Equity / quasi-equity

Some public programmes invest rather than grant: a fund, a mission or a bank takes shares, usually through a selected incubator, and sits on the cap table alongside private investors. The terms are typically kinder than the market's — longer horizons, less pressure to exit, no board-control demands — but the instrument is the same one a venture fund uses, and the dilution is permanent.

That makes the comparison different from every other kind of capital on this register. The question is not 'is this money worth the paperwork', it is 'is this the round I would otherwise raise, at a better price'. Government equity taken early can also be a signal: a selection process passed is diligence a later investor does not have to repeat.

Read the instrument carefully. Equity, quasi-equity and convertible instruments behave differently at the next round, and a programme described loosely as 'seed support' may be any of the three.