On July 30th, the Equidam parameters will be updated to the latest version. This may result, on average, in a valuation increase.
What’s changing
1 | Average valuations used in the Scorecard Method and maximum valuations used in the Checklist Method
We base our estimates on real transactions by country over the last 30 months: this cycle, 4,606 funding rounds with disclosed pre-money valuations, with data as of July 1st, 2026 (Equidam internal data). Whenever we were not able to find a significant amount of real pre-money valuations in a given country, we broadened our perspective to the closest larger geographic entity (namely, continental region and continent). You can refer to the table at this link to see how they will change for your country specifically.
2 | Industry EBITDA multiples used in the VC and DCF with multiple methods
Our multiples are based on public market conditions in the middle of the current year. Data is taken at the global level and aggregated by industry, based on a snapshot of 65,757 listed companies taken on July 4th, 2026 (Equidam internal data). You can refer to the table at this link to see how they will change for your industry specifically.
A note on methodology: this edition fixes an industry-classification mismatch that had excluded a subset of companies (notably banks, software, REITs, utilities, and insurance) from the per-industry multiple aggregation in recent editions. As a result, the affected industries show level corrections this cycle in addition to market movement.
General comments on the effect of the changes
The overall direction this semester is clearly up: measured in local currency, the median country on the platform saw average valuations rise 12.1% compared to the February update, with the mean at +14.6%. Europe accounts for much of that movement, and the rise is broad. The Netherlands leads the major markets with a 33.7% increase in average Scorecard valuations, and its maximum Checklist valuation jumps from €10.86M to €16.68M. Spain follows at +30.1%, Germany at +25.5% (with its Checklist maximum edging up from €11.25M to €11.70M), Italy at +21.5%, and the United Kingdom at +10.1%. Even France, the softest of the major European markets this cycle, is up 5.3%. Outside Europe, India stands out with a 26.2% rise, continuing its run as one of the stronger movers among the large startup ecosystems on the platform.
The declines are few. The United States saw a marginal 2.1% dip in average Scorecard valuations, though its maximum Checklist valuation moved the other way, from $15M to $17M. That spread suggests the top end of the US market is stretching further from the average deal. The sharpest fall is Mexico, down 37%, and unlike some of the outliers in this cycle it comes straight from local transaction data. On those outliers: a few countries show very large swings, Vietnam (+158%) and Côte d’Ivoire (+139%) among them, that are not market signals. These countries recorded fewer than 20 local rounds this cycle, so their parameters fall back to subregion values, and the jump reflects that threshold effect rather than local deal activity.
Public market EBITDA multiples, in aggregate, had a flat semester: across the 167 industries with at least 30 companies, the median industry EV/EBITDA multiple changed by just -0.1% between January and July 2026, and the company-level median slipped from 10.51 to 10.34. Beneath that flat surface, a few sectors moved a lot. Semiconductor Equipment & Materials jumped from 5.25 to 18.24 (+248%) and Semiconductors rose 35% (from 12.40 to 16.77), both riding the AI hardware investment cycle. Medical Devices climbed 54%, and insurance categories rose between 30% and 73%, though for insurance part of that move is the classification correction described above rather than pure market repricing.
On the downside, REIT – Retail fell 57%, Other Precious Metals & Mining dropped 48%, and Capital Markets declined 31%. In technology, Software – Infrastructure fell 23% (from 8.36 to 6.45) and IT Services dropped 24%. The AI cycle is lifting hardware far more than it is lifting software services multiples right now. As with the insurance gains, some of these declines (particularly in REITs, capital markets, and software) combine market movement with the level corrections from the classification fix, so we’d read the direction as meaningful but treat the exact magnitude with some care.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions. Thanks for using Equidam!
The Equidam Team