Selling in 2027? What a buyer will find in your 2026 numbers, and how to find it first. Live session, 18 November. Owner session, 18 November.Reserve your seat
Capital Row
Vertical software23 sectors5 desks open

The M&A firm for software the working economy cannot switch off.

We help buyers identify software businesses that fit their acquisition strategy, build relationships with owners, and assess opportunities before a letter of intent.

Discuss acquisition criteria
Deal intelligence Financials traced to source Before the letter of intent
Explore our sector coverage

Healthcare

Billing, coding & claimsActive

Every payer connection took months to certify. Replace the software and cash slows until they are rebuilt

Denials & clearinghouse workflowActive

The rework layer. Where a practice finds out what its billing system actually costs it

Credentialing & provider dataActive

A provider who is not credentialed cannot bill. The software holds the clock

Specialty practice managementActive

Switching costs include re-establishing payer relationships

Dental practice softwareActive

Group consolidation decides which systems survive a change of ownership

Home health & hospice softwarePlanned

Medicare-certified, survey-bound

Behavioral & specialty healthPlanned

Intake, documentation and measurement-based care. What a payer audit actually asks the record to prove

Pharmacy, DME & infusionPlanned

License-bound billing and delivery

Aesthetics & med spaPlanned

Cash-pay, no payer layer, fastest to read

Financial services

Bank & credit union softwarePlanned

Lending, account opening, compliance and collections systems for community banks and credit unions

Insurance softwarePlanned

Policy, underwriting, claims and agency management systems for carriers, program administrators and agencies

Wealth & advisory softwarePlanned

Portfolio reporting, client records and back-office workflow for advisory firms

Construction, real estate & field services

Construction & contractor softwarePlanned

Estimating, job cost, project management and payments for builders and specialty contractors

Field service management softwarePlanned

Scheduling, dispatch, work orders, invoicing and payments for essential service businesses

Property management softwarePlanned

Leasing, rent, maintenance and association management for owners and managers

Government

State & local government softwarePlanned

Permitting, courts, public safety, finance and utility billing for cities, counties and districts

Transportation & logistics

Dispatch, TMS & freight auditPlanned

Hours of service and fuel tax are filings, not reports

Fleet compliance & telematicsPlanned

DOT and FMCSA obligations sit inside the software

Manufacturing

Manufacturing ERP & shop floorPlanned

Planning, production, quality and inventory systems for small and mid-sized manufacturers

Hospitality

Restaurant & hotel softwarePlanned

Point of sale, back office, reservations and property management for operators

Retail & automotive

Auto dealer & repair softwarePlanned

Dealer management, service and parts systems for dealerships and independent repair shops

Legal & professional services

Technology services

MSP & IT service softwarePlanned

Service desk, remote monitoring, backup and security tools for IT service providers

2,784SaaS M&A transactions
12 months through Q2 2026
+9.6%Q2 2026 deal volume
against Q2 2025
54%Vertical software share
of SaaS M&A, Q2 2026
16%Healthcare share of vertical
SaaS M&A, Q2 2026

Source: Software Equity Group, Q2 2026 SaaS M&A and Public Market Report. The trailing-year count and the quarterly growth rate are different measures, labeled as such; SEG publishes no year-to-date 2026 figure. The industry, sector and desk counts are Capital Row’s own coverage list, not published figures. Share figures are for Q2 2026; healthcare uses vertical SaaS deals as its denominator.

Follow a sector

Our notes on your sector, as they are published.

For buyers

Each engagement starts with your acquisition criteria and a clearly defined sector.

Tell us what you buy and where. We work one sector at a time, with relationships built before a process starts and each opportunity assessed before a letter of intent.

Discuss acquisition criteria

One business day, read by a person.

Criteria on file
  1. 1
    Register once

    Tell us what you buy: sector, size and structure.

  2. 2
    Kept current

    We confirm your criteria with you each quarter.

  3. 3
    You hear from us

    When we publish a note on your sector, or when an opportunity fits your criteria.

For buyers · The coverage benchmark
1 in 5

The median private equity firm sees fewer than one deal in five of the ones available inside its own stated market.

18.4%Median 27.9%Top quarter 55.4%Strongest
0%Share of available deals seen55.4%

Where would your firm land?

Your numbers are not sent anywhere. They stay on this page.

177 private equity firms, each measured against the industries and deal sizes it says it covers. Coverage is the share of completed deals, with a private equity buyer and a sell-side adviser, that the firm actually saw. SPS / With Intelligence, Deal Origination Benchmark Report, LTM to 30 June 2025.

For buyers · And the ones you do see

A quarter of dead deals died on a finding outside the earnings work.

Seventy-five letters of intent that were signed and then collapsed. These are the reasons they collapsed, as reported.

25.3%
A finding outside the quality-of-earnings workA license, a contract, a compliance gap, a customer concentration. Found in diligence, after the letter was signed and the money was already being spent.
21.3%
The earnings were not what was presentedAdjusted EBITDA did not survive contact with the source documents.
14.7%
The renegotiation that followedThe finding did not kill the deal. The argument about the price after it did.
37–159
Average days under exclusivity before it diedFrom 37 days where a family office was the buyer to 159 where a senior lender was.
The problemThe solution
Today

Origination and diligence are two separate events, run by different teams, months apart. By the time anyone looks properly the price is on the table and the leverage has already moved.

On a desk

They are one process. The findings that normally surface in week six of exclusivity are on the record before the name reaches you, so you are pricing against them instead of renegotiating after them.

A lower-middle-market deal platform’s published study of broken letters of intent, 27 January 2026: seventy-five broken letters across eight buyer types and eight industries. The percentages are separate reported categories and are not summed here. Exclusivity figures are averages by buyer type, not individual deals.

Discuss acquisition criteria

Did your deal blow up? Report a bad or broken deal, confidentially.

For buyers · What origination costs

Volume isn’t the problem. Intelligence is.

Coverage is not a data problem. It is a time problem. Roughly what one buy-side team spends to get from a filtered list to a signed letter, on a single vertical.

1Associate, full time

Mapping, outreach, qualifying. The person is $135,000 to $253,000 in total compensation, and cannot run a process at the same time.

12–18Months to vertical depth

How long before a new hire knows which names are unbuyable and why, rather than adding them to the list again.

37–159Days under exclusivity per dead deal

The average by buyer type, from a family office to a senior lender, plus the diligence invoices already committed.

1Sector desk, retained

One vertical already mapped, and the diligence view attached before the name reaches you. Scope and fee are agreed in writing.

Compensation range compiled by a sell-side advisory firm from Glassdoor data, August 2024, for a US M&A associate, total compensation. Days under exclusivity from a lower-middle-market deal platform’s study of broken letters of intent, January 2026, averages by buyer type. The ramp figure is an estimate, not a measurement.

Discuss a sector
For buyers · Intelligence

What we look for when a software company adds AI features or embedded payments.

Two revenue lines buyers now ask about. For each, four things we trace in the records before a letter of intent.

AI featuresIs it paid for, and does it stay?

Paid adoption. Customer retention. Cost to serve. Earnings contribution.

Embedded financeDoes the payment activity reconcile to revenue?

Payment activity. Reconciled revenue. Delivery economics. Contract exposure.

Follow a sector

Our notes on your sector, as they are published.

Capital Connections. Financing for acquisitions, ownership transitions and growth.

For owners · Session and playbook

Selling in 2027? What a buyer will find in your 2026 numbers, and how to find it first.

Wednesday 18 November 202610:00 am Pacific · 1:00 pm Eastern45 minutes, live online

A buyer in 2027 will read the year you are closing now. In a published study of seventy-five letters of intent that were signed and then collapsed, the reported reason in 21.3% was that the earnings were not what was presented. This session shows owners, and the CPAs who prepare their numbers, where a buyer looks.

AdjustmentsWhich adjustments a buyer questions first
Source documentsWhat supported and unsupported look like
Before marketWhat is worth fixing before you go to market
Reserve your seat

Everyone who reserves a seat receives the playbook.

For owners · Before the letter of intent

A valuation is only as strong as the quality of the earnings behind it.

Find the financial gaps and earnings questions a buyer’s diligence will raise, while you still control the timeline. Your numbers traced to source documents, and a findings report that is yours to keep.

Request a Pre-Market Assessment

Scope and fee are agreed in writing before any work begins. Nothing from your review reaches a buyer, or anyone else, without your written permission.

A desk is not a list of companies for sale. It is the year spent in a vertical before anyone went to market.

Reserve your seat at the owner session

Wednesday 18 November, live online. Everyone who reserves a seat receives the playbook.

For owners · Before the LOI · Deterministic calculations · Traceable evidence

Repeatable preparation.
Traceable evidence.
Human judgment through the last mile.

Our vision is to help every business understand and substantiate the earnings behind its value.

Financial preparation here starts with repeatable calculations and evidence that can be traced to its source. Advisers guide the review throughout and lead the last mile of delivery: understanding the business, evaluating adjustments and applying professional judgment.

Technology creates capacity. Human expertise turns that capacity into trusted advice.

This is non-attest preparation. It is not a quality of earnings report and it does not replace one.

Request a Pre-Market Assessment
For owners · Bad or broken deals

Did your deal blow up?
Tell us what happened, confidentially.

We study bad or broken deals, because that is where owners learn what a buyer found. A short form, read by a person. We publish nothing that identifies you, the buyer or the business.

Report a bad or broken deal
Start the conversation

Capital Row helps buyers see more of their own market, with the financials traced to source before the letter of intent. For owners, and the CPAs who prepare their numbers, it is the first look at what a buyer’s diligence will find, while there is still time to fix it.

Tell us what you are working on.

Tell us what you are working on and where you need clarity. We will respond to discuss fit and the next step.

Please do not send financial documents, PHI or confidential information here. Sensitive information moves through a controlled workspace, under a signed engagement letter.

Or write to the desk directly at team@thecapitalrow.com