New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs (Coursera)

New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs (Coursera)

This course is for aspiring or active entrepreneurs who wants to understand how to secure funding for their company. This course will demystify key financing concepts to give entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs a guide to secure funding. Examine the many financing options available to get your new venture funded. Learn the basics of finance, valuations, dilution and non-dilutive funding sources. Understand capital structure for new ventures, term sheets and how to negotiate them, and the differences between early-stage versus later-stage financing.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Develop an understanding of how to develop winning investor pitches, who and when to pitch, how to avoid common mistakes that limit the effectiveness of the pitch, and how to ‘get to the close’. Key questions answered within the course include:

  • When to raise outside capital?
  • What kind of investors invest by stage and where to find them?
  • What are your fundraising options?
  • What are the key components of the term sheet?
  • How to perform company valuations?
  • How to pitch to investors?
  • What techniques help the entrepreneur ‘get to the close?

Course 3 of 4 in the Entrepreneurship: Launching an Innovative Business Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
The Early Stage Investment Landscape
This session provides insights into the investment landscape, to include how investors and lenders evaluate new ventures. Key terminology and principles are addressed to provide learners without an accounting or finance background with an understanding of these areas.

WEEK 2
Sources of Capital for the Early Stage Company
This session examines the options that entrepreneurs face in where to raise their financial capital from in the early stages of their venture. From friends and family, to angel investors and venture capitalists, the pros and cons of each source of capital are explored.

WEEK 3
Getting Funded – Steps in the Funding Process
This session discusses the techniques and tools to secure funding for a new venture. This provides insights into how entrepreneurs can create a comprehensive funding strategy for their new venture.

WEEK 4
Pitching Investors and Closing the Round
This final session instructs learners on how to share their investment opportunity with investors and partners. With practical tips on the do's and don'ts of pitching, learners are able to develop a compelling story for their new venture.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Identifying Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Identifying Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities (Coursera)

This Course will clarify the definition and meaning of Social Entrepreneurship and will focus on the need to learn about the source and root of a social problem. You will be introduced to different perspectives about Social Entrepreneurship and you will learn about complementary and opportunistic assets which will help you to detect an opportunity and develop an idea of how to create a business for social change.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Financial Analysis for Startups (Coursera) Coursera
Yonsei University

Financial Analysis for Startups (Coursera)

In the previous two courses, you have learned how to value startups using the discounted cash flow method and multiple methods. However, you have not learned how to estimate cash flows or earnings of startups. In this course, you are going to learn the concepts and usage of financial ratios. Using financial ratios such as profitability, liquidity, leverage, efficiency, and growth, you can tell financial health of a startup.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Social Business Model and Planning for Social Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Social Business Model and Planning for Social Innovation (Coursera)

In this course we will take the social business opportunity that you have identified in the first course to a higher level. Specifically, you will develop a business model using the Business Model Canvas. Gradually you will also start writing your business plan. Moreover, you will be able to assess different organizational forms and select the one that is appropriate for your developed business model.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship (Coursera) Coursera
University of Maryland, College Park

Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship (Coursera)

This course assists aspiring and active entrepreneurs in developing great ideas into great companies. With strong economies presenting rich opportunities for new venture creation, and challenging economic times presenting the necessity for many to make their own job, the need to develop the skills to develop and act on innovative business opportunities is increasingly vital.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Business Models for Innovative Care for Older People (Coursera) Coursera
University of Copenhagen,Copenhagen Business School

Business Models for Innovative Care for Older People (Coursera)

This course will introduce you to healthcare innovation within the field of healthy living and active aging. By following two specific cases on diabetes and rehabilitation, this interdisciplinary course will provide you with key theories, tools and concepts for analyzing and developing viable innovative solutions for aging populations. The lectures will cover demographic, biological, economic, social and cultural aspects of active aging and healthy living, along with lectures on current innovation theories and methods.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Cape Town

Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation (Coursera)

This free 6 week course is for anyone who wants to make a difference. Whether you are already familiar with the field of social innovation or social entrepreneurship, working for an organization that wants to increase its social impact, or just starting out, this course will take you on a journey of exploring the complex problems that surround us and how to start thinking about solutions.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Marketing Strategy for Entrepreneurs (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Marketing Strategy for Entrepreneurs (Coursera)

You live a hands-on-life, and you intend continuing doing so! That is why I guess you already have checked where the QR-code (the logo) for this course lead to, right? And it is in such kind of setting you prefer hands-on-learning. Things you can do, already today, is something you value. You actually did not start this course when enrolling it. You started it long ago, Either as a customer somewhere, or just maybe thinking about marketing for some time. Or maybe you are already working on marketing, of you yourself or maybe your own company. Or as employed somewhere of course. In all these situations what matter is action. Action that contribute to your marketing-journey.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Launch Strategy: 5 Steps to Capstone Experience (Coursera) Coursera
Michigan State University

Launch Strategy: 5 Steps to Capstone Experience (Coursera)

This course is the last course in this specialization before its capstone experience where you, the learner will launch your business. Consider all the activities associated with the final preparation for a NASA launch before the final countdown takes place. Those are the type of activities with respect to launching a business that will be covered in this course. The goal of the course is for you to have a document that details all the actions you need to take, and all the things that you need to think about before launching your business, with instructions on how to do those actions and how to thing about those things.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Entrepreneurship Strategy: From Ideation to Exit (Coursera) Coursera
HEC Paris

Entrepreneurship Strategy: From Ideation to Exit (Coursera)

This course covers in the chronological order each defining step of an entrepreneurial project. It begins with very personal considerations related to getting to better know yourself better so as to decide if you are ready for the multiple challenges of entrepreneurship. It then deals with creativity in order to provide the right set of tools to find an idea with the right potential to disrupt an existing business.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Technology Commercialization, Part 1: Setting up your Idea Filtering System (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

Technology Commercialization, Part 1: Setting up your Idea Filtering System (Coursera)

New ideas based on high-technology research have a high failure rate because they hit the ground running with lopsided priorities and misalignments. Students complete this course with an Innovation Creed (“Why are you doing this?”) and a customized Idea Filter (“Are you working on the right priorities?”)—2 simple tools that steer concept-stage commercialization to success.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks