Khaled Azar 
The right M&A advisory firm for a SaaS company is the one whose typical deal size matches your revenue, whose buyers already know your category, and whose partners will still be on your calls in month seven. Most founders pick on brand instead, and brand is the weakest of the three signals.
Reviewed August 2026. Firm details are quoted from each firm’s own website.
This guide names the firms that operate in software and SaaS, groups them by the revenue they actually serve, and gives you a scoring method for choosing between them. It also tells you plainly where Livmo fits and where we do not. Choosing the firm is the first real decision in any SaaS exit strategy, and it is the one founders spend the least time on.
Below roughly $2 million in ARR, marketplaces and brokers are the common route. Between $2 million and $30 million, boutique software specialists run a genuine competitive process. Above that, mid market investment banks take over. Fit inside your revenue band matters more than the size of the name on the door.
Key takeaways
- A SaaS M&A advisor runs a competitive sale process, builds the materials buyers read, contacts buyers in parallel, and negotiates terms. They do not fix a business that is not ready to sell.
- Advisory firms are separated far more by deal size than by quality. A firm built for $200 million transactions will not give a $6 million deal its senior people.
- Boutique software specialists are the right category for most founders between roughly $2 million and $30 million in ARR.
- Business brokers and marketplaces suit smaller, simpler businesses. They are a different product, not a cheaper version of the same one.
- Typical sell side economics are a retainer in the low tens of thousands, credited against a success fee that usually lands between 2 and 5 percent of transaction value.
- Vertical experience beats general M&A experience. A buyer list for vertical SaaS looks nothing like a buyer list for developer tools.
- The partner you meet in the pitch should be the partner who runs the process. Ask directly, and ask for references from founders whose deals did not close.
- A full sell side process runs 6 to 12 months from first preparation to wire transfer.
What a SaaS M&A advisor actually does
Four jobs, and one important thing that is not on the list.
A sell side advisor does four things. They prepare the company and its story for scrutiny. They build the confidential information memorandum and the financial model that buyers work from. They run outreach to strategic and financial buyers at the same time, which is what creates competition. And they negotiate the letter of intent and shepherd the deal through diligence to close.
The competitive process is the part that produces the money. One buyer talking to you alone sets the price. Six buyers talking to you in the same window let the market set it. Everything else an advisor does exists to make that competition possible.
Here is what a good advisor does not do. They do not turn a company with 70 percent gross revenue retention into a company with 90 percent. They do not clean up a cap table or an unassigned IP problem in the middle of diligence without cost. Those are preparation problems, and preparation happens before an advisor is worth hiring.
For a week by week view of the role, we wrote a longer breakdown of what an M&A advisor actually does across a live process.
Advisor, banker, broker, or marketplace
Four different products. Choosing the wrong category costs more than choosing the wrong firm inside the right one.
These four terms get used as if they were interchangeable. They are not. They differ in who they call, how many of them call, what they charge, and how senior the person doing the work is.
| Firm type | Typical deal size | Best for | Typical fee | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulge bracket bank | $500 million and up | Public companies, large strategic sales | 1 to 2 percent, high minimum | Attention. Your deal is small to them |
| Middle market bank | $50 million to $500 million | Scaled companies with institutional investors | 1 to 3 percent, retainer in six figures | Cost, and process length |
| Boutique software specialist | $5 million to $100 million | Founder owned SaaS in the lower middle market | 2 to 5 percent, retainer $20k to $75k | Brand recognition with very large buyers |
| Broker or marketplace | Under $10 million | Small, simple, often founder run businesses | Listing fees or 8 to 12 percent | Curated buyer outreach and negotiation depth |
The fee percentages move in the opposite direction to deal size, which surprises people. Smaller deals cost more as a percentage because the work does not shrink in proportion to the price. A $4 million sale needs a data room, a buyer list, and a diligence process just like a $40 million sale does.
We have written separately on the difference between an M&A advisor, a business intermediary, and a business broker, including the fiduciary distinction that founders usually discover too late.
SaaS M&A advisory firms by revenue band
Named firms, grouped by the revenue they serve. Read the method note before the lists.
How this list was built. Where a firm publishes its own revenue or deal size range, that range is quoted and attributed to the firm. Where a firm does not publish one, no range is given and the firm is described by its stated focus only. We did not estimate a band for any firm from the outside. Within each group, firms are listed alphabetically, with one exception noted below. No firm paid to appear here and there are no affiliate arrangements.
Under $2 million ARR: marketplaces and brokers
At this size a full sell side process is usually uneconomic for both sides. The realistic routes are self service marketplaces and small business brokers. Acquire.com, Empire Flippers, Flippa, FE International, and Quiet Light Brokerage all operate in this range.
Expect a listing rather than an outreach campaign, and expect to do more of the work yourself. Multiples here are typically a revenue multiple in the low single digits, and the buyer pool skews toward individual operators and small holding companies rather than strategic acquirers.
Where Livmo sits here. Our stated range starts at $2 million in ARR, and below that a marketplace is often the more sensible route. We do take selective mandates under $2 million, so it is worth asking rather than assuming. The answer depends on retention quality and how identifiable your buyer set is, not on revenue alone.
$2 million to $5 million ARR: boutique M&A advisors for software
In 2026 this is the band where a real competitive process starts to pay for itself, and where the specialist firms live. It is also the band where the largest number of founders get the category wrong, hiring a generalist business broker because the deal feels small.
- Livmo. Sell side M&A advisory for SaaS and digital businesses, $2 million to $30 million ARR. Founder led, technical, human first process. Named in the $2 to $5 million ARR tier by Ryan Allis in the SaaS Growth Weekly newsletter, February 2026.
- Discretion Capital. States its own focus as M&A advisory for B2B SaaS with $2 million to $20 million ARR.
- iMerge Advisors. States its own focus as software, SaaS, and AI founders with $3 million to $50 million ARR.
- L40. States sell side and debt advisory for mid market SaaS, technology, and AI founders up to $100 million ARR, with 180 or more transactions closed.
- Software Equity Group. Sell side M&A exclusively for software and SaaS companies.
Livmo is listed first in this one band because it is our own guide and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Every other group on this page is alphabetical, and Livmo appears in the groups above without being placed first. Read the ordering as disclosure, not as a ranking.
$5 million to $10 million ARR: specialists with more buyer reach
The buyer universe widens here. Private equity dry powder remains the dominant force in this band through 2026. Private equity platforms start looking at you as an acquisition rather than a tuck in, and strategic buyers can justify the diligence cost. The firms above still serve this band, joined by firms that work slightly larger deals.
- 7 Mile Advisors, technology and technology enabled services.
- Corum Group, software M&A, sell side focused.
- iMerge Advisors, within its stated $3 million to $50 million ARR range.
- L40, within its stated range up to $100 million ARR.
- Livmo, within our stated $2 million to $30 million ARR range.
- Software Equity Group, software and SaaS sell side.
- Vista Point Advisors, founder owned software and internet companies.
$10 million to $30 million ARR: the crossover band
This is where boutiques and lower mid market banks compete for the same mandates. Both can run the process. The question becomes whether you want a senior specialist who knows twenty buyers personally, or a larger institution with a wider net and a deeper bench.
- AGC Partners, technology investment banking.
- Corum Group.
- Livmo, at the top of our stated range.
- Shea & Company, software focused investment banking.
- Union Square Advisors, technology focused.
- Vista Point Advisors.
- Woodside Capital Partners, technology.
$30 million ARR and above: mid market and bulge bracket
Above this line the process changes shape. Deals are more likely to be auctions with formal rounds, more likely to involve debt financing, and more likely to attract public company buyers with their own bankers.
- Baird, Houlihan Lokey, Lincoln International, Piper Sandler, Raymond James, and William Blair in the middle market.
- Evercore, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Qatalyst Partners at the top of the market.
Livmo does not work in this band either. Above roughly $30 million in ARR you should be talking to firms with institutional buyer coverage that we do not have.
A firm that is honest about the top and bottom of its range is telling you something useful. A firm that claims to serve every size is telling you something too.
What it costs
Retainer, success fee, and the tail clause nobody reads.
Sell side advisory has three cost components in 2026, and founders usually only ask about one of them.
Typical at a boutique firm. Check it is creditable against the success fee.
Of transaction value. Check how transaction value is defined.
After termination. Ask which buyers it covers and whether the list is capped.
The definition of transaction value is where money quietly moves. If the success fee is calculated on total consideration including a three year earnout you may never collect, you are paying today on money that is not certain. Ask for the fee to be calculated on cash at close, with a separate rate on contingent consideration when it is actually received.
The tail clause protects the advisor from being cut out of a deal they sourced. That is fair. What is not fair is an uncapped tail that covers every buyer in the market for two years. Ask for a named list.
On why the retainer exists at all, we set out the reasons an M&A advisor charges a retainer and what it should buy you.
The advisor selection scorecard
Eight criteria, weighted. Score every firm you meet and the answer usually stops being a feeling.
Founders interview two or three firms and choose on rapport. Rapport matters, and it is the last thing on this list rather than the first, because everything above it is harder to recover from.
| Criterion | Weight | What a strong answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Closed deals at your size | 25% | Named transactions within 50 percent of your revenue, in the last three years |
| Vertical and buyer knowledge | 20% | They name buyers for your category before you ask |
| Who actually runs the process | 15% | The partner in the pitch is the partner on the weekly calls |
| Process design | 10% | A written phase plan with dates, not a promise to move fast |
| Fee structure | 10% | Creditable retainer, transaction value defined, capped tail |
| References including failures | 10% | They offer a founder whose deal did not close |
| SaaS metric fluency | 5% | They ask about GRR and NRR separately, without prompting |
| Chemistry | 5% | You would take their call on a bad day in month eight |
The references criterion is the one that separates firms. Any advisor can produce three happy sellers. Ask instead for a founder whose process did not close, and watch what happens. A firm that hands you that name is confident about how it behaves when things go wrong, which is the only time you will really need it.
For a longer version of the interview itself, we published ten questions that filter out the wrong fit.
What a generalist advisor misses about SaaS
The metrics that decide the multiple are not the ones on a standard M&A checklist.
Business valuation for software runs on different inputs than it does for most companies, and that gap is where value quietly disappears. A generalist advisor will ask for revenue, EBITDA, and a customer list. A software specialist asks for five things that a generalist often does not know to request, and each of them moves the price.
| Term | What it is | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| Gross revenue retention | Revenue kept from existing customers, before any upsell | It is the honest measure of stickiness. Buyers price this, not the headline retention number |
| Net revenue retention | The same, but including expansion and upsell | Above 110 percent it becomes a growth story. It can also hide churn underneath |
| Cohort retention | Retention traced by the month a customer signed | Aggregate churn can look stable while every recent cohort is worse than the last |
| Deferred revenue | Money collected for service not yet delivered | The buyer inherits the obligation, so it usually comes off the price at close |
| Revenue concentration | Share of revenue in your largest few customers | Above about 20 percent in one customer, buyers start pricing the risk of losing it |
A specialist also builds a different buyer list. Vertical SaaS sells to the platforms consolidating that vertical. Developer tools sell to infrastructure companies and to private equity platforms rolling up adjacent tools. These are not the same twenty phone calls, and a generalist working from a database will make the wrong ones.
The sell side process, phase by phase
Six to twelve months, five phases, fourteen milestones.
Every credible process follows roughly this shape. The durations below are the ones Livmo plans against, published in full in our M&A process roadmap.
If an advisor tells you a full process takes eight weeks, they are describing a single buyer conversation, not a competitive sale. That is a different transaction with a different price.
Preparation is the phase founders want to skip and the phase that decides the outcome. On when to start that clock, see our note on the 18 month lead time most founders miss.
Deal killer traps, by phase
Most broken deals break in a small number of predictable places.
Early engagement
Signing a letter of intent before any valuation work is done. Sharing detail before an NDA. Talking to one buyer, which removes your only source of negotiating power. Not qualifying whether a buyer can actually finance the purchase.
Letter of intent and negotiation
Accepting vague language that resolves in the buyer’s favour later. Granting exclusivity with no time limit. Letting too much of the price sit in an earnout. Agreeing no break fee if the buyer walks late.
Due diligence
A disorganised data room, which reads as risk and slows everything. Surprises, because anything undisclosed becomes ammunition for the buyer. Defensive answers to routine questions. Verbal agreements with no paper trail.
Closing
Uncapped indemnification. An escrow that is too large or held too long. Vague employment terms for your post close role. Last minute changes made when you are too tired to fight them.
Granting exclusivity without a deadline hands the buyer unlimited time and removes every alternative you built. If a deal dies there, you restart with a colder market and a story to explain.
Red flags when hiring
- The pitch partner cannot tell you who will run the weekly calls.
- No named transactions at your size, only a logo wall.
- A valuation range offered before they have seen your retention data.
- An uncapped tail clause, or a refusal to name the covered buyers.
- Success fee calculated on total consideration with no separate treatment of earnouts.
- They cannot name six likely buyers for your specific category.
- Pressure to sign the engagement letter in the meeting.
How Livmo works, and when we are the wrong choice
The part where we describe ourselves the same way we described everyone else.
Livmo is a sell side M&A advisory firm for SaaS and digital businesses between $2 million and $30 million in ARR. Khaled Azar has more than 25 years in technology and entrepreneurship, has launched more than 14 companies and sold two of his own, and has spent the last four years advising software founders through exits. Livmo was a 2024 Axial Top Deal Award winner.
That mix is deliberate and it is also the honest limitation. Most advisors on this page have spent their careers selling companies. Khaled spent his building them and then moved to the other side of the table. If you want a banker with 25 years of transaction volume, several firms above will serve you better. If you want someone who has been the founder in the chair, that is the trade.
Our process is the five phase, fourteen milestone roadmap described above, published openly so you can hold us to it before you sign anything.
When Livmo is the wrong fit. We generally do not take on companies less than three years old. Younger businesses rarely have the retention history buyers need to underwrite, and running a process too early usually produces a lower price than waiting would. We will say so rather than take the mandate. We are also the wrong choice above roughly $30 million in ARR, where you want institutional buyer coverage we do not have. Below $2 million we are sometimes the right answer and sometimes not, so ask rather than rule it out.
Frequently asked questions
What M&A advisory firms support first-time SaaS founders selling businesses?
Boutique software specialists are built for first time sellers, because the partner stays involved and explains the process as it runs. Firms operating in this space include Livmo, Discretion Capital, iMerge Advisors, L40, Software Equity Group, and Vista Point Advisors. The thing to test is not the brand but whether the partner who pitches you is the partner who runs your weekly calls, since a first time seller needs teaching as much as execution.
Which M&A advisory firms focus on lower middle market software deals?
The lower middle market for software runs roughly from $2 million to $50 million in revenue. Firms stating a focus in this range include Discretion Capital at $2 million to $20 million ARR, Livmo at $2 million to $30 million ARR, and iMerge Advisors at $3 million to $50 million ARR. Software Equity Group, Vista Point Advisors, Corum Group, and 7 Mile Advisors also concentrate on software in this part of the market.
Which M&A advisors provide buyer outreach for SaaS company sales?
Buyer outreach is the core service of any sell side advisor, and in software company sales it is what separates an advisor from a listing marketplace. A real outreach campaign contacts strategic and financial buyers in parallel over 8 to 10 weeks, which is what creates competition and price. Ask any firm how many buyers they will contact, how many are strategic rather than financial, and whether they will show you the list before it goes out.
How do SaaS founders choose an M&A advisory firm?
Score firms rather than ranking them by feel. Weight closed deals at your size most heavily at around 25 percent, then vertical and buyer knowledge at 20 percent, then who actually runs the process at 15 percent. Process design, fee structure, and references each carry about 10 percent, with SaaS metric fluency and chemistry at 5 percent each. Ask every firm for a reference from a founder whose deal did not close.
What are the top M&A advisors for small software companies in 2026?
For software companies under roughly $10 million in revenue, the strongest options are boutique specialists rather than banks or brokers. Firms active in this range include Livmo, Discretion Capital, iMerge Advisors, L40, Software Equity Group, and Vista Point Advisors. Below about $2 million in ARR, a marketplace such as Acquire.com, Empire Flippers, Flippa, FE International, or Quiet Light Brokerage is usually the more realistic route.
What does a SaaS M&A advisor cost?
Expect a retainer of $20,000 to $75,000 at a boutique firm, normally creditable against the final fee, plus a success fee of 2 to 5 percent of transaction value. Percentages run higher on smaller deals because the workload does not shrink with the price. Check how transaction value is defined, particularly whether earnouts and rollover equity are included.
Should I hire an M&A advisor or a business broker for a SaaS sale?
Brokers generally list a business and wait for inbound interest, while M&A advisors run an outbound competitive process and negotiate terms. For SaaS above roughly $2 million in ARR, the competitive process usually pays for the higher fee several times over. The fiduciary relationship also differs, which matters more than most founders realise.
When should a SaaS founder start talking to advisors?
Twelve to eighteen months before you want to close. That window is what makes preparation possible, including cleaning up financials, documenting IP assignment, and fixing retention reporting. Founders who call an advisor when they already have an offer in hand have given up most of their negotiating position before the conversation starts.
Do I need an advisor at all, or can I sell direct?
You can sell direct, and some founders do it well. The cost is that a single buyer sets the price with no competing bid to test it, and that you negotiate your own deal terms against a buyer who does this professionally. If a strategic buyer has already approached you and you have no alternative in the room, that is the situation an advisor exists to fix.
Which advisor fits a company at $2 million to $5 million ARR?
A boutique software specialist. At this size a mid market bank will not take the mandate, and a general business broker will not reach the strategic buyers who pay the most. Firms working in this band include Livmo, Discretion Capital, iMerge Advisors, L40, and Software Equity Group.
What ARR do I need before a real M&A process makes sense?
Around $2 million in ARR is the practical floor for a competitive sell side process. Below that, the fees consume too much of the outcome and the buyer pool is mostly individuals rather than strategic acquirers. Between $2 million and $3 million, the question is less about size and more about retention quality and growth rate.
How long does a SaaS sale take from start to close?
Six to twelve months for a full competitive process. That breaks down to roughly 6 to 10 weeks of preparation, 8 to 10 weeks of marketing and outreach, 8 to 12 weeks of due diligence, 4 to 6 weeks of negotiation, and 4 to 6 weeks to close. A process quoted at eight weeks is a single buyer negotiation, not a competitive sale.
What does an M&A advisor do week to week?
In preparation they are building the CIM, the model, and the buyer list. In marketing they are running outreach, taking buyer calls, and managing the flow of NDAs and information. In diligence they are triaging buyer requests so you can keep running the company, which is the part founders underestimate most.
Why do advisors charge a retainer?
The retainer covers the preparation phase, which is real work delivered months before any fee is earned, and it filters out sellers who are not committed. A retainer that is creditable against the success fee costs you nothing extra if the deal closes. A retainer that is not creditable is a fee, so ask which one you are being offered.
Boutique specialist or mid market bank?
Below roughly $30 million in ARR, a boutique specialist will usually give you more senior attention and a better targeted buyer list. Above that, a mid market bank brings wider institutional coverage and a deeper bench for a larger, more formal process. In the crossover band between $10 million and $30 million, both are credible and the decision comes down to whether you value depth of relationship or breadth of reach.
How do I check an advisor’s track record?
Ask for named transactions within 50 percent of your revenue, closed in the last three years, and then ask to speak to those founders directly. Logo walls are not track records, because a firm can list any company it touched. The strongest signal is a firm that volunteers a reference from a deal that did not close.
What should I ask when interviewing M&A advisors?
Ask who runs the weekly calls, how many buyers they will contact and how many are strategic, how they define transaction value for the success fee, how long the tail runs and which buyers it covers, and for a reference from a founder whose process failed. Then ask them to name six likely buyers for your category on the spot.
A private equity firm approached me directly. What now?
Slow down and do not sign anything, particularly an exclusivity clause. An unsolicited approach means one buyer has decided you are worth acquiring, which is useful information and a poor negotiating position at the same time. The value of bringing in an advisor at that point is turning one interested party into several. We walked through the same decision in the unsolicited offer versus the VC round.
Not sure which band you are in, or whether your retention data is ready for a buyer to see? A value assessment gives you both answers before you commit to anything.