What is the difference between Private Equity and Venture Capital? 

Venture Capital (“VC”) is often seen as a subset of Private Equity (“PE”) and will usually involve investing in earlier stage companies whose business models and/or businesses are not yet established.  Private Equity firms typically invest in  more mature companies.  Whereas Venture firms usually take a minority stake in a company, Private Equity shops will often take a majority share of the company giving them more control over how the business operates.  Both PE and VCs are sometimes referred to as “sponsors”. 

“Late stage Private Equity” are firms that look to make much bigger size investments in later stage private companies.  Sometimes these firms bleed over with LBO or “Leverage Buyout” shops which will make bigger bets on later stage companies, sometimes which are publically traded companies. LBOs typically use debt as part of their investment whereas late stage Private Equity mostly use cash to buy the equity in their investments.