Every venture firm reports the “value” of each of its underlying investments. Typically, this is updated quarterly and sent to each of the fund’s investors. The idea is that investors will then have a definitive view of the value of the firm’s investments. Simple, right? But what is the “value” of a private company? Turns out the answer to that question is not so easy to determine, and, as a result, valuation reporting in venture is a mess. Prior to 2007, most firms held company valuations at the price of the most recent round. This was relatively straightforward and generally pretty consistent across funds. The rationale for this approach was that the best indicator of value was the last “market”…
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