Why Europe's Tech Market Needs a Standard
The European SaaS M&A market reached its highest recorded volume in 2026. Yet fragmentation and opacity persist. AEGRYN exists to change that — one certified asset at a time.
We have spent years building, auditing, and structuring digital assets — and observing the same gap: the absence of a standardised, independent reference that both sides of a tech transaction could equally trust. Sellers operate without a certified baseline. Buyers make decisions on unverified information. The market, for all its sophistication, runs on opacity.
In 2026, the European SaaS M&A market reached its highest recorded volume. AI is fundamentally recomposing how tech value is defined and priced. European buyers are finally asserting themselves in a market long dominated by North American capital. Yet fragmentation and opacity persist — particularly for the 100K–5M€ segment, which represents the majority of deals by volume and the least served segment in terms of infrastructure.
The European discount — 15 to 25% below comparable US multiples — has narrowed, but has not disappeared. Part of the explanation is structural: a less mature advisory ecosystem, fewer standardised due diligence frameworks, and a cultural reluctance around price transparency. AEGRYN exists to change that.
The CIFSO certification protocol — covering Code integrity, IP ownership, Financial reliability, Security posture, and Organisation & Talent — provides both sides of a transaction with a shared, auditable language. The Grade is not a valuation. It is a certification of transactability: a verified statement that an asset has been prepared, structured, and documented to a standard that makes closing possible.
This report is not a commissioned market study. It is our reading of the market — drawn from our data, our protocol, our point of view. Each year, as our certification database grows, the data will become more ours. This first edition establishes the baseline. Everything that follows will build on it.