Average exit valuation multiples (price/sales) of private retail tech companies have bumped up since 2011, while median exit valuation multiples have contracted.
Since 2011, the retail tech space has seen an spike in exit activity from startups specializing in warehouse robotics to marketplaces for digital coupons. Over the same period, the range of exit valuation multiples for private retail tech companies has varied from the low-end of .80x to a high of 35.60x. (Note: the underlying transaction level data is available on CB Insights using valuation multiples search)
Peeling back the valuation data over time, we see that the average price-to-sales (P/S) ratio in the retail tech market has stood at 6.30x and the median at 4.90x. But while both venture capital financing and exit activity in retail tech has seen strong momentum, there has not been a consistent trend in retail tech exit valuation multiples. Median valuation multiples contracted from 5.20x in 2011 to 4.10x more recently while average exit multiples actually have climbed from 5.82x to 6.79x. The chart below highlights the distribution of exit valuation multiples in the retail tech space since 2011.
