AI business valuation in Singapore: what an online range can and cannot tell you

How a multiple-based valuation range works

A multiple-based valuation, whether a calculator runs it or an analyst does it by hand, follows the same arithmetic:

1. Take a profit figure. Usually EBITDA: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
2. Apply a multiple. A range of multiples for your sector, from low to high.
3. Adjust for risk. Some tools add to or subtract from the multiple for factors such as recurring revenue or customer concentration.
4. Show a range. Enterprise value, low to high, sometimes with a single anchor figure.

Tools differ in two places: where the multiples come from, and whether the tool tells you. A tool that shows a precise number without saying where its multiple came from is asking you to take that multiple on trust.

How Ayebot's valuation range works

Ayebot's free valuation range is deliberately simple, and every moving part is published.

• Inputs: one of 8 sectors, your annual EBITDA in Singapore dollars (at least S$100,000), and three yes or no questions. No email is needed to see the result.
• Multiples: a low, mid and high EV/EBITDA benchmark for each sector. The full benchmark table is published once, on how Ayebot works. These are Growth Alliance Capital's working benchmarks for private Singapore and Southeast Asian deals (2024/25): a GA assumption, not sourced market data, and the tool says so on screen.
• Adjustments, applied to the mid multiple only: more than 70% of revenue recurring or contracted, plus 2.0x; one customer above 30% of revenue, minus 1.0x; heavy dependence on the founder, minus 0.5x. The adjusted multiple never goes below 1x.
• Output: an indicative enterprise value range (low multiple times EBITDA to high multiple times EBITDA) and a working anchor (adjusted mid multiple times EBITDA), with each step shown under "How we got here".

Two worked examples

A healthcare services business with S$2.0m EBITDA

More than 70% of revenue is recurring, and the business depends heavily on the founder.

• Range: 8x to 15x, so S$16m to S$30m.
• Anchor: 11x mid, plus 2.0x for recurring revenue, minus 0.5x for founder dependence, equals 12.5x, so S$25m.

A food and beverage business with S$0.8m EBITDA

One customer accounts for more than 30% of revenue.

• Range: 5x to 10x, so S$4.0m to S$8.0m.
• Anchor: 7x mid, minus 1.0x for concentration, equals 6.0x, so S$4.8m.

Notice how wide the ranges are. The healthcare range runs from S$16m to S$30m, almost double from bottom to top. That width is the honest part of the answer: two businesses with the same profit can sell for very different prices.

Where AI helps with valuation inside a sale

The free tool is a first read. Inside a sale mandate, the engine does heavier work:

• Rebuilding the profit line. It rebuilds your earnings line by line into a normalised EBITDA bridge and flags what a buyer will question.
• Pricing off evidence. It prices the business off comparable transactions and listed peers, with a discounted cash flow model as the upside case.
• Traceability. Every figure put in front of a buyer traces to a named document: file, cell, page or date. No source, no claim.

A person still sets the asking range you can defend in the room. The engine does the arithmetic and keeps the evidence straight; it does not carry the judgement.

What no calculator can know

1. Whether your EBITDA survives due diligence

Every tool takes your profit figure on trust. A buyer will not. Add-backs for personal or one-off costs hold only if the cost genuinely disappears after the sale, and each one needs a document behind it. Three years of clean, ideally audited, accounts make the figure hard to argue with; a soft EBITDA gives a buyer room to argue the price down.

2. Who is in the room

What a buyer pays depends on what the business is worth to that buyer. In Growth Alliance Capital's published view, a strategic buyer can often justify paying for synergies a financial buyer cannot, which is why a sale process should reach both. Ayebot's buyer finder shows how many of the 2,488 acquirers on its register (synced 19 October 2026) cover your sector and market; can AI find buyers for my company? explains what that screen shows.

3. The terms behind the headline

A headline price is not the cheque. Deferred payments, earn-outs, working capital adjustments and how cash and debt are treated all change what reaches your account at completion, which is why offers should be compared on cash at completion. A calculator gives you enterprise value; you receive equity value, after the terms.

Questions to ask any valuation tool

1. Where do the multiples come from? Market data with a source, or the provider's own benchmarks? Is that labelled?
2. Is it enterprise value or equity value? Enterprise value is before debt and surplus cash are taken into account.
3. What profit figure does it want? Reported profit, or normalised EBITDA after documented adjustments?
4. Does it show its working? Every step from input to output should be visible.
5. What does it need from you first? A first read should not require your email or company name.

What to do with your range

1. Treat it as a starting frame. It tells you whether your expectations and a buyer's are in the same order of magnitude.
2. Fix the inputs first. The readiness check asks twelve questions on what buyers test in due diligence. In Gwee Yi Chen's published view, the work that moves a multiple typically takes 18 to 24 months, so founders do well to start two to three years ahead.
3. Go deeper on method. Growth Alliance Capital's guide what is my business worth? covers how buyers build a price for a founder-led company.
4. Get a private read. A range is not a valuation and not advice. A person who reviews your actual accounts can tell you what a buyer is likely to pay and why. For how AI is changing the rest of a sale, see can AI sell my company?