Venture capital investment is needed to raise third-party capital for a promising startup, financing rapid growth. The investment allows either the development of a new product/idea (early stage) or the rapid growth of an existing business (later stage/growth stage). Such investments are considered risky, but the risk of such projects justifies the expectation of super profits, which in the case of venture capital investment exceeds the amount invested many times over. To minimize risks and streamline investments, the process of financing a project through venture capital funds usually is divided into several stages.
This is a very early investment, the first necessary stage to prove new ideas. Seed funding helps start-ups become fully operational. At his stage, the start-up company has a concept, an idea for a product, but no finished product. Investors can be venture capitalists, angel investors, accredited investors, equity crowdfunding investors, revenue-based financing lenders, or government programs.
Investments for the early-stage companies having a pilot version of the product or the first version for demonstration; the product becomes tested. Typically, early-stage companies need funding for marketing and product development expenses.
The company transforms itself into a large organization, showing the features of a public company.
Depending on the type of company, e.g. SaaS or Deep-Tech, both the number of rounds as well as the round designations will be different. A Deep-Tech startup will require substantially more rounds before becoming profitable, as compared to the average SaaS company (hence the preference for many of the VCs to invest in software rather than in hardware).
Image credits: Startup Financing Cycle By Kmuehmel
Generating infrared light isn’t difficult. But generating it on a chip — reliably, efficiently, and compactly — is a different story. Traditional IR sources rely on heating elements. They radiate across a wide range of wavelengths, consume significant power, and require filters to isolate the signals. Manageable in labs, unworkable in wearables.
Innovation tends to follow a familiar path: first, we invent something powerful. Then we shrink it. Only then does it become an everyday part of the infrastructure. But one layer is still missing in today’s technology: sensing beyond the visible.
The journey from concept to market looks very different in traditional tech compared to deep tech. While traditional tech benefits from streamlined processes and quicker iteration, deep tech ventures face longer, more complex cycles due to the groundbreaking nature of their innovations.