Private equity investment is generalized, which refers to equity investment, partnership system and company system. In a narrow sense, it refers to the investment in PE and pre-IPO projects. Venture capital is also equity investment, focusing only on venture capital projects. The state has many management methods for venture capital guidance funds, and there is a clear definition of venture enterprises. For example, the number of people does not exceed 500 within five years of its establishment, but it is also a kind of equity investment, which is early. Like venture capital, it is commonly known as VC in the industry. VC and PE investments are both equity investments and private equity investments, but they are early and late when investing in projects. But now many venture capital and equity investments are basically early and late investments, so it can be said that the boundary between VC and PE is becoming more and more blurred. Regardless of the prophase and anaphase, private equity investment is collectively called, and venture capital and venture capital are actually one of them. You can understand it as three.

Private equity investment (referred to as "PE") refers to equity investment in private enterprises, that is, unlisted enterprises, through private placement. In the process of transaction implementation, the future exit mechanism is considered, that is, through listing, mergers and acquisitions or management buyback, the shares are sold for profit.

Although PE and VC are both investments in pre-listed enterprises, they are different in investment stage, investment scale, investment concept and investment characteristics. Usually the simple way to distinguish VC from PE: VC mainly invests in the early stage of the enterprise and PE mainly invests in the late stage. Of course, the division of early stage and late stage makes VC and PE different in investment concept and scale. In fact, PE invests in enterprises in seed stage, initial stage, development stage, expansion stage, maturity stage and Pre-IPO stage, so PE in a broad sense includes VC.

In the fierce market competition, the business penetration of VC and PE is getting higher and higher. At present, many traditional VC institutions are involved in PE business, and many institutions that are traditionally considered to specialize in PE business are also involved in VC projects, which means that PE and VC are only a conceptual distinction, and the boundary between them is becoming more and more blurred in actual business. For example, Carlyle and other well-known PE institutions have also set foot in VC business, and their investment in Ctrip. Com and Crowd Media are VC investments.