> [T]hey don't actually make the company more valuable (what the company does with the money they raise does). Yes they do. In two senses. The obvious one is

> [T]hey don't actually make the company more valuable (what the company does with the money they raise does). Yes they do. In two senses. The obvious one is probably not what you meant to refute - the total value of the company post raise is, in the simple case, the value of the company before the raise plus the value of the new cash. The company is more valuable. What I think you meant to say was that your shares don't get more valuable. That's more true, but they can be. If the raise was a good idea, the company's prospects are improved (and therefore the value of existing shares) by whatever uncertainty existed about its ability to raise that funding.