanity check. For EMI s.431 valuations we usually present both AMV and UMV, with the unrestricted value reflecting the absence of the marketability discount that applies to the restricted scenario.

Metrics that matter

The inputs that drive SaaS value.

We anchor every SaaS valuation on these inputs, with sensitivities run on the top three assumptions that move the concluded range most.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and ARR growth rate

Net Revenue Retention (NRR): expansion vs. churn

Gross and net logo churn

CAC payback period (months)

Rule of 40 (growth + free-cash-flow margin)

Gross margin (target 70%+ for benchmark)

SaaS multiples snapshot

Current market pricing.

EV / Revenue (NTM)

3.5x to 9.5x

EV / EBITDA (NTM)

15x to 35x (where EBITDA positive)

When each applies

High-growth SaaS (above 30% ARR growth) typically values on EV/Revenue; mature SaaS (sub-15% growth) bridges to EV/EBITDA.

NTM multiples for UK-listed SaaS comparables, mid-2026. Range reflects growth-stage dispersion; concluded valuations anchor on the sub-range that matches your unit economics.

Our approach

How we approach SaaS valuations.

We weight EV/Revenue, DCF and Rule-of-40 triangulation differently depending on growth stage. For pre-Series-B founders we lean on forward EV/ARR with a churn-adjusted forecast; for mature SaaS we run the full DCF + comparable companies + precedent transactions football field and reconcile.

Every SaaS valuation triangulates DCF, comparable companies and precedent transactions, and adds an asset-based overlay where it materially affects the range. The full methodology is documented in our methodology disclosure.

How those multiples have moved through the year, and what HMRC now expects of an EMI valuation alongside them, is set out in 2026 SaaS valuation trends.

SaaS engagements (illustrative)

The kind of work we do.

How a £2M ARR vertical-SaaS founder secured a 6x exit

Illustrative: a vertical-SaaS founder used our valuation as the anchor for a strategic-acquirer process. We modelled three exit scenarios with sensitivity around NRR.

Scale: £2.0M ARR · 118% NRR · 32% growth
Outcome: 6.2x trailing ARR · cash + earn-out

Hypothetical example illustrating the kind of work we do. Named case studies will replace these as engagements complete.

EMI grant valuation for a Series-A B2B SaaS

Illustrative: a 60-employee SaaS prepared an HMRC-compliant EMI s.431 valuation establishing AMV and UMV for an option grant six months ahead of a priced round.

Scale: £3.2M ARR · 41% growth · 23 employees in options pool
Outcome: Accepted by HMRC at first submission

Hypothetical example illustrating the kind of work we do. Named case studies will replace these as engagements complete.

Free download

2026 SaaS Valuation Report.

30-page sector deep-dive: 2026 SaaS comparables, EV/ARR distributions, growth-margin scatter, and benchmark Rule-of-40 by stage.

Download free

18-page PDF · updated Q2 2026 · UK-listed peer data

No spam. Sent immediately. Unsubscribe at any time.

Ready for a SaaS valuation?
From £899.

Try the free calculator for an indicative range, or request a quote for the signed report.

Get started →Book a call ↗

SaaS business valuation,financial modelling & cash runway.