Venture Capital
Venture Capital Resources
By Steppingstones
Nov 30, 2004, 10:43

Venture capital is high risk equity investment. Venture capital is generally difficult to obtain. In return for investing in your company, venture capitalists are looking for high returns (over 25% per year), a strong management team and potential sales/revenues in the millions of dollars.

To learn more about venture capital - what it is, how to find it and how to approach potential investors, check out these sources.

Venture Capital Associations

• Asian Venture Capital Institute
• Canadian Venture Capital Association
• European Venture Capital Association
• National Venture Capital Association (USA)
• The Venture Capital Institute (USA)

Internet Resources and Directories

• The Investment Exchange (Calgary Canada) will, for a one-time fee of $495, send out your investment opportunity to their list of 3,000 investors, and post your listing on their web site. Your listing stays on until you get your money, or you withdraw it. (www.tinvex.com)

• American Venture Capital Exchange allows entrepreneurs to list a summary of their business plans on the AVCE web site. These summaries are also published in American Ventures Magazine and FirstList Newsletter. The cost is $395 (US). (www.avce.com)
  

• Capitalist-Direct identifies and introduces Capital Seekers and Capital Sources across every type of financing used by business and institutions today. It brings worthwhile investment and business opportunities together with people and companies that invest and provide critical services. (www.bizwiz.com/capitalist)

• CloudStart offers a business plan posting community for angel investors, entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and local service providers. (www.cloudstart.com)

• Commercial Finance On-Line helps you find investment capital through their search engine of 20,000 potential investors, including Canadian firms. (www.cfol.com)

• Corporate Finance Web Directory has directories of financial sources and other useful information for the capital fund seeker. (www.corpfinet.com) 

• Growthink Venture Capital Research publishes venture capital funding reports that analyze financing trends for emerging companies. (www.growthinkresearch.com)
  

• Star Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in Munich, Germany. Star focuses on investments in early-stage high tech companies located in the US, Europe and Israel. The company's global character is an important factor in the successful support of its international investments. (www.star-ventures.com)
  

• VentureAlberta.com is a new Alberta-based company set up specifically to bring together high-tech ideas and capital. For fee, they will match companies and entrepreneurs seeking capital with potential investors. (www.venturealberta.com) 

• Venture Capital Marketplace is dedicated to nurtuing young startups, bringing investors and investment ready startups together and informing entrepreneurs and the investment community about up-to-date venture capital related resources on the Internet. (www.v-capital.com)
  

• Venture Capital Resource Library provides a directory of venture capital firms (including Canadian ones) and links to their web sites. (www.vfinance.com)
  

• VentureDirectory.com is a global public forum where you can find capital, deals and support services. There is a roster of experts that can help you with your deal. Has a chat room and useful information links. (www.venturedirectory.com)
  

• America’s Business Funding Directory web site lists over 14,000 financing sources, mostly in the United States but includes Canada sources as well. Use their free search services to find capital. (www.businessfinance.com)