Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake, in those companies. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term seed suggests that this is a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further investments. Seed money options include friends and family funding, seed venture capital funds, angel funding, and crowdfunding.
Social venture capital is a form of investment funding that is usually funded by a group of social venture capitalists or an impact investor to provide seed-funding investment, usually in a for-profit social enterprise, in return to achieve a reasonable gain in financial return while delivering social impact to the world. It deviates from the traditional venture capital model, which focuses on simple risk and reward. However, there are various organizations, such as Venture Philanthropy (VP) companies and nonprofit organizations, that deploy a simple venture capital strategy model to fund nonprofit events, social enterprises, or activities that deliver a high social impact or a strong social causes for their existence. There are also regionally focused organizations that target a specific region of the world, to help build and support the local community in a social cause.
An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors usually give support to start-ups at the initial moments and when most investors are not prepared to back them. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies. In the last 50 years the number of angel investors has greatly increased.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage."
William Klippgen is a Singapore-based Norwegian entrepreneur and technology investor who was a co-founder of the price comparison portal Zoomit.com. He served as one of the judges on the television series Angel's Gate, which was broadcast on Channel NewsAsia in 2012. Klippgen is a co-founder and serves as the Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital. He holds an MBA from INSEAD where he is an Entrepreneur in Residence.
Klaus Hommels is a venture capitalist based in Zurich, Switzerland. He focuses on early and growth-stage investments and has founded his own venture capital fund by the name of Lakestar, through which he has been investing mainly in Internet businesses. He has been involved in successful Internet investments such as Skype, Facebook and Xing.
Atomico is a European venture capital firm headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Beijing, São Paulo, Stockholm, and Tokyo. Its founder and CEO is Niklas Zennström, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Skype and Kazaa. The team includes Hiro Tamura, Chris Barnes, Siraj Khaliq, Niall Wass, and Sophia Bendz.
Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Atlas Venture is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in life sciences startup companies in the U.S.. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts where the majority of its investments are located. Atlas rolled out its eleventh biotech fund totaling $350 million in June 2017, after closing its tenth fund in April 2015 with $280 million in commitments.
Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal.
Space Angels is an American angel investment and venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in the space economy. Based in New York City, Space Angels is the world's most active investor in the space economy. As of May 3, 2019, the firm managed a $15 million Angel Fund and a $25 million venture capital fund.
Uncork Capital is a venture capital firm in Palo Alto, California founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as Postmates, Eventbrite, Fitbit, SendGrid, and Survata.
M12, formerly Microsoft Ventures, is a corporate venture capital subsidiary of Microsoft. Founded in March 2016, its mission is to be an active, strategic partner during a startup's growth, typically investing between Series A and D. The fund is managed by Nagraj Kashyap, formerly of Qualcomm Ventures.
BoxGroup is an investment fund company based in New York City. The company was founded in 2007 by David Tisch, grandson of entrepreneur Laurence A. Tisch, and Adam Rothenberg.
Idinvest Partners, founded under the name AGF Private Equity, S.A in 1997, is a European private equity and venture capital firm. Operating as part of Allianz until 2010, Idinvest Partners then became independent. Idinvest Partners is based in Paris, France and has further offices in Frankfurt, (Germany), Dubai, Madrid, Spain and Shanghai, China.
DN Capital is an international venture capital firm headquartered in London that invests in technology companies. It was founded in 2000 by Nenad Marovac and Steve Schlenker, two Harvard Business School classmates.
Yadin B. Kaufmann is an Israeli-American technology investor, social entrepreneur and writer. Kaufmann has played a key role in Israel's venture capital scene since the “Startup Nation’s” tech boom began in the 1980s and, more recently, has been involved in efforts to create a Palestinian tech industry.
Lakestar is an international venture capital firm founded by the technology investor Klaus Hommels in 2012. It has made a number of early investments in US and European tech companies, including Spotify.
Venture capital in Poland is a segment of the private equity market that finances early-stage high-risk companies based in Poland, with the potential for fast growth. As of March 2019, there is a total of 130 active VC firms in Poland, including local offices of international VC firms, and VC firms with mainly Polish management teams. Between 2009–2019, these entities have invested locally in over 750 companies, which gives an average of around 9 companies per portfolio. The Polish venture market accounts for 3% of the entire European ecosystem of VC investments, mainly in the digital space.
