By Thomas Tisone, Vice President | Published 29 October 2025
US software valuation multiples cooled in Q3 2025 while Europe held. Median EV/Revenue for US vertical software fell 22% quarter on quarter to 5.76x, the steepest drop of our four categories, and every US category declined. Silverpeak LLP’s Software Benchmark Report covers the quarter ended 30 September 2025 and uses S&P Capital IQ data to produce a valuation multiples benchmark for 579 US and European listed software companies.
Q3 2025 findings
US software kept its premium to Europe in every category. US SaaS traded at a median 6.51x EV/Revenue, US vertical at 5.76x and US horizontal at 4.69x, against 3.32x for Europe. Vertical took the hardest hit as investors grew wary of AI disruption in smaller vertical applications. Digimarc shows the strain: revenue fell 23% year on year in Q2 2025 and gross margin dropped to 59% from 66%. Thomas Tisone, Vice President at Silverpeak, said: “US software valuations came under greater scrutiny amid AI-driven disruption and concerns about markets reaching all-time highs. In contrast, European stocks proved more resilient, supported by valuations that were already closer to fundamental levels.”
| Category | Median EV/Revenue | QoQ change | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|
| US vertical | 5.76x | -22% | -19% |
| US SaaS | 6.51x | -12% | -5% |
| US horizontal | 4.69x | -4% | +1% |
| Europe | 3.32x | 0% | +7% |
Median EV/Revenue multiples by software category, Q3 2025 (quarter ended 30 September 2025). Source: S&P Capital IQ.
Within Europe the regions pulled apart. The Nordics rose 14% to 4.07x, and EQT and First Kraft agreed a $5.5 billion take-private of Fortnox at a 38% premium to its share price. DACH added 2% to 2.50x, still the lowest of our regions. The UK fell 11% to 2.90x with investors waiting on the budget.
Listings stayed thin. The wider IPO market kept recovering, yet only two new software companies joined our dataset in Q3. Netskope raised $908 million at a $7.3 billion valuation, and its shares rose more than 20% on debut.
Security was the only sector to rise on both measures. Its median EV/EBITDA multiple climbed 19% to 17.64x, the largest gain of the four sectors we track, and its EV/Revenue multiple edged up 1% to 4.49x. Enterprise, fintech and media all fell on EV/Revenue. Fiserv’s multiple dropped 22% after it narrowed its full-year revenue outlook.
How to read the software EBITDA multiples
On EV/EBITDA, US vertical software jumped 33% to 33.01x. The move came from changes in the dataset: companies returning to profitability, take-privates and new entrants. Looking only at companies present in both quarters, the multiple fell about 20%, in line with the EV/Revenue move.
More from Silverpeak
Silverpeak is a boutique investment bank specialising in M&A and financing for technology growth companies. See our work in software and our track record, which includes the sales of Rotageek to ELMO and ScreenCloud to Tenzing. The previous edition covered global software valuations rebounding on AI momentum in Q2 2025; the next found valuations cooling again over AI disruption in Q4 2025.
The full report adds EV/EBITDA multiples by category, region and sector, forecast growth and margin data, and our methodology. Download it below.