In this chapter, we introduce venture capital, a subset of the private equity asset class that focuses on investments in new or growing privately-held companies with high potential. We specifically address why venture capital markets exist; what the different venture capital models are; what...

Financing innovative, high-growth ventures are difficult given their reliance on intangible knowledge-based assets, high probabilities of failure and asymmetries between entrepreneurs and financiers. Venture capitalists have developed systems over time to cope with this uncertainty and...

Information serves an important role in the governance process and, despite the presence of disclosure regulations, there are many private and public firms that voluntarily provide more information than required. This chapter considers the advantages and disadvantages of voluntary disclosure at...