Raising pre-seed, seed, Series A or growth capital, or weighing venture debt, bank debt and grants instead? Get numbers that hold up when investors check them.
Built for software & SaaS companies, e-commerce businesses and SMEs in any industry, across Europe and English-speaking markets
DeFiGure is a startup fundraising advisor for companies in Europe and English-speaking markets. We provide startup valuation services, build the financial model, prepare investor materials and the data room (the secure folder investors check during due diligence), and compare equity, venture debt, bank debt and grants, so you raise the right amount on terms you understand.
Every source of capital has a price. Equity costs dilution: your ownership percentage falls when new shares are issued, even though the number of shares you hold stays the same. Debt costs interest, covenants and sometimes collateral. Grants cost time, eligibility work and reporting. Our job is to put those prices side by side for your plan, then help you prepare for the option you choose.
We work research first. Before we advise, we look at public signals: recent rounds at your stage, how comparable companies are priced, and what investors in your segment ask to see. Sources are shown and limits are stated. The result is a ranked plan a founder can present to co-founders, a board or existing investors.
Equity is one option among several. We compare the conventional instruments below and rank them by cost, dilution, repayment risk and control for your situation.
| Option | What it is | What it costs you | Usually fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed and seed equity | Shares sold to angels and early-stage funds, often first through a convertible loan (a loan that turns into shares at the next priced round) or a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) | Ownership, plus the rights attached to investor shares | You need risk capital to build the product and prove early demand |
| Series A and growth equity | Venture or growth investors buy a larger stake to fund scaling, sometimes alongside a partial sale of existing shares | Ownership, board seats, preference terms | Traction and unit economics are proven and capital speeds up growth |
| Venture debt | A loan to a venture-backed company, usually with warrants | Interest plus a small warrant stake; repayments start whether or not the next round happens | Shortly after an equity round, to extend runway (the months your cash lasts) toward a milestone |
| Bank debt | Term loans and credit lines, sometimes supported by public guarantee schemes | Interest, covenants, often collateral or personal guarantees | The business has steady cash flow or assets a bank can lend against |
| Grants and public programmes | EU and national funding, such as the EIC Accelerator, Germany's Forschungszulage (an R&D tax allowance) or the EXIST founder grant | Time, application work, eligibility rules and reporting duties | The company does qualifying research and development, or the founders meet a programme's criteria |
| Revenue-based and asset-based financing | Advances repaid as a share of monthly revenue, or finance secured on invoices or inventory | A repayment cap above the amount advanced; the effective annual cost can be high | Revenue is recurring or predictable and you want to avoid selling shares |
For the detail behind each row, read our guides on when venture debt is worth it, non-dilutive funding options for startups, the real cost of revenue-based financing and EIC Accelerator grant amounts and odds. German founders can read about claiming the Forschungszulage (in German), the EXIST founder grant (in German) and Wandeldarlehen versus SAFE for German pre-seed rounds.
We value your company with the methods investors use at your stage: comparable companies and recent rounds, revenue multiples, a discounted cash flow (DCF) as a cross-check, and the Scorecard, Berkus or VC Method when there is no revenue yet. You get a range, the assumptions behind it and the points an investor is likely to push on.
We set up the folder structure investors expect, reconcile the financial model to your accounts and the cap table to your shareholder records, and keep a log of investor requests and answers. Every document supports a claim made in your investor materials.
Pitch materials, the financial model and a one-page summary that tell the same story with the same numbers. We test each claim against the data room before an investor does, and prepare answers to the questions your figures will raise.
We work out how much to raise from your milestones, monthly net burn and a buffer, and show how long the money lasts in a base case and a downside case. The model comes from our forecasting and modeling work.
We model what each offer means for your ownership: the headline valuation, option pool, liquidation preference and dilution across future rounds. You compare offers on what you keep, not on the headline. Your lawyer handles the legal drafting.
We research which investors fit your stage, sector and ticket size, using public fund and deal information, rank them, and plan the outreach sequence and timeline so the round does not stall halfway.
Pre-money valuation is what your company is worth before the new investment. Post-money valuation is the pre-money plus the new money. The investor's ownership is always the investment divided by the post-money. For example, €1M at a €10M post-money buys 10%; €1M at a €10M pre-money buys about 9.1%. That difference is your dilution, and it compounds over every later round.
Before you accept or quote a number, check:
A fundraising data room holds the evidence behind every claim in your investor materials. A workable structure has eight folders: company overview, financials, cap table and equity, legal and corporate, team and HR, product and technology, commercial traction, and prior funding documents. A seed round needs a lighter set than a Series A, where investors work through a formal request list.
Three rules keep a data room useful: build it before outreach, give it one owner who updates it every week while the round is open, and share sensitive detail, such as individual salaries or customer names, only as investor commitment grows. The full list is in our startup data room checklist; for later rounds, see the metrics and documents investors expect at Series A and our note on choosing data room software without overpaying.
Size the round from the plan, not from what peers raised. Cost the milestones that unlock your next round, add monthly net burn (cash out minus cash in) for the months in between, then add a buffer. Our runway-first framework for how much a startup should raise sets this out step by step.
Allow for time as well as money. A seed round typically takes several months of active work from preparation to legal closing, so start with enough runway to walk away from weak terms. See a week-by-week fundraising timeline, how many investors to pitch to close a round and how to raise a seed round in 2026. Plain-English definitions of runway, dilution and other terms are in the DeFiGure glossary of finance terms.
We start with public signals: recent rounds and valuations at your stage, how comparable companies are priced, and what investors in your segment ask for. Segments and competitors are compared, sources are shown and limits are stated.
Findings are ranked by impact into a plan you can present: how much to raise, from which kind of capital, from which investors and on what timeline. You decide; we explain the trade-offs behind each option.
We build the valuation, model, data room and investor materials, then run the due diligence questions an investor will ask, so gaps in the numbers, the cap table or the contracts are found before the first meeting.
Capital raising does not end at closing. We set up investor reporting and update the forecast against actuals, so the next raise starts from clean numbers. Ongoing reporting and board support sit with our CFO advisory and finance function service.
The full engagement process, from the free 30-minute call to handover, is described on how DeFiGure works with clients.
Raise enough to fund 24 to 36 months of net burn plus the milestones that unlock your next round. Work backwards: cost the milestones, add monthly net burn (cash out minus cash in), then add a 20 to 30% buffer. The gap between rounds has stretched, so an 18-month plan now often forces a new raise before the metrics are ready.
Pre-money valuation is what your company is worth before the new investment; post-money valuation is the pre-money plus the new money. Investor ownership equals the investment divided by the post-money. So €1M at a €10M post-money buys 10%, while €1M at a €10M pre-money buys about 9.1%. Always ask which figure an offer quotes before you calculate your dilution.
Plan on three to six months of active work for a seed round: four to six weeks of preparation, eight to twelve weeks of pitching and due diligence, and two to four weeks of legal closing. A Series A usually takes six to nine months because diligence is deeper. Start raising with at least nine to twelve months of runway left, so you can still walk away from weak terms.
Investors use qualitative methods rather than revenue multiples. The Scorecard Method adjusts the median valuation of comparable regional rounds for team, market and product; the Berkus Method assigns value to five risk areas; the VC Method works backwards from a plausible exit value and the return the investor needs. Most investors triangulate across two or three methods. A discounted cash flow is more useful for internal planning than for negotiation at this stage.
Venture debt is only lightly dilutive: lenders usually take warrants (the right to buy shares later) worth roughly 0.5 to 2% of equity, not a full equity stake. It works best shortly after an equity round, to extend runway toward a milestone that supports a higher valuation. It should extend a funded plan, not replace a failed raise, because repayments start whether or not the next round happens.
Non-dilutive funding raises money without selling shares. The main options are grants such as the EU EIC Accelerator grant, R&D tax incentives such as Germany's Forschungszulage, revenue-based financing, invoice and inventory financing, bank loans and customer prepayments. Venture debt comes close, with small warrants attached. Each is priced against something other than your ownership: your research, revenue, receivables or stock. Most are easiest to secure while you still have plenty of runway.
Written by DeFiGure Editorial and reviewed by DeFiGure Advisory.
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