diff --git a/.changeset/rude-bulldogs-sleep.md b/.changeset/rude-bulldogs-sleep.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8a2a0590b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/rude-bulldogs-sleep.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
+---
+
+Allow Placeholder value to be any value, not only string.
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.test.ts
index 8fd8114760..105ab03d90 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.test.ts
@@ -387,6 +387,39 @@ describe('PlaceholderProcessor', () => {
       key: 'url:http://example.com/path-to-file.json',
     });
   });
+
+  it('accepts arbitrary object as value', async () => {
+    const processor = new PlaceholderProcessor({
+      resolvers: {
+        merge: async ({ value }) => {
+          if (value instanceof Object) {
+            return { merged: 'value', ...value };
+          }
+          return value;
+        },
+      },
+      reader,
+      integrations,
+    });
+
+    const result = await processor.preProcessEntity(
+      {
+        apiVersion: 'a',
+        kind: 'k',
+        metadata: { name: 'n' },
+        spec: { a: { $merge: { passed: 'value' } } },
+      },
+      { type: 'fake', target: 'http://example.com' },
+      () => {},
+    );
+
+    expect(result).toMatchObject({
+      apiVersion: 'a',
+      kind: 'k',
+      metadata: { name: 'n' },
+      spec: { a: { passed: 'value', merged: 'value' } },
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe('yamlPlaceholderResolver', () => {
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.ts
index 39c9dc59ec..5e49c67915 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/modules/core/PlaceholderProcessor.ts
@@ -111,12 +111,11 @@ export class PlaceholderProcessor implements CatalogProcessor {
       const resolverValue = data[keys[0]];
 
       const resolver = this.options.resolvers[resolverKey];
-      if (!resolver || typeof resolverValue !== 'string') {
-        // If there was no such placeholder resolver or if the value was not a
-        // string, we err on the side of safety and assume that this is
-        // something that's best left alone. For example, if the input contains
-        // JSONSchema, there may be "$ref": "#/definitions/node" nodes in the
-        // document.
+      if (!resolver) {
+        // If there was no such placeholder resolver, we err on the side of safety
+        // and assume that this is something that's best left alone. For example, if
+        // the input contains JSONSchema, there may be "$ref": "#/definitions/node"
+        // nodes in the document.
         return [data, false];
       }