One of the top questions I get from prospective business buyers: what do multiples actually look like, and how have they moved over time? We're one small data point in a very big M&A ocean at @PIONEERCAPADV — but here's what 68 of our closed deals from 2022 through 2026 YTD look like when you plot purchase price against multiple paid. A few honest caveats before anyone reads too much into the chart: • The dataset is incomplete. Banks don't always share the underlying business valuation with us, so a meaningful chunk of deals had to be excluded. • Much of this was retroactively compiled from closing files, lender correspondence, and our own notes — not pulled clean from a system of record. • 68 deals is a respectable sample for one shop, but it's still one shop. Treat it as directional, not definitive. With that said — the trend lines are interesting. 2022 sits cleanly in the 2.5x–3.5x band. 2024 starts to spread upward. 2025 has the widest distribution, including a 7x SaaS outlier and the largest deal of the dataset, a consumer products transaction priced in the low-4x EBITDA range. 2026 YTD is clustering in the 3.5x–4.5x range with several notable points above 4.5x. Full breakdown in this week's edition of the Pioneer Buy-Side Brief — link in the comments.

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