"This survey reviews the growing body of academic work on venture capital. It lays out the major data sources used. It examines the work on venture capital investments in companies, looking at issues of selection, contracting, post-investment services and exits. The survey considers recent work...

Venture capital is considered to be the most appropriate form of financing for innovative firms in high-tech sectors. Venture capital has greatly developed over the last three decades in the United States, but much less so in Europe, where policy-makers are striving to help channel more funds...

During the latter part of the 1990s the introduction of the euro, the dramatic increase in the supply of venture capital in most EU countries, and the creation of several ‘new’ equity markets targeted at innovative firms have dramatically transformed the financing prospects of European...