What Industries Do Venture Capitalists Favor?

Venture capitalists tend to focus on particular industries and particular stages of company development. When conducting your research for venture capital investors, you should identify venture capitalists

Industries that venture capitalists currently favor include biotech, medical instruments, health care, retail, computers, software, networking, and the Internet. Venture capitalists also tend to invest in accordance with strategic phases of company development.

Venture capitalists characterize these staged investments as "rounds," as follows:

• Seed round: The company is still a very early start-up.
• First round: The company has refined its business plan, has some of its management team in place, and is starting to develop products and sales.
• Second round: The company has made good progress on its plan, sales have started to increase, and the business is expanding.
• Late stage round: The company has done well, attacked its market, refined its product and is now gearing up for an initial public offering or other major progress.