Venture Capital is one of the innovative financing resources for an enterprise. Explain briefly and indicate the areas of investment of Venture Capital.

Venture Capital is one of the innovative financing resource for a company in which the promoter has to give up some level of ownership and control of business in exchange for capital for a limited period, say, 3-5 years. Venture Capital is generally equity investments made by Venture Capital funds, at an early stage in privately held companies, having potential to provide a high rate of return on their investments. It is a resource for supporting innovation, knowledge based ideas and technology and human capital intensive enterprises. "Venture Capital Fund" means an Alternative Investment Fund which invests primarily in unlisted securities of start-ups, emerging or early-stage venture capital undertakings mainly involved in new products, new services, technology or intellectual property right based activities or a new business model and shall include an angel fund. Essentially, a venture capital company is a group of investors who pool investments focused within certain parameters. The participants in venture capital firms can be institutional investors like pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, corporations or individuals but these are high risk investments which may give high returns or high loss. Areas of Investment Different venture groups prefer different types of investments. Some specialize in seed capital and early expansion while others focus on exit financing. Biotechnology, medical services, communications, electronic components and software companies seem to be the most likely attraction of may venture firms and receiving the most financing. Venture capital firms finance both early and later stage investments to maintain a balance between risk and profitability. In India, software sector has been attracting a lot of venture finance. Besides media, health and pharmaceuticals, agri-business and retailing are the other areas that are favoured by a lot of venture companies.