Premoney Value

Postmoney value is the market cap after the funding is complete and is what new investors focus on. Postmoney value is measured against other deals and the likely step-up in value prior to the next funding evenf. As the biotech market heats up or cools down, comparable values rise and fall. During the venture capital stage, investors try to estimate when the company can do an IPO (their exit strategy) and at what premoney value, and based on this estimate, coupled with their target rate of refum, they discount back to what would be a reasonable private postmoney value. 

Bottom line, valuation in biotech companies is analogous to bidding on eBay if there are more buyers for a deal than stock available, premoney value rises if there is a shortage of buyers, premoney value falls. The key to doing a strong deal is to orchestrate a shortage of stock and an excess of buyers. 

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The central issue in any stock offering is price. In traditional, profitable companies price is usually measured as a price/earnings ratio. Since biotech companies rarely are profitable, price is evaluated using the capitalized value of the outstanding stock, i.e., price per share times the total number of shares, compared to other companies at similar stages of development with comparable upside potential. This "market cap" number (either private or public) is what sophisticated biotech investors look to in measuring whether an offering price is fair. Two measures used are postmoney and premoney values. 

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