How Brazilian tech startups can prepare for an international sale

Buyers of technology companies have become more demanding in recent years. Higher interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty raised the perceived risk of tech investments, and buyers now negotiate harder to protect their return. From the buyer's side the logic is simple: you make money when you buy well, not when you sell dear, because the market sets the price, not the seller. I first wrote about this in April 2024 (Ricardo Normand, LinkedIn, 26 April 2024).

For a public-market reference point, SaaS Capital's February 2026 white paper puts the median public SaaS multiple (market capitalization divided by annualized run-rate revenue) at 5.5x in January 2026. It had run up to nearly 17x during 2020 and 2021, and has historically been observed between 5x and 10x. Private companies generally trade at a discount to the public multiple (SaaS Capital, 5 February 2026). The index is updated monthly; its current reading is on the SaaS Capital Index page. In my April 2024 article I also noted that comparable valuation statistics for private Brazilian tech deals are hard to find publicly, which makes the conversation harder still.

In my experience, three things make a good valuation harder to reach in Brazil:

1. A young R&D culture. Brazilian companies, on the whole, invest little in research and development, so few local buyers will pay much for technology that is still being validated.

2. Local ambition. Many acquisitions in Brazil are made by companies whose ambitions stop at Brazil or Latin America. When they value a startup on its growth potential, they often ignore what the technology could do globally.

3. Tax and legal complexity. Even after an exemplary due diligence, an acquisition in Brazil can carry hidden labor, tax or environmental liabilities. Buyers price that in, and many call it "risk Brazil".

Sometimes. International buyers can pay more than Brazilian ones, but the benefit is limited to a particular group of technology companies. International buyers are also more demanding and far less flexible about liabilities they find in Brazilian companies, and most of them look for solutions that work globally, not locally (Ricardo Normand, LinkedIn, April 2024).

Three things matter most.

A solution to a global problem, not only a local one. Almost every Brazilian founder believes the problem they solve is global. To an international buyer, that is true only if the startup already has international customers or some recognition outside Brazil.

A founding team with an international mindset. International customers do not help if the company has no clear vision of itself as a global solution. A company's value rests on its ability to generate cash in the future, and buyers read the team's vision as part of that forecast.

An international structure. Companies that set up a holding company abroad, even with a Brazilian subsidiary, make due diligence easier and reduce the perceived "risk Brazil", provided they meet their tax and labor obligations as the law requires.

Yes. Some international companies have a genuine interest in entering the Brazilian market, and they buy differently from the rules above. It is a small group compared with the market for global solutions, and the approach usually comes from the buyer, not the seller.

Make sure every partner is aligned, with clear expectations, before any process begins. A sale is a process, sometimes a long one, and it is emotionally demanding for founders. In my experience the result is usually worth the effort.

Finding out who might buy you is part of that preparation, and it is better done early. FAIR, the product behind this site, monitors public M&A activity in your sector and shows you a ranked list of likely buyers.