The Oxford Handbook of Venture Capital

Venture capital (VC) refers to investments provided to early-stage, innovative, and high growth start-up companies. A common characteristic of all venture capital investments is that investee companies do not have cash flows to pay interest on debt or dividends on equity. Rather, investments are made with a view towards capital gain on exit. The most sought after exit routs are an initial public offering (IPO), where a company lists on a stock exchange for the first time, and an acquisition exit (trade sale), where the company is sold in entirety to another company. However, VCs may exit by secondary sales, where the entrepreneur retains his or her share but the VC sells to another company or another investor, buybacks, where the entrepreneur repurchases the VC's interest, and write-offs or liquidations. The Oxford Handbook of Venture Capitalprovides a comprehensive picture of all of the issues dealing with the structure, governance, and performance of venture capital. It comprises contributions from 55 authors currently based in 12 different countries.

Douglas Cumming, JD, PhD, CFA, is a Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, York University. His research is primarily focused on venture capital, private equity, IPOs, law and finance, market surveillance, and hedge funds. He has published more than seventy-five refereed papers in leading journals and is the coauthor (with Sofia Johan) of Venture Capital and Private Equity Contracting: An International Perspective. He has consulted for a variety of governmental and private organizations in Australasia, Europe, and North America.