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This chapter addresses the general process of determining the value of a particular company, with additional detail on how valuation processes might be adapted to produce credible value conclusions of emerging technology ventures. There are three primary approaches to business valuation. There is the income approach, which indicates that value is a product of expected future cash flows – cash flows that are discounted to equate them to dollars in-hand (present value). There is the market approach, which attempts to draw conclusions of value based on the market prices of similar companies in the public and/or private markets. Finally, there is the asset approach, which indicates that the value of a company is equal to the sum of the values of its net assets. Specific adjustments are appropriate with respect to each of these approaches where the value of an emerging technology company is concerned. Professional valuation standards require that all of these approaches be considered in the valuation, even if the available information does not permit their credible application. Often, multiple approaches and techniques can be applied. The results of applying multiple techniques often do not overlap, and it is the analyst’s very important task to reconcile differing valuation results, or to decide which result or results should be discarded.

In this chapter we study the peer comparable approach used for the valuation of companies that went public on the Italian Nuovo Mercato. In Italy, IPO prospectuses often report the valuation methods used by investment banks. This allows us to analyze the accuracy of “real-world” valuation estimates. We show that underwriters rely on price-to-book and price-earnings multiples. The valuation estimates generated by these multiples are closest to offer prices. Conversely, when using enterprise value ratios comparable firms’ multiples are typically higher than those of the firms going public. We argue that underwriters have the possibility to select comparables that make their valuations look conservative.

Cryptocurrencies are notoriously difficult to value from a fundamental perspective. This valuation challenge is rooted in various debated issues in academia and the investments industry. For example, do cryptocurrencies and other cryptoassets have intrinsic value in the conventional sense? Can one appropriately regard cryptocurrencies as digital fiat currencies? What distinguishes cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether from precious metals like gold from a financial perspective? How do cryptocurrencies compare to other cryptoassets in terms of pricing and valuation? This chapter aims to provide responses to these questions, discuss approaches to cryptoasset valuation, and identify areas for future research.

The economic valuation of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by nature-based solutions in cities is not an easy task. In fact, various environmental goods and services do not have a market price that allows to quantify their value. This leads to an underestimation of the value of nature in cities. As a result, their critical contributions are not considered in public, corporate, and individual decision-making. The logic behind ecosystem valuation is to unveil the complexities of socioecological relationships, to make explicit how human decisions would affect ES values, and to express these value changes in units. This will allow considering the benefits provided by ES in public decision-making processes. The contribution aims to identify and analyze the most used methodologies adopted at the urban level for the valuation of ES. In total, six methodologies have been analyzed for the valuation of the provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Finally, an interpretation framework has been defined to summarize the main findings.