CREO Financial Literacy & Fundraising Readiness Course equips learners with the financial literacy, venture finance understanding, and deal-readiness perspective needed to assess start-ups with greater confidence and clarity.

Designed for learners who may not come from a finance background, the course builds a practical understanding of the financial concepts, metrics, and terminology commonly used by founders, analysts, and investment stakeholders. You will explore essential accounting principles, key business and analytical terms, and the financial indicators used to evaluate company performance, decision-making, and growth potential. The course also unpacks financial projections by examining their structure, assumptions, purpose, and limitations, helping you understand how forecasts are built and how to assess their credibility. In addition, you will examine EBITDA in depth, including what it reveals, where it is useful, and where it may be less informative in early-stage ventures. The module concludes with valuation fundamentals, comparing common valuation approaches and how they apply across different start-up stages, including pre-revenue companies. The course then turns to fundraising and investment readiness from the investor perspective. You will examine how start-ups are financed over time and how investors ultimately realise returns. This includes comparing a range of funding sources such as bootstrapping, friends and family, grants, debt, sweat equity, and investor-led financing models including equity, royalty-based financing, and venture debt, with attention to the trade-offs and implications of each. You will also explore the role of angel investors and venture capital funds, their expectations, investment logic, and typical level of involvement across stages. From there, the course follows the fundraising journey from pre-seed and seed through Series A, B, and C, introducing core venture capital structures, financing vehicles, and capital stack considerations. Finally, you will develop familiarity with the legal and financial documents that shape investment decisions, including term sheets, letters of intent, cap tables, dilution mechanisms, and exit pathways such as mergers and acquisitions. By the end of this course, you will be able to assess start-up financial health more effectively, interpret projections and valuation approaches with greater confidence, understand how financing rounds are structured, and engage more confidently in investment discussions, deal evaluation, and long-term portfolio decision-making.