MAIN STREET → MIDDLE MARKET
Valuation multiples change when the market changes.
Compare reported business-value bands from under $500K through $250M. Every number keeps its earnings metric, buyer universe, period, and original source attached.
THE SIZE LADDER
Two markets. Two source families.
The overlapping value bands are intentional. They reveal how deal universe can matter alongside size.
IBBA / M&A Source Market Pulse
Reported Main Street and lower-middle-market transactions; business-value bands
GF Data middle-market report
Private-equity-backed North American transactions with $10M–$500M of total enterprise value
FRESH MARKET SIGNAL · Q2 2026
What changed in one year?
Reported multiples moved differently by business-value band. Each comparison uses the same earnings denominator shown on the card.
SDE · −0.3× vs Q2 2025
SDE · No change vs Q2 2025
SDE · +0.1× vs Q2 2025
EBITDA · +0.1× vs Q2 2025
EBITDA · +0.3× vs Q2 2025
OUR INDEPENDENT INDEX · 2026-08-14
The activity dataset already extends beyond Main Street.
These are sanitized record counts—not public multiple claims. Thin larger-market multiple cohorts remain protected until the evidence is deep enough.
indexed transactions
172 recent records with usable multiplesindexed transactions
13 recent records with usable multiplesindexed transactions
5 recent records with usable multiplesindexed transactions
17 recent records with usable multiplesindexed transactions
19 recent records with usable multiplesindexed transactions
166 recent records with usable multiplesIndependent businessvaluation.fyi snapshot: 4,359 non-identifying records. Counts include approved primary and reputable-secondary transaction evidence; no individual deal row is published.
BENCHMARK MATH
Apply one reported tier—without blending markets.
Your earnings stay in this browser. Only an anonymous use count is recorded.
WHY THE MULTIPLE MOVES
A $3M deal and a $30M deal do not enter the same buyer pool.
SDE gives way to EBITDA.
The Market Pulse source changes from SDE below $2M to EBITDA at $2M and above. A 3.1× SDE benchmark and a 4.0× or 5.8× EBITDA benchmark have different denominators.
Strategics, individuals, and PE funds underwrite differently.
The GF Data rows describe PE-backed platform buyouts. They should not be silently applied to every privately owned company in the same value band.
Scale is only one variable.
Management depth, reporting quality, growth, margins, recurrence, concentration, capital needs, and transferability can move a company within—or outside—any market band.
SOURCE CONTRACT
No synthetic “universal multiple.”
We transcribed the Q2 2026 business-value multiples, year-over-year comparison, and cash-at-close percentages from the official IBBA/M&A Source highlight sheet. We separately transcribed GF Data's published Q3 2025 platform-buyout averages. We did not merge the datasets, infer missing percentiles, or convert SDE to EBITDA.
YOUR COMPANY · PRIVATE
Use the right market as a starting point.
Build a private valuation from your actual industry, revenue, normalized earnings, and operating characteristics—then contribute context to unlock richer anonymized benchmarks.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Business value by company size
Do valuation multiples increase as a business gets larger?
The cited reports show a size premium, but it is not a universal mechanical rule. Larger businesses may have deeper management, customer diversification, stronger reporting, and access to different buyer and financing pools. Industry, growth, margins, recurrence, concentration, and deal quality still matter.
When should I use SDE instead of EBITDA?
The IBBA/M&A Source Q2 2026 highlights express the under-$2 million purchase-price bands as multiples of SDE and the $2 million–$50 million bands as multiples of EBITDA. The change reflects a different earnings lens, so the multiples on either side should not be compared as though their denominators were identical.
Why do the two sources overlap between $10 million and $50 million?
They describe different deal universes. Market Pulse reports a broader lower-middle-market segment, while the cited GF Data analysis describes private-equity-backed platform buyouts. The overlap shows why buyer universe must remain attached to any multiple.
Can I apply the reported multiple directly to my business?
Use it as a market reference, not a conclusion. Normalize the correct earnings measure, select a genuinely comparable size and buyer universe, and then account for industry, growth, margins, concentration, management depth, recurring revenue, capital needs, assets, liabilities, and deal terms.