Financing of startups and small corporations (MSB310B)

This course looks at the financing of start-ups and small corporations, with a focus on private equity and venture capital. A prime concern is the contracting between a firm and its source of financing (private equity firm, venture capital firm.) Additionally, the course covers the lising of firms on exchanges (the IPO).


Course description for study year 2024-2025

Facts

Course code

MSB310B

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

5

Semester tution start

Autumn

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Autumn

Language of instruction

English

Offered by
Time table

View course schedule

Content

This course looks at the financing of start-ups and small corporations, with a focus on private equity and venture capital. A prime concern is the contracting between a firm and its source of financing (private equity firm, venture capital firm.) Additionally, the course covers the listing of firms on exchanges (the IPO).

The course starts out by teaching the students valuation methods for start-ups and contrasts them with those used for mature firms. The goal here is to help the students gain critical insight into what makes start-up valuation much more demanding relative to what they have learned so far.

The course then looks at the contracts the founders have with their financiers and investigates how these contracts structure the relationship between the contracting parties. The students will learn how these contracts:

- set incentives for founders and investors

- reduce asymmetric information

- affect the valuation of the firm

- change the relative value of the stakes of the contracting parties

In a second step the students will understand the incentives for investors (mostly venture capital funds) to finance start-ups and the consequences of these incentives:

- the need to exit investments, and the difficulties of doing so through an IPO

- how investors in start-ups (called VCs) structure the contracts with their investors (called LPs)

- how the performance of VC funds can be evaluated.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

Upon completion of the course students will have:

  • an understanding of start-up financing and the venture capital (VC) industry in general
  • an understanding of how financial contracts should be designed in the VC industry
  • an understanding of how firms are listed on the stock exchange

Skills:

Upon completion of the course students will have the ability to:

  • use the discounted cash flow (DCF) method for start-ups
  • use the VC method and other valuation methods
  • value advanced security structures such as convertible securities using Black-Scholes
  • evaluate the performance of VC funds

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Hand-in and written exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Hand-in 2/5 Letter grades
Written exam 3/5 4 Hours Letter grades - 1)

1) Open book exam.

Evaluation will be a combination of handins and exam. The details will be announced in the syllabus at the beginning of the course.

Open for

Industrial Economics - Master of Science Degree Programme Master of Science in Accounting and Auditing Business Administration - Master of Science Business Administration - Master of Science (5 years)
Exchange programmes at UIS Business School

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital subject evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature

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