Data as of October 2026 (generated 2026-10-30; refreshed weekly) · 21,352 unique completed transactions · 107 sub-verticals in the database, 44 with at least one published cell (n >= 10) · deals 2018-2026
An open, continuously-updated index of real-world M&A valuation multiples (EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue), broken out by sub-vertical and enterprise-value bracket. Built and maintained by ExitValue.ai.
Want a number for a specific business? This dataset gives population medians. The free calculator at exitvalue.ai applies them to your revenue/EBITDA, size and industry (full disclosure: built by the publisher of this dataset): Value a business →
Every number below is an aggregate median of disclosed M&A transactions — not an estimate, rule of thumb, or imputed value. Each published cell requires at least 10 disclosed deals (
n >= 10). Outliers are excluded (EV/EBITDA outside [0.5, 60.0]; EV/Revenue outside [0.05, 25.0]).
- Coverage: 21,352 unique completed transactions across 107 sub-verticals; 11,190 with disclosed EV/EBITDA, 20,600 with disclosed EV/Revenue.
- Published cells: 61 EV/EBITDA + 118 EV/Revenue across 44 sub-verticals (the 44 of 107 with at least one cell of n >= 10).
- Source window: 2018-2026 (deals post-2018, from a licensed M&A transaction database, SEC EDGAR filings, and verified press releases).
- Last updated: 2026-10-30 (data as of October 2026).
- Browse by industry: nickcals.github.io/multiples, one page per industry.
One representative published cell per sub-vertical (n >= 10; SMB-size EV/EBITDA preferred, else EV/Revenue, else a larger bracket). Data as of October 2026; deals 2018-2026.
| Sub-vertical | EV bracket | Metric | Median | IQR (p25-p75) | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dental practice | $5M-25M EV | EV/EBITDA | 6.95x | 6.50x-8.32x | 10 |
| Home health | <$5M EV | EV/EBITDA | 4.70x | 3.90x-6.25x | 25 |
| Ambulatory surgery center | $5M-25M EV | EV/EBITDA | 8.10x | 5.47x-11.38x | 20 |
| Primary-care practice | <$5M EV | EV/EBITDA | 3.60x | 3.40x-4.60x | 11 |
| Veterinary practice | >$500M EV | EV/EBITDA | 18.80x | 16.50x-24.80x | 11 |
| Hospice | $5M-25M EV | EV/Revenue | 1.30x | 0.80x-2.00x | 11 |
| Physical therapy | $5M-25M EV | EV/Revenue | 2.25x | 1.95x-2.80x | 26 |
| Insurance agency | >$500M EV | EV/Revenue | 5.56x | 4.54x-5.98x | 16 |
| IT services | $25M-100M EV | EV/Revenue | 1.58x | 0.73x-2.81x | 39 |
| SaaS | $5M-25M EV | EV/EBITDA | 10.72x | 8.24x-17.78x | 14 |
Not yet published (no cell reaches n >= 10): HVAC, Accounting / CPA firm. No values are imputed for them.
These are median EV/EBITDA exit multiples for small-business and lower-middle-market deals (enterprise value up to $100M) — the size range where most owner-operated companies actually transact. p25/p75 show the interquartile spread; n is the number of disclosed deals in the cell.
| Sub-vertical | EV bracket | Median EV/EBITDA | p25 | p75 | n (deals) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambulatory surgery center (ASC) | $5M-25M | 8.1x | 5.5x | 11.4x | 20 |
| Ambulatory surgery center (ASC) | $25M-100M | 9.1x | 6.7x | 12.3x | 10 |
| Dental practice | $5M-25M | 7.0x | 6.5x | 8.3x | 10 |
| Durable medical equipment (DME) | <$5M | 5.3x | 4.3x | 7.0x | 11 |
| Durable medical equipment (DME) | $5M-25M | 5.0x | 4.7x | 5.7x | 12 |
| Electronics | $25M-100M | 9.1x | 6.7x | 18.4x | 10 |
| Home health | <$5M | 4.7x | 3.9x | 6.2x | 25 |
| Industrial equipment | $25M-100M | 8.4x | 6.2x | 11.3x | 18 |
| Medical devices | $25M-100M | 13.0x | 10.3x | 23.2x | 13 |
| Oil & gas services | $25M-100M | 4.0x | 2.2x | 9.1x | 13 |
| Primary-care practice | <$5M | 3.6x | 3.4x | 4.6x | 11 |
| SaaS | $5M-25M | 10.7x | 8.2x | 17.8x | 14 |
| SaaS | $25M-100M | 12.8x | 5.7x | 19.6x | 10 |
| Specialty medical practice | $5M-25M | 5.9x | 5.1x | 8.2x | 15 |
| Wholesale distribution | $25M-100M | 6.2x | 4.8x | 8.8x | 16 |
For reference, the same sub-verticals at larger deal sizes (multiples typically expand with scale):
| Sub-vertical | EV bracket | Median EV/EBITDA | p25 | p75 | n (deals) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerospace | >$500M | 14.7x | 13.4x | 17.7x | 18 |
| Auto parts | >$500M | 8.1x | 6.6x | 12.5x | 10 |
| Consumer products | >$500M | 9.9x | 8.7x | 11.3x | 14 |
| Dental practice | >$500M | 14.0x | 11.9x | 15.8x | 17 |
| Electronics | $100M-500M | 14.7x | 9.4x | 20.7x | 12 |
| Enterprise software | >$500M | 22.2x | 15.2x | 34.6x | 10 |
| Food manufacturing | >$500M | 14.6x | 10.5x | 21.1x | 25 |
| Gaming | $100M-500M | 9.2x | 7.8x | 12.2x | 14 |
| Healthcare IT | >$500M | 19.9x | 16.5x | 25.0x | 63 |
| Home health | >$500M | 11.7x | 10.8x | 15.3x | 16 |
| IT services | >$500M | 11.5x | 10.0x | 13.9x | 14 |
| Industrial equipment | >$500M | 13.1x | 10.0x | 15.4x | 26 |
| Laboratory services | >$500M | 25.9x | 16.8x | 31.1x | 10 |
| Medical devices | >$500M | 15.2x | 11.7x | 20.1x | 41 |
| Mental / behavioral health | $100M-500M | 13.7x | 10.0x | 15.5x | 20 |
| Metal fabrication | >$500M | 7.9x | 6.2x | 9.9x | 18 |
| Oil & gas services | >$500M | 7.9x | 5.0x | 11.3x | 120 |
| Packaging | >$500M | 9.9x | 7.6x | 12.1x | 19 |
| Pharmacy | >$500M | 18.9x | 12.0x | 20.8x | 18 |
| Primary-care practice | >$500M | 17.6x | 14.4x | 19.6x | 12 |
| Radio & television | >$500M | 10.9x | 6.8x | 13.6x | 10 |
| Restaurant (QSR) | >$500M | 10.6x | 9.3x | 16.0x | 15 |
| SaaS | >$500M | 28.2x | 17.1x | 42.6x | 31 |
| Specialty contractor | $100M-500M | 8.7x | 7.2x | 11.9x | 12 |
| Specialty medical practice | >$500M | 14.6x | 10.0x | 18.4x | 27 |
| Specialty retail | >$500M | 6.7x | 4.9x | 14.5x | 18 |
| Veterinary practice | >$500M | 18.8x | 16.5x | 24.8x | 11 |
| Wholesale distribution | >$500M | 10.6x | 8.6x | 13.3x | 40 |
Scope note. These are population medians by segment — the citable answer to "what does industry X sell for." They are not a valuation of any specific business. A real exit multiple is adjusted for margins, growth, customer concentration, and owner-dependence; that business-specific calculation lives in the free ExitValue.ai valuation tool. EV/Revenue medians (useful for thin-margin and pre-profit segments) are in
multiples.json.
The tables give medians for groups of deals. To get a range for one business, open the free calculator with your industry already selected (full disclosure: it's built by the publisher of this dataset):
Accounting / CPA firm · Ambulatory surgery center · Dental practice · Home health agency · HVAC company · Insurance agency · IT services / MSP · Pest control · Physical therapy · Plumbing company · Primary care practice · SaaS company · Veterinary practice
Any other industry: exitvalue.ai/valuate.
The same medians are available through a free, read-only MCP server, with no signup and no API key:
https://exitvalue.ai/api/mcp
Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http exitvalue https://exitvalue.ai/api/mcp. Setup for other clients: https://exitvalue.ai/ai-connector. Listed in the official MCP Registry as ai.exitvalue/ma-multiples.
| File | What's in it |
|---|---|
multiples.json |
Per (sub-vertical × EV-bracket) median + p25/p75 for EV/EBITDA, EV/Revenue. 61 EV/EBITDA + 118 EV/Revenue cells, each n >= 10. |
multiples_flat.csv |
The same cells flattened: one row per (sub-vertical × EV bracket × metric) with n, p25, p50, p75, source_window, generated_at. |
multiples-by-year.json |
Per (sub-vertical × year) date-stamped quartiles, 2018-2026. Tracks how multiples move over time. |
datapackage.json |
Frictionless Data descriptor for the two resources above. |
CITATION.cff |
Machine-readable citation metadata. |
{
"data": {
"dental-practice": {
"5m_25m_ev": {
"ev_ebitda": { "n": 10, "p25": 6.5, "p50": 7.0, "p75": 8.3 }
}
}
},
"source_window": "2018-2026",
"min_cell_n": 10
}p50 is the median. EV brackets: under_5m_ev, 5m_25m_ev, 25m_100m_ev, 100m_500m_ev, over_500m_ev.
Multiples are computed as aggregate quartiles of disclosed transaction multiples within each (sub-vertical × EV-bracket) cell, restricted to post-2018 deals. All metrics are at the time of acquisition, not current state. No values are estimated, imputed, or fabricated — cells without enough disclosed deals (n < 10) are simply omitted rather than filled in.
Full methodology and the live data: https://exitvalue.ai/methodology State of SMB & Mid-Market M&A report: https://exitvalue.ai/research
Data licensed CC BY 4.0 — free to use, including commercially, with attribution to ExitValue.ai.
If you use this dataset in research, reporting, or a product, please cite it (see CITATION.cff):
ExitValue.ai. (2026). M&A Multiples Index — SMB & Lower-Middle-Market Valuation Multiples
(data as of October 2026). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20398222. https://github.com/nickcals/multiples
BibTeX:
@dataset{exitvalue_mna_multiples,
author = {{ExitValue.ai}},
title = {SMB and Lower-Middle-Market M\&A Valuation Multiples},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Zenodo},
version = {2026-10-30},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20398222},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20398222},
note = {Data as of October 2026. CC-BY-4.0}
}