Buying a SaaS Business in the UK

Insist on read-only access to billing (Stripe, Chargebee, etc.) and the CRM. Separate recurring from one-off implementation fees. Buyers pay higher multiples for net revenue retention above 100% and logo churn below 5% annually on SMB SaaS.

• Monthly recurring revenue bridge for the last 24 months
• Logo churn and revenue churn calculated consistently
• Concentration: any customer above 10% of ARR is a risk flag
• Contracted vs month-to-month split

Sub-£1m ARR UK SaaS often trades between 2x and 5x ARR depending on growth, churn and owner dependency. Profitable, slow-growth tools sit at the lower end. Niche vertical software with low churn commands the top of the range.

• Stack audit: hosting costs, third-party dependencies and licence transfers
• Security basics: SSO, encryption at rest, penetration test history
• Single points of failure in the codebase or key developer
• GDPR data processing agreements with subprocessors

Founder-led sales and support do not scale on day one. Map who owns product, engineering and customer onboarding. Retention bonuses for key staff through completion are common in SaaS deals.