US PUBLIC COMPANIES · JANUARY 2026
EBITDA multiples by industry—then the private-company reality.
Search 91 US industry aggregates. Compare the source's two calculation universes. Then move from public-market context to private-company size and protected transaction evidence without pretending they are the same market.
Search the tableTHREE LENSES · NEVER BLENDED
A valuation multiple needs its market attached.
Scale, liquidity, and buyer universe change the meaning of the same EBITDA denominator.
Liquid, scaled public issuers
Useful for sector sentiment and a public-market cross-check—not a private-company answer.
Reported private-company tiers
IBBA/M&A Source and GF Data references, with value band and buyer universe attached.
Match my EBITDAQualified private transaction records
Percentiles and grouped comparable patterns remain contribution-gated and never expose deal rows.
Build my private valuationSEARCH 91 US INDUSTRIES
Public-company EV / EBITDA, without a private-company disguise.
The default column includes only firms with positive EBITDA. Switch views to reproduce the source's all-firms calculation, where available.
91 have a reported value in this calculation universe.
Median of the visible industry aggregates—not a company valuation.
Extremes can reflect unusual capital structures or thin samples.
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THE PUBLIC–PRIVATE GAP
Do not manufacture a “private-company discount.”
A public multiple minus an arbitrary percentage is not a transaction comp. The gap can reflect scale, liquidity, customer mix, growth, reporting, management depth, leverage, capital intensity, and who is bidding. That is why this dataset, the private size ladder, and our protected transaction cohorts remain visibly separate.
Positive-EBITDA firms · January 2026
Broader lower middle market through PE-backed platforms
SOURCE CONTRACT
Every row keeps the denominator and universe visible.
We transcribed the January 2026 US industry table published by Aswath Damodaran. The default view uses the source's EV / EBITDA calculation for positive-EBITDA firms. The alternate view reproduces its all-firms column where reported. We do not transform these numbers into private transaction multiples.
YOUR COMPANY · PRIVATE
Now match the evidence to your size.
Start with normalized EBITDA, preserve the private-company buyer universe, and add operating context in a private account.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Using public EBITDA multiples responsibly
What is the average EBITDA multiple by industry in 2026?
The January 2026 US dataset spans 91 industries with a usable positive-EBITDA multiple. The source reports 16.95× EV/EBITDA for the total market excluding financials, covering 4,822 firms. Individual industry aggregates vary substantially and should not be applied to a private company without matching scale, risk, and buyer universe.
Can I use a public-company EBITDA multiple to value a private business?
Not directly. Public companies generally have greater scale, liquidity, access to capital, reporting depth, and diversified operations. A public multiple can be a market context or cross-check, but a private-company valuation needs private transaction evidence, company-size references, and company-specific underwriting.
Why show positive-EBITDA firms and all firms separately?
The source publishes both calculations. Including firms with negative EBITDA can materially change an aggregate because the denominator and usable-company set differ. The explorer defaults to positive-EBITDA firms and lets users reproduce the all-firms column without blending the two.
Does this table include private M&A transactions?
No. This public table is a transcription of the cited US public-company dataset. Private-company size benchmarks are shown separately, while proprietary transaction percentiles and anonymized comparable clusters remain available only to eligible contributors.