Wednesday, June 06, 2007

 

The Fundamentals of Venture Capitalism

Venture capitalism is a system wherein a venture capitalist invests money in small and fledgling companies to finance its start up or restructuring with the hopes of greater yield in the years to come. Instead of providing a loan, venture capitalists exchange their investments for a stake in the company often in the form of shares, which they will later unload.

Often, venture capitalists target companies with innovative products and services, which they feel have the potential to become successful brands in the years to come. Other times, people with ideas for products and services seek venture capitalists with the hope of being provided with start-up funds. These are the people who are just starting in the industry and therefore have no access to other forms of traditional financing like those provided by banks and financial institutions.

Often, they will provide the company with about three to seven years' support.
Venture capitalism may seem really fruitful when it comes to generating profits but not all investments that venture capitalists go into pay off.

In fact, most of the companies that they invest on will probably fail to return their investments. Remember that investing in new or troubled business is pretty risky. According to statistics, about 20 to 90 percent fail. They, however, recoup their losses with the companies that do go well. The return of their investments can reach from 300 to about a thousand times over.

Oftentimes, venture capitalists do not only provide money for the company but also managerial and strategic advice. They will often help the company stand on their own feet when they are just starting. Venture capitalists can also help in terms of providing contacts and in opening doors of opportunities.

If you are looking for a venture capitalist, make sure that you have researched the person or the company thoroughly. This is because there are venture capitalists that are more into providing seed money for companies that are starting up. Others concentrate on investing funds for restructuring and expansion.

Those with high growth potentials are good investments for these venture capitalists especially those in fields that are rapidly expanding like Information Technology, Bio-Technology and the Life Sciences. There are some that specialize in buyouts, turnarounds and recapitalizations.

It is important that you choose the right venture capitalist on your project. Do your homework and find out whatever you can about the venture capitalist that you are targeting. Otherwise, you will only be wasting your time and will just be turned down by these people.

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