Venture Capital Markets, New Technology Based Firms and Financial Systems: Definitions and an Overview of the US and German Experiences

Abstract

There are many different definitions of what is meant by venture capital. As late as the mid- seventies, Liles⁸ presented a broad spectrum of definitions of venture capital investment:

• investment in any high-risk financial venture;

• investment in unproven ideas, products, or start-up situations; i. e. the provision of what is called ’seed capital’;

• investment in going concerns that are unable to raise funds from conventional public or commercial sources,

• investment in large and - in some cases - controlling interests in publicly traded companies where there is a considerable degree of uncertainty.