Eqvista Blog

Founders’ guides to equity, valuations, and company growth.

Unlocking Flexible Funding: Jake Lerner on the SMB Revolution at Revenued

Jake Lerner is the Chief Revenue Officer at Revenued, where he channels a career in alternative finance and SMB lending to build more flexible, real-time funding solutions for small businesses. Having led organizations like Vantage Capital and worked closely with entrepreneurs across nearly every industry, he saw firsthand how rigid, slow, and outdated traditional loan …

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What does the SpaceX-xAI merger mean for ESOP-holders?

2026 is shaping up to be a blockbuster year for SpaceX. The recently announced merger with xAI values SpaceX’s pre-merger shares at 25% higher than December’s secondary market offering, and the current secondary market activity shows an additional 17.84% premium above the $1.25 trillion merger valuation. In just two months, SpaceX’s valuation has surged by …

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World Largest Private Companies by Revenue

Last Updated: Feb, 2026 Choosing a business entity is one of the most important legal decisions an entrepreneur makes when starting a new company. With the numerous advantages, it provides to the entrepreneur, the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is gaining favor. A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a type of business entity that combines the …

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Predicting the Unpredictable: How SkyTL Is Transforming Wildfire Response

In an era when climate-driven disasters are accelerating faster than response systems can adapt, SkyTL stands at the frontier of predictive technology and emergency intelligence. Founded by Rocio Frej Vitalle, an aerospace engineer turned entrepreneur, the company is redefining how we forecast and respond to wildfires and other large-scale environmental threats. Drawing from her years …

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QSBS for SaaS Companies: Qualification Considerations

Investing through the qualified small business stock (QSBS) route allows investors to exclude capital gains of up to $15 million or 10x the investment basis, whichever is greater. These benefits are limited to certain businesses with gross asset values up to $75 million. This makes QSBS attestation particularly important to raise funds as an early-stage …

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Inside the VC Pulse: U.S. Funding Trends in December 2025

In December, the number of companies raising Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A funding declined by 6% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of AI companies being raised has grown by 7% in the same time frame.  The overall slowdown is in line with what we have been witnessing in the last quarter.  AI’s …

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From Gaganyaan To Cosmoserve: Dr. Chiranjeevi’s Journey to Cleaning Up Earth’s Orbits​

Dr. Chiranjeevi, formerly ISRO’s Deputy Project Director for the Gaganyaan mission and Head of Anthropometry, Biomechanics, and Human Performance, shares how a pivotal realization at the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee inspired him to found Cosmoserve Space in Hyderabad. The startup’s breakthrough Venus flytrap-inspired soft robotic arms enable capture of any space debris without needing …

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How Companies Use Cap Table Automation for Equity Administration

Modern equity structures evolve quickly. A startup might begin with four founders and end its first year with 30 angel investors, a growing option pool, and several SAFE notes. As the company scales, the cap table becomes a living system that must instantly reflect new grants, vesting schedules, funding rounds, and conversions. Manually performing these …

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Largest Series A Funding Rounds in History

Last Updated: Feb 2026 There is no quick or easy way to get equity capital for a business. If you’re successful, however, you’ll have the means to see your business through to its full potential. Series A fundraising rounds are very important to a startup’s development and eventual success. The Series A funding rounds follow …

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Pre-IPO Equity Planning: How to Prepare Your 409A for Listing

The complexity of 409A valuations increases exponentially as companies gear up for public listings. For companies that must recruit key leadership talent ahead of an IPO, these growing complexities become a significant obstacle. In the run-up to an IPO, material events multiply, valuation inputs evolve, and the spotlight on valuation defensibility intensifies. Getting your 409A …

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Redefining AI Governance: The MAISA Path to Compliant Digital Teams

In this exclusive interview for Eqvista, Manuel Romero, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of MAISA, shares his insights on building trustworthy AI for enterprise automation. A leading Hugging Face contributor with over 700 open-source models garnering 15 million monthly downloads, Romero draws from his extensive AI expertise to discuss MAISA’s innovative KPU framework.​ Founded in …

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How to Report Business Combinations: A Deep Dive into Acquisition Disclosures

M&A activity in the United States is regaining momentum. Through the first three quarters of 2025, total global deal value grew 10% compared to 2024, with the Americas experiencing 26% growth. 62% of all acquisition targets were from North America, with US companies acquiring most of them. Such activity suggests an inclination towards cross-border revenue …

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How Private Company Acquisitions Work: From Due Diligence to Deal Closure?

In July 2025, Chevron completed its $53 billion acquisition of Hess, marking the end of a nearly two-year journey that began with the initial announcement on October 23, 2023. The timeline for this acquisition got extended because of an arbitration case brought by rivals Exxon Mobil and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. This goes …

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The Next Leap in Human-Computer Interaction: Inside the XPANCEO Vision for Smart Contact Lenses

In a world where smartphones, smartwatches, and AR headsets dominate our daily routines, one startup is asking a provocative question: What if all of that technology could disappear into something as simple and natural as a contact lens? XPANCEO, a Dubai-based deep-tech company, recently achieved unicorn status with a $250 million Series A funding round, …

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ASC 805 vs IFRS 3: PPA Standards for Public Company Transactions

Purchase price allocation (PPA) is the method for allocating the acquisition cost to assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with any residual amount recognized as goodwill or a bargain purchase gain. While the underlying objective of PPA is broadly consistent across accounting frameworks, the application can differ meaningfully between US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and …

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AI vs SaaS Valuation Multiples

AI companies are now trading at multiples that are several times higher than traditional SaaS companies, despite operating in a funding environment defined by liquidity constraints and heightened investor caution. In public markets, the median AI market cap-to-revenue multiple exceeds 10x, while that of SaaS companies is below 5x. This widening valuation gap raises two …

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Transforming Premium Travel Through AI: A Conversation with Albin Eriksson Lippe

In an industry often caught between impersonal online booking platforms and exclusive but slow-moving concierge services, Holiwise is carving out a distinctive path. The AI-powered travel platform promises to deliver the white-glove service of luxury travel planning with the speed and efficiency of modern technology—a combination that co-founder and CEO Albin Eriksson Lippe believes has …

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How Eqvista Supports Public Companies in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Key Transactions

Public companies pursuing inorganic growth face two major compliance burdens. They must balance ongoing financial reporting obligations under GAAP with the requirement to provide adequate transparency to stakeholders when acquiring private sector companies. As M&A competition intensifies, the need to meet these already onerous requirements with speed and defensibility has grown sharply. Global M&A deal …

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Private Company Compliance Requirements Explained: Equity, Reporting, and Governance

As private companies scale from early-stage startups to venture-backed enterprises, their compliance obligations evolve dramatically. What begins as informal updates to angel investors can quickly transform into rigorous reporting requirements that rival those of public companies. Understanding these requirements early helps founders avoid costly mistakes, maintain investor confidence, and position their companies for successful funding …

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Fairness Opinion v/s Business Valuation: What’s the Difference?

For two analyses that support completely different purposes, fairness opinions and valuation reports have a lot of common elements. They use the same inputs, such as financial histories, projections, capital structures, and market trends. Even methodologies such as comparable company analysis and the discounted cash flow (DCF) method are common between the two. So, what’s …

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