The Software Equity Group (SEG) regularly publishes quantitative research on the software and SaaS market M&A activity. The SEG SaaS Index contains dozens of publicly traded SaaS companies. They recently published their SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update. It provides a ton of data on SaaS valuations and financial operating metrics. The impact of the market downturn can be clearly seen across all categories of SaaS.
I have extracted a few key data points including:
- SEG SaaS Index: Q1 2021 to Q1 2022
- EV/Revenue Multiple Distribution
- Monthly EV/Revenue Declines
- Revenue Growth Remained Strong, In Spite of Valuation Declines
- Median Operating Metrics Remain Strong
- SaaS Product Category Performance
- SEG SaaS Index: Top 25%
- SEG SaaS Index: Bottom 25%
SEG SaaS Index: Q1 2021 to Q1 2022
SaaS valuations peaked in Q2 2021. Median EV/Revenue (ttm) slid from 13.8x in Q4 2021 to 9.8x in Q1 2022.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
EV/Revenue Multiple Distribution
The percentage of the SEG SaaS Index trading above 15x declined dramatically.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
Monthly EV/Revenue Declines
Median E/Revenue multiples began to decline materially after Thanksgiving 2021. That ttrend continued each month in 2022.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
Revenue Growth Remained Strong, In Spite of Valuation Declines
Revenue growth remained strong across nine of the ten categories in the SEG Index.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
Median Operating Metrics Remain Strong
Median operating ratios remain strong, while cash flow margins have declined.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
SaaS Product Category Performance
This chart provides insights into which SaaS has experienced the biggest valuation declines in Q1 2022.
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
SEG SaaS Index: Top 25%
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
SEG SaaS Index: Bottom 25%
SEG Snapshot: 1Q22 SaaS Public Market Update
Also published on Medium.