Czech Venture Capital Association

Private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) are alternative sources of funding for innovative projects and companies with potential for rapid growth. The term private equity refers to medium- to long-term financing provided in exchange for acquiring a stake in the owners’ equity of enterprises whose shares are not traded on any stock exchange. Funds are invested into companies that have potential for creating value and increasing their market share and whose business plan aims to produce and offer a highly innovative product, process or technology. If they explore the definitions of private equity and venture capital more closely, they can agree on the following explanation. Both cases concern investment in a non-publicly traded company for which the investor acquires a share in the company’s owners’ equity. The term private equity is the name for the whole group of such investments. Private equity itself comprises both purchases of companies by company management (buyouts) or by external managements (buy-in) as well as venture capital, i.e. the capital invested in a company’s seed, start-up and later growth stages.