European Tech M&A — The 2026 Numbers
2,698 SaaS deals completed in 2025 — a record. EU M&A volume up +40% since 2023. Here is the data that defines the market we are operating in.
2,698 SaaS deals completed in 2025 — a record. EU M&A volume up +40% since 2023. €14.2 billion in total European tech transaction volume. These are not projections. They are the confirmed numbers that define the market we are operating in.
The European SaaS landscape has reached an inflection point. For the first time, deal volume exceeds pre-2022 peaks — but the market structure has fundamentally changed. The era of growth-at-all-costs multiples is over. What has replaced it is a more rigorous, more buyer-driven market where certified quality commands premium.
The median EV/ARR for European SaaS sits at 4.7x in 2026 — up from 3.4x in 2023. This recovery is real, but uneven. AI-native SaaS trades at 8–15x. Generic B2B SaaS without defensible differentiation trades at 3.1x. The spread between top and bottom quartile has never been wider.
The European discount versus US peers persists at 15–25%, down from 30–40% in 2020. This convergence reflects three forces: increasing US buyer appetite for certified European assets, the maturation of European growth equity, and the emergence of pan-European certification frameworks that reduce information asymmetry.
The remaining gap is structural, not fundamental. It reflects the absence of standardised diligence, not an absence of quality. That is precisely where AEGRYN operates.