I want to share my experience with DealPipe and, especially, with David Marcheschi, who assisted me in selling my software business. It was a months-long process that David managed superbly, guiding and assisting me every step of the way through multiple buyer calls, demos, and negotiations. In the end we found a buyer who was ready to close without any third-party financing, which really sped things up. I can only imagine how hard David was working behind the scenes, vetting potential buyers and letting me focus on the important things. I could not have handled this on my own, and I heartily recommend David as a top-notch broker who will have your interests at heart.
Sell Your SaaS Business
SaaS Business Brokers & M&A Advisors
Founders who want to sell a SaaS business soon learn that buyers care less about headline revenue than about how dependable it is. They will ask how much of your MRR renews without effort, whether net revenue retention sits above or below 100%, what it costs to win a customer and how quickly that cost pays back, and whether the product can run without you. Strong answers create a competitive process. Gaps in the data, or a founder who is the only person who understands the stack, tend to turn into earn-outs and lower offers.
DealPipe’s SaaS brokers and M&A advisors represent B2B SaaS, micro-SaaS and vertical software companies. We put your metrics into the format acquirers expect, approach strategic, private equity and individual buyers confidentially, and manage technical diligence, contract assignments and the handover through closing.
Wondering where your company stands today? Begin with a confidential valuation that costs you nothing.
Should You Sell Your SaaS Business Alone or With a Broker?
Many SaaS founders field acquisition emails long before they plan to sell, and some accept the first serious one. The trouble is that a single interested party then sets the price, the terms and the timeline. Without a prepared data room, founders also end up answering diligence questions one at a time, which hands the buyer more chances to renegotiate.
We prepare the company the way a disciplined acquirer will examine it. MRR and ARR are rebuilt from billing data in Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly or your invoicing system and reconciled to the bank. Churn is split into logo churn and revenue churn, and expansion revenue is shown separately so net revenue retention is easy to read. Profit is recast as SDE or EBITDA, and costs are broken out into hosting, support, development and customer acquisition so gross margin and CAC payback can be measured. Before you start, pull together the files on our list of documents required to sell a business.
With that package ready, we approach several qualified buyers at once and compare their offers on price, cash at closing, earn-out triggers, retention of key engineers and the length of your transition. If you are interviewing advisors, our article on finding a business broker explains what to ask before you sign.
SaaS Valuation: What Moves Your Multiple
Smaller, owner-led SaaS products are usually priced on a multiple of annual profit (SDE), often somewhere between two and five times depending on growth and risk. Once a company reaches meaningful scale, buyers increasingly price it on ARR or EBITDA, and the gap between a low and a high multiple comes down to a handful of factors:
- Retention. Gross revenue churn and net revenue retention show whether the customer base is a stable asset or a leaking bucket. Expansion from upgrades and added seats can offset churn and is valued highly.
- Growth and efficiency. Buyers weigh growth rate against profitability, often through the Rule of 40, and use CAC payback to judge how cheaply new revenue can be bought.
- Revenue mix. Annual contracts paid upfront, light discounting and true subscription revenue are worth more than one-time setup fees, services or usage that swings from month to month.
- Customer concentration. When one or two accounts make up a large share of ARR, buyers discount the whole company or shift value into earn-outs.
- Gross margin. Hosting, third-party APIs and support headcount all reduce margin. Rising AI inference and data costs now get close attention.
- Technology and IP. Clear code ownership, signed IP assignments from every developer and contractor, documented architecture, current dependencies and a recent security review all shorten diligence.
- Founder dependence. A roadmap, sales process and support function that run without the founder support a higher price and a shorter transition.
Get a quick starting figure from our free business valuation calculator, then compare methods in our explainer on income-based business valuation.
SaaS Business Models We Sell
This page covers subscription software sold mainly to businesses and professionals. We sell companies across these models and sizes:
- B2B SaaS. Horizontal tools for marketing, sales, finance, HR, operations and collaboration, from founder-led products to companies with full go-to-market teams.
- Micro-SaaS. Lean products run by one or two people, often add-ons for larger platforms such as WordPress, Salesforce, HubSpot or popular storefront builders. Platform dependence is the first thing buyers test.
- Vertical SaaS. Software built for a single industry, such as dental, legal, construction, real estate, logistics or hospitality, where deep workflow fit keeps churn low.
- CRM and ERP software. Customer relationship, inventory, accounting and resource planning systems, where data migration costs and integrations keep customers loyal.
- AI-enabled SaaS. Subscription products built on machine learning or large language models, valued on retention and on margins after model and inference costs.
- API and infrastructure products. Developer tools and data services billed by subscription or by usage.
Software sold under perpetual licenses, or custom development work, follows a different exit playbook. Consumer subscription apps distributed through app stores are a better fit for our app business brokers. Larger SaaS companies with a management team typically go through our M&A advisory services instead.
What Is Your SaaS Business Worth?
Answer a short set of questions about revenue and profit for an instant estimate of what your SaaS company could sell for. There is nothing to register and no sales call unless you ask for one.
Your numbers
We value on your trailing twelve months, because that is what buyers underwrite. The prior full year sits beside it so we can read your growth. Round numbers are fine.
| Prior full yearCalendar 2025 | Trailing 12 monthsSep 2025 to Aug 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ||
| less Cost of goods sold | ||
| less Operating expenses | ||
| equals Net profit | $0 | $0 |
| plus Add-backs | ||
| equals Seller’s Discretionary Earnings | $0 | $0 |
Add-backs are the expenses a new owner would not carry: your own salary, personal costs run through the business, one-time expenses, depreciation and interest. Adding them back to net profit gives SDE, the number buyers actually pay a multiple on.
What makes you valuable
0 selectedCheck everything that is true today. These are the levers that move your multiple up, and they count towards your estimate once your figures are in above.
Where the risk sits
0 selectedBe honest here. Buyers find these in diligence anyway, and knowing them up front is how we protect your price.
Your figures, and how we got this number
Get the full valuation report
Receive your estimated multiple, comparable software transactions and time with a SaaS advisor, all in one PDF.
The calculator applies earnings multiples from transactions our brokers work on. SaaS companies are often priced on ARR, retention and growth as well, so a fast-growing or high-churn business may land well outside this range. The figure is indicative only and is not an appraisal, a bid or financial advice. We keep your inputs confidential.
Plan Your SaaS Exit Strategy 12 to 24 Months Out
The founders who get the best terms usually start preparing a year or two before they sell. Clean up revenue recognition so deferred revenue from annual plans is handled correctly. Track MRR, churn and net revenue retention monthly from one source of truth. Collect signed IP assignment agreements from every employee and contractor who wrote code, and review the open-source licenses in your stack. Move key customers onto written agreements that can be assigned to a new owner, and document how the product is built, deployed and supported. If you plan to retire or step back from daily work, hire or promote your replacements early enough that buyers can see the results.
Want a second opinion on timing? Read our seller FAQ and talk to an advisor about your exit plan.
The Process
Metrics & Valuation
Confidential Outreach
Offers & LOI
Diligence & Closing
Talk to a SaaS M&A Advisor
Who Buys SaaS Companies
SaaS businesses draw one of the widest buyer pools of any industry. Individual operators, search funds and small holding companies buy profitable products they can run and grow, sometimes with SBA financing. Private equity firms buy platform companies and, far more often, add-on acquisitions for software businesses they already own. Strategic acquirers buy products that add customers, features or a new vertical to their own platforms, and serial acquirers of small software companies look for niche products with loyal users. In Software Equity Group’s third-quarter 2026 SaaS report, private equity and venture-backed buyers took part in 61% of transactions.
Matching the company to the right buyer type affects price as much as the metrics do. See our recently sold businesses for examples, and learn how M&A exclusivity agreements affect sellers once you accept an LOI.
Our SaaS Business Brokers
Recently Sold SaaS Businesses
Selling a SaaS Business: FAQ
Small, owner-run SaaS companies are usually valued on a multiple of annual SDE, often in a two-to-five-times range, while larger companies are priced on ARR or EBITDA. Low churn, net revenue retention above 100%, efficient growth, healthy gross margins and limited customer concentration push value up. Request a free business valuation for an estimate based on your own metrics.
Gather two to three years of financials and monthly SaaS metrics tied to your billing system, confirm the company owns its code and IP, and get a professional valuation. An advisor then prepares a confidential memorandum, qualifies buyers, negotiates the LOI and manages diligence, contract assignments and the transfer of code and accounts. See how our process to sell your business works.
Smaller SaaS sales often close within a few months, while larger transactions with private equity or strategic buyers commonly take six months or more. Clean metrics, documented code and assignable customer contracts shorten diligence. Earn-outs, a complicated IP history, security reviews and consents from enterprise customers usually add time.
A founder can sell a very small product directly, especially to an acquirer they already know. Once ARR is meaningful, a SaaS business broker typically improves the outcome by presenting metrics in the format buyers expect, creating competition among several bidders, protecting confidentiality and negotiating earn-outs, retention packages and transition terms that are hard to change after signing.
Our fees are performance-based. DealPipe charges no upfront fee and no retainer, and the success fee becomes payable only once your SaaS company is sold. We lay out how that fee would work for your deal in a free, confidential first meeting, so nothing is agreed before you understand it.
Most buyers start with MRR or ARR, gross and net revenue retention, logo churn, growth rate, gross margin and CAC payback. They then test customer concentration, contract terms, pricing history and how revenue is recognized. Having these metrics reconciled to your billing system before you go to market saves weeks in diligence and protects your price.
SaaS buyers include individual operators and search funds, holding companies that collect niche software products, private equity firms making platform or add-on acquisitions, and strategic software companies buying customers, features or new markets. Each prices risk differently, so we target the buyers whose strategy fits your product, customer base and growth profile.
A SaaS broker usually handles smaller, founder-led products and sells to individuals and small acquirers. A SaaS M&A advisor runs a structured, competitive process for larger companies, typically involving private equity and strategic buyers, detailed data rooms and negotiated earn-outs. Both are available at DealPipe, and larger mandates go to our M&A advisory group.
Not unless you choose to tell them. We market the company without its name, share details only with buyers who are under NDA and able to fund the deal, and stage access to customer lists, code and contracts. Many founders inform key staff late in the process, often alongside a retention plan agreed with the buyer.
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