Venture Capital is most commonly referred to as a type of investment in which the individual investor or group of investors usually assists in the further expansion of a rapidly growing company or a commercial organization that will require a lot of capital to get going, which is most often called a start-up company, with a strong business plan.
Venture Capital is also known as risk capital. Since this capital is invested, typically, by an outside group, individual or business, who is not directly involved in the overall operation and management of the business, the added risk of a large-scale investment increases.
Even though Venture Capital is a business term for early-stage investments, there is a considerable amount of misunderstanding concerning the term. Many individuals use the term Venture Capital quite haphazardly and out of context. The term most individuals mean to use when using Venture Capital is Private Equity, which is considerably different than an early-stage investment.