Abstract: The cost of funds for start-up enterprises is an important topic to their operation, specifically referring to the costs incurred by start-up enterprises in using various funds. It plays an important role in financing decisions, investment decisions, and performance evaluation. This article starts from the connotation of funds cost, based on the particularity financing of start-up enterprises, explores the measurement and improvement ideas of funds cost for start-up enterprises. After that, we point out that start-up enterprises should be particularly vigilant against the temptation of low interest rates in the borrowing process; and the cost of equity funds is equal to the investor’s expected return; We can estimate the cost of equity crowdfunding and debt crowdfunding by traditional methods but the high crowdfunding fees cannot be ignored. At last, for product crowdfunding, we can use IRR as the cost. The results provide theoretical references for entrepreneurs'decision-making.

Key words: Start-up enterprise, Innovation and entrepreneurship, Cost of funds, Financing methods, Financing channels, Crowdfunding financing