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sgt • today at 1:35 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

With series B,C and now D, makes one wonder; will there be any shares left for the original team?


Replies

reticulates • today at 1:51 PM

They’re raising from a position of strength for capital they don’t need. As far as I know, they haven’t published their valuation, but it is very possible they’re giving up little equity. Plus, giving up some equity to meet customer demand is generally a good idea as more revenue means higher valuation.

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Aurornis • today at 1:48 PM

A confusing thing about fundraising and dilution is that the new shares don’t take away value from existing shareholders.

If each share is worth $1 at the valuation used in the raise, then an investor adding $100 million gets 100 million shares for it. The shares aren’t taken away from anyone, they're issued in exchange for the capital.

So ideally the dilution is neutral to the value of the equity. In practice this is highly variable because the valuations are fuzzy numbers used for the raise, but you get the idea.

If a company can get the same growth without raising, that would be better because the proportional ownership stays higher. However, the reason companies give equity in exchange for capital is that they need the cash for growth and can’t get it on better terms anywhere else.

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bix6 • today at 3:02 PM

Why do you think there wouldn’t be? They are just different prices.