      cloudedjudgement.substack.com · 2021-07-09
      · 1791d
    

Clouded Judgement: SaaS Valuation Multiples & Operating Metrics Analysis

This article provides comprehensive analysis of SaaS company valuation multiples, growth metrics, and operating performance benchmarks across 50+ public cloud software companies as of July 2021. The author presents median EV/NTM revenue multiples, growth-adjusted valuations, and key operating metrics (NRR, CAC payback, margin profiles) to contextualize valuation risk and pricing correlations in a high-growth market environment.

15 metrics· Cited 0× in the knowledge base ·Open source ↗

Metrics in this report

CAC Payback Period

24months

median

Public SaaS companies (fully-loaded basis)

EV/NTM Revenue Multiple

16.5x

median

Public SaaS companies (50+ company peer set)

EV/NTM Revenue Multiple

49.9x

median

Top 5 highest-valued SaaS companies by multiple (Cloudflare, Bill.com, Snowflake, UiPath, CrowdStrike)

EV/NTM Revenue Multiple

27.9x

median

High-growth SaaS (>30% projected NTM growth)

EV/NTM Revenue Multiple

13.8x

median

Mid-growth SaaS (15-30% projected NTM growth)

EV/NTM Revenue Multiple

5.7x

median

Low-growth SaaS (<15% projected NTM growth)

FCF Margin

9percent

median

Public SaaS companies

G&A Spend

18percent of revenue

median

Public SaaS companies

Gross Margin

74percent

median

Public SaaS companies

LTM Revenue Growth

30percent

median

Public SaaS companies (trailing 12-month actual)

NTM Revenue Growth

23percent

median

Public SaaS companies (forward 12-month consensus estimate)

Net Revenue Retention

118percent

median

Public SaaS companies

Operating Margin

-13percent

median

Public SaaS companies

R&D Spend

25percent of revenue

median

Public SaaS companies

Sales & Marketing Spend

43percent of revenue

median

Public SaaS companies