Meritech's public software comps moved behind a login

The record

Meritech Capital, a late-stage venture investor, has for years published its own analysis of public software company trading multiples as a reference point for pricing private rounds. In an 18 September 2024 note, the firm describes its method: "We analyzed the entire public SaaS universe over the past ten years and looked at the top 10 companies by year. We defined the yearly top 10 as the highest valued revenue multiples companies (EV / NTM revenue) for the most days in each calendar year. We then took each company's average for all days in the calendar year and the total median of those metrics across the top 10." The note reports the median top-10 market cap rose roughly elevenfold, from about $4 billion ten years earlier to about $43 billion, with multiples that peaked above 50 times revenue in 2021 before falling back near 17 times.

What the sources establish

The note is explicit about which multiple it uses, enterprise value divided by next-twelve-months revenue, and about measuring the highest-multiple decile of public software companies in a given year, not the full universe's average. It separately defines a growth-adjusted multiple, comparing the NTM revenue multiple against forward revenue growth, on the reasoning that "the higher the number, the more expensive a company is relative to its growth rate." Both are Meritech's own constructions, built from public prices that move daily, applied to companies Meritech selects each calendar year rather than a fixed, rules-based index membership.

Scope and revision

As retrieved on 16 September 2026, Meritech's public comps table has moved behind a sign-in wall: the firm's benchmarking page now redirects to a separate product, Meritech Analytics, whose login screen describes the offering as "Every metric, every trading day." What was a free, publicly linked comps page is now a registered product, and Meritech's blog now redirects to a Substack instead. A public trading multiple is a snapshot of a liquid market on a specific day; it does not by itself represent a negotiated private valuation, which reflects illiquidity, control terms, and a much smaller, privately negotiated comparable set.

The decision in front of you

A founder or investor using a public software comps multiple as a reference point for a private round should treat it as a starting anchor for a liquid, publicly traded peer group, then adjust for the illiquidity and structural differences of a private financing, rather than applying it directly. This is an editorial framing, not an instruction in Meritech's own note. It is also worth checking whether a comps source used previously is still freely accessible or now requires a subscription.

• Is the public comps multiple being cited a same-day snapshot, a period average, or a median across a group?
• Does the multiple compare like-for-like metrics, such as NTM revenue, or mix trailing and forward figures?
• Is the specific comps source still publicly accessible, or has it moved behind a paid product since it was last cited?

Public market multiples are a real, dated reference point, but a private round's price is a negotiated outcome, not a look-up in someone else's spreadsheet.