A public reference desk for private markets
Everyone quotes a multiple.
Almost nobody shows their work.
ValYou exists to make private-company pricing legible to the people it affects most: owners deciding whether to sell, buyers deciding what to bid, and advisors tired of defending a number they inherited from a deck. We publish directional ranges, we grade how strong the evidence behind them is, and we are building toward capturing multiples straight from the M&A market itself.
- Segments
- 10
- Size bands
- 50
- Grade A claims
- 0
What we hold ourselves to
Ranges, never a single number
A point estimate is a confident lie. Every band shows a low, a high, and where the middle of the market actually clears.
Two axes of doubt, kept apart
Source grade rates the paper trail. Directional confidence rates whether the range points the right way. Merging them hides the thing you need.
No grade A exists
Audited, comprehensive private transaction data is not a thing anyone can hand you. Our ceiling is B, and we say why.
Modeled is labeled
The twelve-month traces are reconstructions, not tapes of closed deals. They are marked as such everywhere they appear.
The index, at a glance
All 10 segments →Blended across every size band · 12-month rolling average is modeled, not observed
Vertical SaaS
5 size bands · priced on ARR · AI premium zone
Other Technology
5 size bands · priced on ARR · AI premium zone
Business & Home Services Roll-ups
5 size bands · priced on EBITDA
Healthcare Services Roll-ups
5 size bands · priced on EBITDA
Industrials & Manufacturing
5 size bands · priced on EBITDA
Consumer & Retail
5 size bands · priced on EBITDA
Where fintech sits · Fintech is not a standalone segment here, on purpose. Payments and vertical fintech software price like Vertical SaaS; lending, insurance and wealth books price on earnings and balance-sheet quality like Financial Services. Splitting it out would create one band with two incompatible pricing mechanics inside it. If the spread between those two homes keeps widening, it earns its own segment — and we will say so when it does.
Where this is going
Published multiples are always late. Our goal is to capture them directly from the M&A market — from the bankers, sponsors, corp-dev teams and advisors who quote and close them — and fold those observations into the bands as they happen. Every verified submission narrows a range and lifts its grade. That is how this index gets better than the surveys it started from.
We do not publish a citation trail under each band. Individual prints are noisy and easy to over-read. What we publish is the grade — a standing, honest statement of how strong the evidence is and how confident we are in the direction.
Stay on the tape
Market movement, new bands, and what we make of it.
A short note when a range moves, when a segment changes grade, and when something in the deal market is worth your attention. Free.
From the desk
All entries →Method
Why a range beats a number
A single multiple is a confident lie. A range with a typical tick is an honest answer that still tells you what to do.
Method
Two axes of doubt
Source quality and directional confidence are different things. Collapsing them into one score is how bad numbers get laundered into good ones.
Method
Reading the rolling average
The twelve-month trace on each band is modeled, not observed. Here is exactly what it is and what it is not.
Trying to understand what your business is worth?
Find your segment, find your size band, and read the width of the range — the width is the size of the argument you are about to have with a buyer. Then log the deals you see in your own market. Your logged sightings are private to your account and never shared.