Value What Matters!
Life Sciences &
High Growth / High Risk ventures
Context, details and numbers shaping decision making in environments where alignment and success demand extra-diligence.
Two Roads to Fair Value
Valuation is there to value what matters — when it matters, and for whom it matters. Need to align, to clarify, to decide?
Good Governance
Strong governance is critical to steering innovative ventures through uncertain waters. It ensures that key decisions are made with accountability, transparency, and alignment across all stakeholders. Good governance now reduces problems later, big time.
Deep Analysis
Meticulous analysis of every angle of an opportunity (or a set of), or of a mitigation plan. Diving into term sheets, cap table, legal, data, peers, emerging trends.... It’s about breaking down complexity and connecting silos. Context is key.
Sense-Check & Sparring Partner
Someone who knows the construct and challenges ideas, stresses-test assumptions, narratives and provides tough but constructive feedback. Sparring helps refine strategy, sharpen leadership and listen/guide in hectic times.
Competitive Intelligence
What is the pulse of the industry? Where the market is heading ? What is innovation and differentiation worth ? What is the peak sales potential ? What are the markers tracked by market makers financing, acquiring or licensing innovation?
Accounting / Audit / Taxes
Fair value accounting is nothing trivial, right ? High Growth / High Risk and Life Sciences are very particular fields for auditors and authorities. Each European countries has its own particularities; IFRS is not 1:1 US GAAP and listing comes with even more requirements.
Sanity-Check / Compliance
The process of questioning methodology, assumptions, and computations—whether for internal control, SOX compliance, rebuttal, or litigation purposes. A safeguard against costly missteps which provides the confidence to move forward with clarity.
You may be surprised by the importance we give to context—and to the investor’s perspective.
High Growth / High Risk is about managing what is uncertain. It requires alignment.
Two roads to Fair Value.
A common view of valuation is that it lies "between science and art." Everyone usually nods in agreement. In fact, this is the poetry of diverging opinions : either on what matters, or on how to value it.
There is no single definition that fits all when it comes to Fair Value. However, there are two main categories—and, as such, two playbooks:
- Where the definition of Fair Value is officially regulated, particularly in accounting, tax matters, and for governance purposes. In these cases, it is essential to first understand the regulatory definition (most of which come from ASC 820-10 in the US and IFRS 13 in countries using IFRS), the science at stake as well as the sensitivity and limitations of existing valuation tools. High Growth/High Risk and innovative Life Sciences ventures face much more uncertainty than other asset classes, which means they demand more sophisticated computational methods and a trained eye to value what matters.
- Where Fair Value has no fixed definition, and everything falls back on communication and negotiation skills. In this context, Fair Value is the result of negotiation, arbitrage, or a ruling. The value may be deemed "fair" by all parties, or it may leave a bitter aftertaste. In this unregulated construct, "fair" is not innate. It is a convergence process on what matters. It demands a trained eye to read all the dynamics at play, disentangle reactions, and route to optimum.
Sophisticated valuation methods? We know them well.
Ralph Villiger is a pioneer and thought-leader in the innovative Life Sciences valuation industry. He authored arguably the most foundational and globally recognized book on Life Sciences Valuation, many papers and trained hundreds of C-levels as well as incepted an early-stage VC fund.
From Fairness Opinion to Transactional matters in innovative Life Sciences and High Growth/High Risk ventures, sophisticated valuation methods are not the exception but the standard to adequately capture risks and growth potential.
Risk-adjusted Net Present Value (rNPV), Monte Carlo simulations, Option pricing models, Real Options, PWERM (Probability-Weighted Expected Return Method), or retro-engineering of comparators — this is our daily practice.
Transactions are our everyday.
Fundraising, IPOs, licensing deals, trade sales, partial and full exits — these define the journey of innovative Life Sciences and High Growth/High Risk ventures.
It requires expertise and savoir-faire — no less ! Both come from being deeply embedded in negotiations, strategic intelligence, and longitudinal collaboration with management and investors in Life Sciences and High Growth/High Risk to gather deep in-field operational insight — insight that proves critical for both decision-making and maximizing key transaction moments. That is our everyday.
Ultimately, what makes valuation so sensitive is that a third party is probing the intimacy of a business—whether for officially regulated purposes or driven by a particular motive. In either case, a profound understanding of the construct makes all the difference.
Meet you where you are: in sync with Innovative Ventures and Investors
Innovative Life Sciences and High Growth/High Risk follow a specific pattern, yet each journey is unique. From deal to deal, the road can be long and bumpy, filled with moments of uncertainty as much as moments of clarity.
Whether you need a sharp, one-time intervention or a trusted go-to throughout the journey, we step in precisely when and how we are needed to value what matters.
Our value is not just in the moment, but in the expertise we pass along and in the trust we earn—by knowing how to act and react as circumstances unfold, and by remembering what others forget.
Handle urgency like a reflex.
"When do you need it?" "…for yesterday?" It happens more often than not. We are used to it—and we are good at it.
In innovative High Growth / High Risk and Life Sciences, urgency is not an exception—it is quite the norm. New priorities pop-up constantly, outpacing the resources available to address them. Time rarely is on your side— yet it is directly tied to IRR, patent life, and market momemtum. That is why we treat urgency not as pressure, but as precision. A reflex.
On the continuum of Innovation-Uncertainty.
In innovative High Growth / High Risk—particularly in Life Sciences—uncertainty isn’t a phase, it’s a continuum. It stretches from the earliest spark of an idea to the complexities of early commercialization, and spans across regions, business models, and stakeholder agendas.
We are built for this. From one-off critical decisions to long-haul support through shifting stages, we work valuation, decision-making, and deal-making across the full arc. Transitions are the rule, not the exception. We are equally sharp in the moment and over time.
There is also much we contribute even pre-inception—especially by supporting incubators, tech transfer offices, and public or private bodies advancing Life Sciences innovation.
The outside view that moves things forward.
Sharp minds, nimble ventures. Innovative, patent-protected High Growth/High Risk and Life Sciences operate under tight constraints—cash, talent, and time.
We fit seamlessly into this model: fully independent when needed, or stepping in as a +1 strategic partner alongside nimble internal teams. We know how to read the room, understand the business intimately, and take on exactly the role that is ours—no more, no less.
We value what matters. As a +1 strategic partner, our goal is clear: bring clarity, challenge assumptions, and offer insights that are sometimes hard to hear, but always fair. Independent. Impactful.