See what you can afford — and exactly how you’d finance it.
From a $300K main-street shop to a $20M mid-market acquisition, the financing playbook changes completely. Deavo’s free tool reads your target price, picks the right Canadian capital stack — CSBFP and vendor take-backs at one end, senior debt and mezzanine at the other — and shows whether the numbers actually work.
Model your acquisition
Set a target price anywhere from $200K to $30M. The tool classifies the deal, swaps in the capital stack and lenders that actually finance that size in Canada, and checks the coverage a lender would check.
Set your scenario
Three inputs. Everything on the right recalculates live.
Cash flow clears the coverage lenders typically want at this size.
How acquisition financing works
Almost no one buys a business with cash. A deal is layered — your equity at the bottom, seller financing in the middle, senior debt on top. What changes across Deavo’s range is which layers show up, and who provides them.
A bank loan backed by the CSBFP guarantee does the heavy lifting; the seller finances 10–20% via a vendor take-back.
Underwriting shifts from SDE to EBITDA. A commercial bank or BDC term loan replaces CSBFP, and lenders want a little more equity.
Senior debt is sized off EBITDA (~3.0×), mezzanine adds ~1.0×, and a sponsor, search fund or investor group provides the ~38% equity balance. The seller rolls ~5%.
Reading the stack, bottom to top
Equity — first money in, last money out
Your cash (or your investors’) sits at the bottom and absorbs risk first. Lenders read it as commitment: 20–30% on smaller deals, ~35–45% from sponsors on mid-market ones.
Seller financing — the confidence layer
A vendor take-back (or, mid-market, an equity rollover) keeps the seller invested in your success. Canadian lenders often expect to see it before they commit.
Senior debt — the workhorse
The cheapest, largest layer: bank + CSBFP under $1M, a commercial/BDC term loan to $5M, and EBITDA-sized senior facilities above that.
Mezzanine — the mid-market bridge
Above ~$5M, subordinated debt at 8–12% (often with PIK interest) fills the gap between what senior lenders will advance and the equity available.
Three deal sizes, three playbooks
The same comparison the calculator uses, side by side.
| Aspect | Micro / Main-street$200K – $1M | Small$1M – $5M | Mid-market$5M – $30M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical buyer equity | ~25% — personal savings, often with family or a partner | ~30% — personal plus partner or investor capital | ~35–45% — sponsor, search-fund or PE equity (yours or your investors’) |
| Seller financing | VTB ~15% (10–20% common) | VTB ~15% — still expected by most lenders | Rollover ~5% — seller keeps equity in the new company |
| Senior debt | ~60% of price — bank + CSBFP (guarantee up to $1.15M), ~8.5%, 10-yr amortization | ~55% of price — commercial bank / BDC term loan on EBITDA, ~8%, 7–10-yr | ~3.0× EBITDA senior at ~10%, plus ~1.0× mezzanine at 8–12% (+PIK) — ~4× total (5–6× on more aggressive deals) |
| Likely lenders | Bank · CSBFP · credit union | Commercial bank · BDC · credit union | Bank / BDC senior · mezzanine funds · PE / search-fund equity |
| DSCR basis & target | ≥ 1.25× on SDE | ≥ 1.30× on EBITDA | ~1.2–1.5× on EBITDA |
| Pricing context | Priced as a multiple of SDE (often ~2–3×) | Priced on EBITDA (often ~3–5×) | EV typically ~6–8× EBITDA |
Typical Canadian structures for illustration — every deal, lender and sector varies. The CSBFP figure reflects the program maximum of $1,150,000; confirm current terms with a participating lender.
Built to inform you — not to sell you a loan
Public benchmarks, arithmetic you can check, and a person as the final checkpoint on anything you would sign.
Public Canadian benchmarks
Structures and caps come from public sources — the Canada Small Business Financing Program and BDC lending practice — that you can verify yourself.
A method you can read
A standard amortization formula, a published capital stack per band, and a DSCR check. Every assumption is shown on this page — nothing is hidden.
A lender stays the checkpoint
Before any number here is relied on financially, a lender, accountant or advisor reviews it. AI never gets the last word on your money.
Not a financing offer
An illustrative estimate only — never a financing offer, pre-approval, or financial advice. Actual terms are set by lenders, not by this page.
Financing intelligence, built into the search
Most listing sites show you a price. Deavo shows you whether — and how — you could actually close it.
AI matches you to the right financing
Deavo’s AI reads a deal’s size and shape and surfaces the structure that actually finances it in Canada — CSBFP on main street, BDC term debt in the middle, senior-plus-mezzanine at the top — so you search with realistic numbers, not guesses.
Canadian nuance, end to end
CSBFP caps, vendor take-back conventions, BDC’s role, SDE-versus-EBITDA underwriting — the details that make Canadian deals different from the US playbooks most tools are built on.
Free, with no gate
No listing fees, no buyer fees, no paywalls, no phone-number gate. Deavo is 100% free for buyers and sellers — this tool included, as many scenarios as you like.
Questions, answered
Know your number? Go find the business.
Browse Canadian businesses across the full range — or, if you’re on the other side of the table, find out what yours is worth first.