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Private equity (PE) typically refers to investment funds, generally organized as limited partnerships, that buy and restructure companies. More formally, private equity is a type of equity and one of the asset classes consisting of equity securities and debt in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange.
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. 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.
Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs in over 900 ventures, including America Online, Amazon.com, Tandem Computers, Compaq, Electronic Arts, JD.com, Square, Genentech, Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Nest, Palo Alto Networks, Synack, Snap, AppDynamics, and Twitter. By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds and four growth funds.
Growth capital is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a significant acquisition without a change of control of the business.
Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies and growth funding. Funding is provided in the interest of generating a return on investment or ROI through an eventual exit through a share sale to an investment body, another trading company or to the general public via an Initial public offering (IPO). Venture Capital can be made in four methods: 1) Equity Financing; 2) Conditional Loan; 3) Income Note; and 4) Participating Debenture.
CVC Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$111 billion in secured commitments since inception across European and Asian private equity, credit and growth funds. As of 2019, CVC managed US$75 billion of assets, the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in 73 companies worldwide, employing over 300,000 people in numerous countries. Since 1981, CVC has completed over 500,000 investments across a wide range of industries and countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and today has over 400 employees working across its network of 24 offices throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.
An alternative investment is an investment in any asset class excluding stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, collectibles and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, exchange funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed "alternative" despite the ancient use of such real assets to enhance and preserve wealth. Alternative investments are to be contrasted with traditional investments.
A private-equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital. Often described as a financial sponsor, each firm will raise funds that will be invested in accordance with one or more specific investment strategies.
An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses 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. Over the last 50 years, the number of angel investors has greatly increased.
Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London, India and China.
Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity (GE) investment firm with more than $9.5B in capital under management. The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, Internet, software as a service, business and financial services, consumer and healthcare. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Norwest has offices in San Francisco and subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. The firm has funded more than 600 companies since inception. As of 2020, the firm has approximately 150 active companies across its venture and growth equity portfolio.
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." Examples of CVCs include GV and Intel Capital.
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on later-stage venture capital and growth equity investments. IVP is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1980.
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.
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $20 billion in assets under management, NEA was the world's largest venture capital firm in 2007.
CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.
Iconfinder is a web company whose main product is a search engine for icons. The company was founded in 2007 by Martin LeBlanc Eigtved. Iconfinder gained popularity after a relaunch in 2009 and is now the largest icon search engine with more than 2 million unique users per month. Iconfinder received $1.5 M in funding from the Danish venture capital fund, VF Venture.
Novo Holdings A/S is the Novo Nordisk Foundation's wholly owned holding company for Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S. Novo Holdings A/S was established in 1999 and manages the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s assets, which in 2020 was worth DKK 457 billion Danish Kroner.
The Danish Growth Fund Danish: Vækstfonden is Denmark's investment fund. The Danish Growth Fund is an independent fund governed by an independent legal act and an independent board of directors. The act concerning The Danish Growth Fund stipulates that the fund must promote growth and renewal for small and medium-sized enterprises in order to achieve a greater socio-economic return. The fund contributes to the creation of new companies by providing capital and expertise. Since 1992, The Danish Growth Fund has co-financed growth in more than 5,400 companies with a total commitment of more than DKK 15 billion. The Danish Growth Fund provides loans and guarantees in collaboration with Danish financial institutions. Through the department for venture capital, VF Venture, the fund invests equity in SME's. In 2013, the companies co-financed by The Danish Growth Fund had over 41,000 employees in total.
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.
References
- ↑ "Venturekapital fra Vækstfonden". www.vf.dk. Retrieved 2015-12-09.