Know what your startup is worth.

We work with Australian startups and scale-ups at any stage, from a two founder, pre-product company to a multi-round, venture-backed business with several share classes. Our clients are the company itself, its board, or the accountants and lawyers advising it. We do not tell an employee or an investor whether to buy, exercise, hold or sell.

If your company has no revenue yet, start at Valuing a pre-revenue start-up. For the full picture of who a startup engagement suits, see Startup valuations.

A startup often has little or no earnings history, and later-stage startups usually have several classes of shares with different rights. It may have no revenue, unresolved instruments such as SAFEs or convertible notes, and most of its evidence sitting in a recent funding round rather than in its own financial history.

The basis of value changes with purpose too. For an ESS grant relying on the start-up concession, the test is the market value of an ordinary share ¹. For most tax events it is market value in its ordinary meaning ². For a transfer between shareholders, the starting point is usually the basis the shareholders' agreement or constitution defines, often "fair value" or "fair market value", with or without discounts. Where no clause applies, or for the tax consequences of the transfer, market value in its ordinary meaning is usually the test ². The unit changes as well: the whole company, one class, a parcel, or an option or right. We treat these as the starting questions on every engagement, not an afterthought.

See How to value a startup for the full method by stage, and Ordinary versus preference shares for how share class rights change the answer. Unfamiliar term? Check the glossary.

In our view, the right method follows the evidence a company actually has, and that changes with stage, from net assets alone, to a recent priced round cross checked against a forecast, to a full equity valuation allocated across share classes. The full method by stage, including how we treat SAFEs, notes and the option pool, is set out at How to value a startup.

Where an engagement supports the ESS start-up concession safe harbour, LI 2025/19 approves two methods ⁶. Method One, worked out by the CFO or a suitable valuer, must take into account on a reasonable basis: tangible and intangible asset values; the market value of similar businesses, including earnings multiples; uplifts and discounts for control premiums, lack of marketability and key person risk; and the present value of anticipated future cash flows. The directors must endorse both the methodology and the value in a written resolution ⁶. Consistent with the ATO's recommendation to use a cross-check method where possible ², we test our conclusion against a second method wherever the evidence allows.

We request supporting information after we agree the engagement, through a private link, never through a form on this website.

See SAFEs and convertible notes for how those instruments are treated, and the full list organised by purpose at the Startup valuation readiness checklist.

Start-Up Valuations is a specialist division of Valuation Group Pty Ltd (ABN 48 702 469 252), the entity that issues and stands behind every valuation the practice prepares. It is not a separate company, and the same review standard applies across all of its trading names. Read more about the parent entity at Valuation Group. Our privacy notice and website terms set out how we handle your information and the terms of using this site.