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 Capital provides 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.