Roots -- The student -- Coming to America -- The professor -- Slouching through the depression -- The inflection point -- Founding fathers -- The birth of venture capital -- A star is born -- The first home run -- The takeover -- Venture capital comes of age

This paper offers a quantitative description of European private equity markets and compares the recent development in these markets with the development of the US venture capital market. Moreover, the paper addresses the differences between private equity investors acting in a single national...