Family offices today are far more than custodians of inherited wealth. They are active investors, business operators, and governance bodies who manage ownership stakes in family-run companies, private equity funds, real estate, and venture capital funds. According to Deloitte, the number of family offices is expected to increase from 8,030 in 2024 to 10,720 by …
At Eqvista, precision is everything. Some valuation cases demand more than technical skill; they call for judgment, experience, and the ability to deliver under pressure. That level of work belongs to Eqvista’s Tiger Team, a specialized group that handles the firm’s most advanced, complex, and time-sensitive assignments. Led by Patrick Wong, with Kayla Chen and …
Are Carta’s rising costs and cap table management issues causing you frustration? You’re not alone. Many startups are seeking alternatives to Carta due to its median annual fees of $14,000, which can exceed $77,000, slow support, data export challenges, and privacy concerns. In 2026, over 40% of startups say they plan to switch to save …
If you’re a seed-to-Series B AI founder raising in 2026, you’re entering the most capital-intensive fundraising environment tech has ever experienced. In 2024, AI startups attracted approximately $100-130 billion in venture capital, accounting for about one-third of all VC dollars worldwide, but that was just the beginning. AI secured nearly 50% of global funding in …
Every month, Eqvista delivers valuation reports for client assets worth over $5 billion, spanning everything from growth-stage startups to unicorns, with our largest single engagement reaching $25 billion. Across thousands of engagements annually, patterns emerge not just in the numbers, but in methodologies and temperaments. This article distills hard-won lessons from that volume of work, …
2025 was a year of recovery for venture capital, but calling it a full comeback misses the point. Yes, global VC funding reached $425 billion. Funding gained 30% year over year, up from $328 billion in 2024. However, when examining where the money actually went, a clearer picture appears, and capital in 2025 was plentiful …
Let us assume that you have the initial cash you need to set everything up for your business, but the trouble comes later when you look into the cash flow in the future. You are hurting for cash flow, which is the money coming in every month. Because of this, it can be really hard …
Many startups discover too late that their early 409A valuation wasn’t done correctly and no longer aligns with updated financial data or compliance requirements. The problem? Inaccuracies in those past reports can create inconsistencies across filings, affect option pricing, and raise red flags during audits or due diligence. Eqvista’s retroactive 409A valuation service resolves these …
VC funding in Q4 2025 indicates a stable yet cautious investment environment. While a large amount of money is still being invested globally, this funding is heavily concentrated in a few specific regions and sectors. North America remains the clear leader in global VC, bringing in $91.15 billion in Q4. At the same time, companies …
Disclaimer: Eqvista Real-Time Company Valuation® is an AI-driven estimate for informational purposes only; it is not a certified 409A valuation or a substitute for legal, tax, or investment advice. The Illusion of the Peak In 2021, consumer banking app Step rode the fintech boom to a massive $1 Billion valuation. Fast forward to February 2026, …
Many acquirers treat purchase price allocation (PPA) as a tick-box exercise. In reality, PPA shapes reported earnings, key performance indicators (KPIs), and investor narratives for years. When you allocate purchase price across identifiable assets and liabilities on the acquisition date, your decisions effectively determine amortization schedules, impairment risk exposure, deferred tax bases, and even exposure …
Not sure which financing or exit scenario is the best for your business? This question comes to mind for many private companies looking for financing options for their future growth. Now that companies have more liquidity and financing options at their disposal, this creates the need for more sophisticated financial scenario modeling. Even though companies …
There are more than a trillion dollars of private capital riding on the 1,568 active unicorns worldwide. For companies at this scale, the smallest valuation deviations can materially change deal economics, affect tax outcomes for thousands of stakeholders, and alter performance incentives for founders and executives. Eqvista was recently plunged into this high-stakes environment, having …
Employees who have stock appreciation rights (SARs), which are given out when the market value of the company’s shares rises over the option exercise price, earn deferred incentive pay. Given that it grants the bearer the right to collect a sum of money equal to the surplus of the given shares’ market value over a …
Disclaimer: Eqvista Real-Time Company Valuation® is an AI-driven estimate for informational purposes only; it is not a certified 409A valuation or a substitute for legal, tax, or investment advice. The Challenge How do you accurately track the value of a private company operating at the massive scale of SpaceX? For the world’s most valuable private …
When Reddit went public on March 21, 2024, it marked a defining moment for one of the internet’s most influential platforms. This wasn’t just another tech IPO; it was the moment when a community-driven platform, famous for championing retail investors during the 2021 meme-stock frenzy, asked those same investors to bet on its own future. …
Last Updated: March 2026 Different industries have different capital needs, risk profiles, and cash‑flow stability, so they naturally settle at different leverage levels. A D/E number that looks risky in one sector can be perfectly normal in another, which is why cross‑industry comparisons are often misleading. The debt-to-equity ratio is crucial for assessing financial health. …
Conventional investing wisdom suggests investing across multiple asset classes for diversification benefits and managing liquidity needs. Disciplined asset allocation also ensures operational efficiency at the fund-level. As a general partner (GP), you must balance opposing objectives, such as maximizing capital deployment and creation of reserves for operational expenses and strategic reinvestments. This requires you to …
In the M&A market, understanding where your target company sits on the valuation spectrum is half the battle. This analysis provides a practical roadmap for investors, founders, and acquirers, mapping valuation multiples across 11 major sectors and over 170 sub-industries. Whether you’re screening potential acquisitions, negotiating price, or setting fundraising expectations for 2026, these benchmarks …
Last Updated: February 2026 One financial valuation statistic used to compare the current market value of a company to its book value is the Price to Book Ratio (also known as Market to Book Ratio). The book value is equal to the company’s net assets and is derived from the balance sheet. In other words, …
