PRIVATE COMPANY VALUATION GUIDE
Private Company Valuation:
The Complete Guide
How do you put a defensible number on a company that isn’t listed on any exchange?
This guide walks through the three approaches professional investors actually use, market, income and cost, and shows where each one fits as a company matures from a pre-revenue startup to a cash-generating private firm.
written by:
Denis Voldman
Head of Product @ Venionaire DealMatrix
- Reviewed by Mag. Berthold Baurek-Karlic
- Last updated: June 10, 2026
The three valuation approaches
Every credible valuation method belongs to one of three families. The same framework underpins the IPEV 2025 guidelines and the way DealMatrix builds its data.
Market approach
Price the company against comparable companies and deals, multiples such as EV/Sales and EV/EBITDA, derived through CCA and PTA. The backbone of private-market valuation.
Income approach
Value the company on its own expected cash flows, DCF, the scenario-weighted First Chicago method, and the reverse-engineered VC method.
Cost approach
Fall back to what the assets, or the team, would cost to rebuild. Mostly relevant in distress, liquidation and acqui-hire situations.
The maturity spectrum. "Startup valuation" is simply the low-data end of private company valuation. Pre-seed companies have no cash flows, so investors lean on qualitative methods; from that onward, multiples become the connective tissue that carries all the way to mature private firms. This guide is organised around that spectrum.
Valuation Multiples
EV/Sales and EV/EBITDA, and what a multiple really tells you about a company.
Learn MoreComparable Company Analysis
Value a company against listed peers and their trading multiples (CCA).
Learn MorePrecedent Transaction Analysis
Derive multiples from real M&A and financing deals (PTA).
Learn MoreMultiples Through the Cycle
How interest rates, region and stage move valuations over time.
Learn MoreIPEV 2025, Fair Value & Calibration
Fair value under IFRS 13 and why calibration keeps valuations honest.
Learn MoreDCF & the VC Method
Discounted cash flow, First Chicago and the venture capital method.
Learn MoreHow to Value a Startup
Which methods and value drivers fit each stage, pre-seed to pre-IPO.
Learn MoreLiquidation Preferences & Cap Table
How preferences and the waterfall decide who gets paid at exit.
Learn MoreDown Rounds, Distressed & Secondary
Valuing through a downturn, fire-sale pricing and secondary discounts.
Learn MoreNo articles match your filter.
VENIONAIRE DEALMATRIX MULTIPLES
Stop guessing your multiple.
DealMatrix gives you market-realistic EV/Sales and EV/EBITDA multiples for private companies, filtered by sector, stage and region, built on 20 years of data and IPEV-2025-compliant.