Startup Valuation

Startups represent one of the most iconic business sectors of our time, always present from the news to the universities. Many of the most valuable companies, either in financial terms or regarding their impact and presence in the society, have made their way from startups to global leaders, complet...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Vicén Sampériz, Carlos
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/332804
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/332804
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:New business enterprise -- Evaluation
Empreses -- Creació -- Avaluació
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Economia i organització d'empreses::Direcció d'operacions
Descripción
Sumario:Startups represent one of the most iconic business sectors of our time, always present from the news to the universities. Many of the most valuable companies, either in financial terms or regarding their impact and presence in the society, have made their way from startups to global leaders, completely reshaping industries and changing our daily life and, and why not to say it, the life of their founders, making them more than rich. From the investors point of view, this niche has increasingly been a hot market with extremely good opportunities for wise –and lucky– investors to capture massive returns, making the venture capital industry one of the most renown in finance and one of the most desirable places to work in for many finance lovers. The need to raise capital to fuel the growth and expansion of the startups and the need to invest the capital that venture capital firms collect from their investors connect these two groups. However, in either case they must face a challenge to culminate this symbiotic relationship: the two parts need to agree on the fair value of the company. This is a crucial point for both startups and venture capitalists and it can be managed through a correct company valuation using different methodologies adapted to the startup ecosystem. Hence, the principal goal of this research paper is to understand how to value a startup and which are the most common methodologies to do so. Anyone interested in finance is aware of the typical valuations methods to try to come up with the fair value of a company, however the particularities that the startup ecosystem presents makes this process especially difficult and challenging in this industry. So, we aim to firstly understand what are the specificities that startups entail, and how they translate into the different valuation methods that can be used in order to overcome the issues that one has to face to proceed with the valuation of a startup. Moreover, we will test this process with our own experience by carrying out the valuation of HelloFresh, a startup that went public in 2017.