Electronic Enterprise Capital Marketplace Apparatus and Method
An automated and interactive system that facilitates efficient capitalization/liquidation and monitoring of private and publicly-traded enterprises through a network-driven marketplace is disclosed. The system may be comprised of a dynamic process for enterprise characterization, a customizable computational engine that utilizes statistical reference information to quantify a multi-factor scoring value for each unique enterprise, a customizable system for investor-users to filter, rank, and screen enterprise prospects, a customizable system for monitoring the performance of enterprises, an integrated internal system for electronic communication between market participants, and an empirical feedback system that provides a dynamic knowledge base of statistical reference information for various computational components of the invention.
1 . A computer system for matching enterprises with investors, comprising:
(a) an enterprise characterization module resident on a server system and configured to receive from an enterprise-user terminal information concerning an enterprise characterization;
(b) an investor requirements module resident on said server system and configured to receive from an investor-user terminal information concerning investor requirements; and
(c) an analysis module resident on said server system and configured to receive information from said enterprise characterization module and said investor requirements module, generate an investor output comprising private enterprises matching the investor requirements information, and generate a multi-factor private enterprise scoring value associated with each private enterprise.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said enterprise characterization module is configured to request information concerning an enterprise dynamically, wherein a subsequent query is based upon a response to a previous query.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said enterprise characterization module is configurable to conditionally block access to at least some of the enterprise information in said analysis module.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said enterprise characterization module further comprises an enterprise valuation calculator configured to generate an offering valuation for the enterprise.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said analysis module is further configured to generate output comprising feedback to the enterprise agent concerning the quality and adequacy of data input to said enterprise characterization module.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said analysis module is further configured to generate output comprising feedback concerning the number of investors that have viewed information concerning the enterprise.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning desired enterprise attributes and associated limit constraints for a desired enterprise to be used in enterprise matching by said analysis module.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning one or more of a desired risk-adjusted internal rate of return and desired risk value for a desired enterprise to be used in enterprise matching by said analysis module.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning a desired type of multi-factor private enterprise scoring value by which enterprises in said investor output of said analysis module are sorted.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning desired automation of said investor output of said analysis module such that enterprise matches are automatically communicated.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning a set of desired weighting parameters to be used in calculations by a risk model of said analysis module.
12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning a desired valuation modeling method to be used by said analysis module.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning a desired risk model to be used by said analysis module.
14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said investor requirements module is configured to obtain information concerning desired enterprise-related attributes to be displayed with each associated enterprise in said investor output of said analysis module.
15 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an archival database module resident on said server system configured to receive information from external sources and to store and access one or more of empirical and longitudinal information comprising one or more of original enterprise-related characteristics, post-funding enterprise-related performance characteristics, enterprise searching characteristics, system customization characteristics, or investment decision characteristics.
16 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a knowledge base module resident on said server system configured to store and access statistical reference correlation information to be used by said analysis module.
17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said analysis module comprises:
(a) an enterprise analyzer module;
(b) a search module configured to search for matches between search inputs from said investor requirements module and inputs from said enterprise characterization module; and
(c) a sort module configured to sort matches from said search module according to said multi-factor private enterprise scoring value.
18 . The system of claim 17 , further comprising a correlation development and feedback module resident on said server system configured to identify in an archival database resident on said server system statistical correlations to be stored in a knowledge base resident on said server system and used by said enterprise analyzer module.
19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein said enterprise analyzer module comprises a user input validation module configured to validate and invalidate information from said enterprise characterization module.
20 . The system of claim 17 , wherein said enterprise analyzer module comprises a user input reconciliation module configured to reconcile and adjust invalid information from said enterprise characterization module.