Venture capital and private equity

The course aims at providing students with a deep understanding of the private equity and venture capital businesses, and on how such sophisticated equity investors fundraise, valuate, invest, manage and exit from their portfolio companies to realize a financial return. The course conveys theoretical knowledge but also practical analytical tools, such as valuation techniques. The analysis of real case studies in class, and the assignment of cases to be solved in teams ensures that the course has a strong practical component

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
· Illustrate the distinct phases of the venture capital lifecycle (from fundraising to exiting), the actors involved and the most important features of the contracts managing the relationships between such actors
· Illustrate the concept of dilution, and quantify the financial consequences of dilution of existing shareholders in subsequent financing rounds
· Describe how Private Equity investors realize a financial return, in venture capital, growth equity and buyout transactions
· Correctly interpret the terminology of venture capital term-sheets, and compare different term sheets to identify the most favourable conditions for entrepreneurs
· Apply the "Venture Capital" method to compute the post money evaluation of a start-up
· Illustrate how the different ownership structure of Venture Capital investors (Independent, Corporate or Governmental) influence their investment behaviour.