Startup business valuation: a state‐of‐the‐art review

In recent years, business valuation models have evolved from a set of complex methods to an essential tool for valuing financial assets and real assets. In the case of real assets, the precision of the analysis is based on the existence of perfect, efficient, and complete markets, since through them, it is possible to replicate the risk involved and estimate the behavior of the variables to be studied. However, these conditions are weaknesses in certain real assets, such as startups. These companies, in their early stages of life, have a low level of income, negative cash flow and limited information about future economic and financial performance. This study aims to contribute to the literature, mainly in the financial area related to the valuation of startup companies. It is evident that there are few authors who propose a particular methodology for the valuation of this type of company, since in a significant number of cases, the traditional methods are not applicable due to the insufficient or little financial and market information of companies of this type.