title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

text: Conversely, Peter Travers, who reviewed the film for "Rolling Stone", gave it two and a half stars out of four. He felt it was "a little less long and a little less boring" than the first instalment, and offered praise for the depiction of Smaug, saying "as a digital creation, Smaug is a bloody wonder of slithering fright." He was, however, very critical of the film's padding of a "slender novel", but concluded: "I'd endure another slog through Middle-Earth just to spend more time with Smaug". Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" was even less admiring, and awarded it two stars out of five. He too criticised the decision to turn Tolkien's book into three films and felt Jackson "is mostly stalling for time: two or three truly great sequences tangled up in long beards and longer pit-stops." He continued, writing "There is an awful lot of Desolation to wade through before we arrive, weary and panting, on Smaug's rocky porch," and disapproved of the introduction of a love triangle to Tolkien's narrative, adding: "Maybe this really is what a lot of people want to see from a film version of "The Hobbit", but let's at least accept that Tolkien would probably not have been among them." "The New York Post"'s Lou Lumenick was extremely negative in his 1.5/4 star review and remarked "There are probably enough moments to satisfy hard-core fans, but for the rest of us, this amounts to the Middle Earth equivalent of "", a space-holding, empty-headed epic filled with characters and places (digital and otherwise) that are hard to keep straight, much less care about."


title: David Jason

text: Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom "Only Fools and Horses", Detective Inspector Jack Frost in "A Touch of Frost," Granville in "Open All Hours" and "Still Open All Hours," and Pop Larkin in "The Darling Buds of May", as well as voicing Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows", the BFG in the 1989 film and the title characters of "Danger Mouse" and "Count Duckula". His most recent appearance in the role of Del Boy was in 2014; he retired his role as Frost in 2010. He voices Captain Skipper, the uncle of Pip in the preschool focused series "Pip Ahoy!"


title: David Jason

text: In September 2006, Jason topped the poll to find TV's 50 Greatest Stars, as part of ITV's 50th anniversary celebrations. He was knighted in 2005 for services to acting and comedy. Jason has won four British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), (1988, 1991, 1997, 2003), four British Comedy Awards (1990, 1992, 1997, 2001) and seven National Television Awards (1996 twice, 1997, 2001 twice, 2002 and 2011).


title: David Jason

text: Jason's father, Arthur Robert White, was a porter at Billingsgate Fish Market, and his mother, Olwen Jones, was from Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, and worked as a charwoman. She gave birth to twin boys at North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton, London, in February 1940, but Jason's twin brother died during childbirth, making him a twinless twin. He chose the stage name Jason because he liked "Jason and the Argonauts", as the stage name "David White" was already taken, and not in tribute to his dead twin as has sometimes been claimed.


title: David Jason

text: Jason lived at Lodge Lane, North Finchley, and attended Northfield Secondary Modern school after failing the 11-plus in 1951. Upon leaving school, Jason wanted to be an actor, influenced by his brother, but their father advised that he first learn a trade. He trained as an electrician for six years, before retiring and becoming a struggling actor.


title: David Jason

text: Jason's elder brother is the actor Arthur White, born in 1933. The two appeared together in the crime drama "A Touch of Frost", with Arthur playing police archivist Ernie Trigg; and again in 2008, in the comic fantasy "The Colour of Magic", where Arthur played a character called "Rerpf". He also appeared briefly with his brother in two episodes of "The Darling Buds of May".


title: David Jason

text: Jason started his television career in 1964 playing the part of Bert Bradshaw in "Crossroads". In 1967, he played spoof super-hero Captain Fantastic, among other roles, in the children's comedy series "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (Rediffusion London/ITV) with Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Denise Coffey, and Michael Palin. Humphrey Barclay, who recruited Jason to appear in "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (partly to counter the more highbrow style of Idle, Jones, and Palin), admired his sense of timing. The programme ended in 1969, and the character then appeared for a time in the Thames Television children's programme "Magpie". Jason appeared in the BBC comedy series "Hugh and I" in 1967, which starred Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott as two friends who lived together in South London. He appeared in the "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)" episode "That's How Murder Snowballs" (1969) as Abel, a framed performer in a major London theatre.


title: David Jason

text: In 1968, Jason was initially cast in the role of Lance Corporal Jones in the Jimmy Perry and David Croft BBC comedy "Dad's Army". Croft had been very impressed with the actor and knew that he had the talent to play a man much older than his real age. However, BBC executive Bill Cotton overruled him, casting Clive Dunn because he was better known. According to Jason, "I was cast at 12 o'clock and sacked by three." Jason also subsequently missed out on the starring role of Frank Spencer in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" in 1973 because BBC executives at the time believed that he lacked "star quality".


title: David Jason

text: In the 1970s, he also acted in radio comedies, including the weekly topical satire "Week Ending" (in which he regularly played such figures as then UK Foreign Secretary Dr David Owen) and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (as the "B Ark Captain" in the sixth episode, in an in-joking reference to his "Week Ending" role as Owen). Jason also appeared in "The Next Programme Follows Almost Immediately" and made appearances on panel games such as "The Impressionists" as well as his own series, "The Jason Explanation". In the early 1970s, he appeared in "Mostly Monkhouse".


title: David Jason

text: Jason appeared on stage in the West End in the farce "No Sex Please, We're British" playing Brian Runnicles for 18 months in 1973. He also starred with Valerie Leon in a stage comedy "Darling Mr London" which toured in 1975.


title: David Jason

text: Jason appeared in variety shows as the supporting act of Dick Emery and his performances caught the attention of Ronnie Barker. Jason was recruited to appear in "Hark at Barker" (LWT, 1969), starring opposite Barker's Lord Rustless, as Dithers, the 100-year old gardener. There was also a sequel, "His Lordship Entertains" (1972) for the BBC. Jason played idealistic employee Granville in the first programme of the comedy anthology "Seven of One" (1973), called "Open All Hours" (BBC) and starring Barker as the curmudgeonly proprietor of a corner shop.


title: David Jason

text: Four series of "Open All Hours" were made from 1976 to 1985. He featured in Barker's "Porridge" (BBC), a prison comedy, as the elderly Blanco in three episodes. Jason also appeared with Barker in various disguises in "The Two Ronnies," including providing the "raspberry" sound effect for "The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town."


title: David Jason

text: Jason starred in London Weekend Television's "Lucky Feller" (1975–76), written by Terence Frisby and produced by Humphrey Barclay. About two brothers in south-east London, the series was in many ways a forerunner to "Only Fools And Horses", only Jason was in the more dopey 'Rodney' role with Peter Armitage playing the cleverer of the two. The brothers drove around in a comical bubble car, a precursor to the famous Trotters' van; and there was even the joke where, just as he was trying to impress the girl (Cheryl Hall), Jason casually leaned back against the bar, without his knowing that barman had just lifted it behind his back, and fell through. This situation was re-enacted in "Only Fools And Horses". He played the lead role of Peter Barnes in the ATV sitcom "A Sharp Intake of Breath" (1977–81), alongside Alun Armstrong and Richard Wilson. In 1979, he appeared as Buttons in the pantomime "Cinderella" at Newcastle's Theatre Royal, starring Leah Bell and Bobby Thompson, produced by Michael Grayson and directed by John Blackmore.


title: David Jason

text: In the 1980s, Jason developed a working partnership with Cosgrove Hall, and was a voice-over artist for a number of children's television productions. This included voices for "Danger Mouse", "The BFG", "Count Duckula", Hugo from "Victor and Hugo", and Toad from "The Wind in the Willows", all produced by Cosgrove Hall for Thames Television/ITV. He provided the voice of Father Christmas in "Father Christmas and the Missing Reindeer", Rola Polar in "The Adventures of Dawdle the Donkey", "Angelmouse", and did voices in animated films including "Wombling Free" and "The Water Babies".


title: David Jason

text: In 1981, Jason found his best known role, Del Boy Trotter in the BBC situation comedy "Only Fools and Horses", created by John Sullivan. Del is a wide boy who makes a dishonest living in Peckham, south London, trading in broken, stolen, and counterfeit goods. He is assisted by his brother Rodney (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Grandad (played by Lennard Pearce) and, in later episodes, Uncle Albert (played by Buster Merryfield).


title: David Jason

text: In 1989 Jason starred as Ted Simcock in the ITV drama series "A Bit of a Do", aired from January to December.


title: David Jason

text: In 1999, Jason starred as Captain Frank Beck in BBC's feature-length drama "All the King's Men" about the Sandringham regiment lost in World War I. He earned acclaim for a string of serious roles. These include Skullion in "Porterhouse Blue" (for Channel 4), Sidney "Pop" Larkin in the rural idyll "The Darling Buds of May" (Yorkshire Television/ITV), based on the H. E. Bates novel, which also featured Catherine Zeta-Jones.


title: David Jason

text: In 1992, he signed a golden handcuffs deal with ITV to star as Detective Inspector Jack Frost in the long-running TV series "A Touch of Frost" (Yorkshire Television/ITV). In September 2006, he was voted by the general public as No. 1 in ITV's poll of TV's Greatest Stars. In December 2006, he starred in "Terry Pratchett's Hogfather" on Sky1 as Albert. In early 2007, he starred in "Diamond Geezer" (Granada Television/ITV). This series ran for 3 episodes of 90 minutes each. There was a pilot in 2005. In March 2008, he starred as Rincewind in "Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic", and in the two part ITV drama "Ghostboat".


title: David Jason

text: On 16 September 2008, Jason announced that he would step down from his role as Jack Frost after 16 years. Three new episodes of the show were shown in autumn 2008, and were followed by a two-part finale in 2010. Approached by BBC1 controller Danny Cohen in early 2011, he read three scripts and agreed to shoot a pilot for "The Royal Bodyguard", which was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The pilot episode aired on the BBC on Boxing Day but received a poor critical response. The series was axed after six episodes. In 2010, Jason starred in a made-for-TV movie "Come Rain Come Shine" with Alison Steadman for ITV about an elderly Millwall supporter.


title: David Jason

text: Since 2013 he has starred in "Still Open All Hours". It features many original cast members (and a portrait of Ronnie Barker as Arkwright) and is still written by Roy Clarke, the original writer and creator of the show. He has also starred as Captain Skipper, a sea captain, sea dog and Pip's uncle in the animated series "Pip Ahoy!".


title: David Jason

text: In December 2021, Jason made a surprise cameo appearance on the Christmas Special of "Strictly Come Dancing" in the role of Del Boy to pass on a special message to "The Repair Shop"'s Jay Blades, who was performing to the "Only Fools and Horses" theme tune.


title: David Jason

text: In 1993, Jason was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and 12 years later, in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2005, he was knighted for services to acting and comedy. On the day it was announced, many British newspapers used the headline "Arise Sir Del Boy" or similar, in reference to his most famous role. Upon receiving the knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 1 December 2005, he said he was "humbled" by the "fantastic tribute".


title: David Jason

text: Jason lived with his long-term girlfriend, Welsh actress Myfanwy Talog, for 18 years and nursed her through breast cancer until she died in 1995. It mirrored a situation portrayed in "A Touch of Frost" in which the character's wife died after a long illness.


title: David Jason

text: On 26 February 2001, Jason became a father for the first time at the age of 61 when his girlfriend, 41-year-old Gill Hinchcliffe, gave birth to a baby girl, Sophie Mae, born in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury. Jason and Hinchcliffe married in 2005 and live in Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire.


title: David Jason

text: Jason is a patron of the Shark Trust, a United Kingdom registered charity working to advance the worldwide conservation of sharks through science, education, influence and action. He has also been Honorary Vice Patron of the Royal International Air Tattoo since 1999, and on 29 May 2014, presented a cheque on behalf of the Fairford-based "RAF Charitable Trust" for £125,000 to the British RAF Air Cadet Organisation, to fund flight simulators for Air Cadets.


title: David Jason

text: Jason is a qualified helicopter pilot. In October 2013, he released his autobiography called "David Jason: My Life". It was shortlisted for the 2013 Specsavers National Book Awards "Best Book of the Year". A second volume, "Only Fools and Stories: From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost" was published in October 2017. Penguin Books announced "A Del Of A Life", which is Jason's third autobiography and was published in October 2020.


title: David Jason

text: In September 2017, it was reported that a "credible threat was made to his life", although it is not known why Jason had been targeted.


title: David Jason

text: Jason has won a total of eighteen awards between 1986 and 2011. His hit comedy show, "Only Fools and Horses" won many awards. His crime drama, "A Touch of Frost", has also won and been nominated numerous times. "Porterhouse Blue", "The Second Quest", "All the King's Men" and "A Bit of a Do" have won David Jason one award each.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth (in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc). Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.


title: Venture capital

text: The typical venture capital investment occurs after an initial "seed funding" round. The first round of institutional venture capital to fund growth is called the Series A round. Venture capitalists provide this financing in the interest of generating a return through an eventual "exit" event, such as the company selling shares to the public for the first time in an initial public offering (IPO), or disposal of shares happening via a merger, via a sale to another entity such as a financial buyer in the private equity secondary market or via a sale to a trading company such as a competitor.


title: Venture capital

text: In addition to angel investing, equity crowdfunding and other seed funding options, venture capital is attractive for new companies with limited operating history that are too small to raise capital in the public markets and have not reached the point where they are able to secure a bank loan or complete a debt offering. In exchange for the high risk that venture capitalists assume by investing in smaller and early-stage companies, venture capitalists usually get significant control over company decisions, in addition to a significant portion of the companies' ownership (and consequently value). Start-ups like Uber, Airbnb, Flipkart, Xiaomi & Didi Chuxing are highly valued startups, commonly known as Unicorns where venture capitalists contribute more than financing to these early-stage firms; they also often provide strategic advice to the firm's executives on its business model and marketing strategies.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital is also a way in which the private and public sectors can construct an institution that systematically creates business networks for the new firms and industries so that they can progress and develop. This institution helps identify promising new firms and provide them with finance, technical expertise, mentoring, talent acquisition, strategic partnership, marketing "know-how", and business models. Once integrated into the business network, these firms are more likely to succeed, as they become "nodes" in the search networks for designing and building products in their domain. However, venture capitalists' decisions are often biased, exhibiting for instance overconfidence and illusion of control, much like entrepreneurial decisions in general.


title: Venture capital

text: Before World War II (1939–1945) venture capital was primarily the domain of wealthy individuals and families. J.P. Morgan, the Wallenbergs, the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, the Rockefellers, and the Warburgs were notable investors in private companies. In 1938, Laurance S. Rockefeller helped finance the creation of both Eastern Air Lines and Douglas Aircraft, and the Rockefeller family had vast holdings in a variety of companies. Eric M. Warburg founded E.M. Warburg & Co. in 1938, which would ultimately become Warburg Pincus, with investments in both leveraged buyouts and venture capital. The Wallenberg family started Investor AB in 1916 in Sweden and were early investors in several Swedish companies such as ABB, Atlas Copco, and Ericsson in the first half of the 20th century.


title: Venture capital

text: Only after 1945 did "true" venture capital investment firms begin to emerge, notably with the founding of American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) and J.H. Whitney & Company in 1946.


title: Venture capital

text: Georges Doriot, the "father of venture capitalism", along with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton (former president of MIT) founded ARDC in 1946 to encourage private-sector investment in businesses run by soldiers returning from World War II. ARDC became the first institutional private-equity investment firm to raise capital from sources other than wealthy families. Unlike most present-day venture capital firms, ARDC was a publicly-traded company. ARDC's most successful investment was its 1957 funding of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which would later be valued at more than $355 million after its initial public offering in 1968. This represented a return of over 1200 times its investment and an annualized rate of return of 101% to ARDC.


title: Venture capital

text: Former employees of ARDC went on to establish several prominent venture capital firms including Greylock Partners, founded in 1965 by Charlie Waite and Bill Elfers; Morgan, Holland Ventures, the predecessor of Flagship Ventures, founded in 1982 by James Morgan; Fidelity Ventures, now Volition Capital, founded in 1969 by Henry Hoagland; and Charles River Ventures, founded in 1970 by Richard Burnes. ARDC continued investing until 1971, when Doriot retired. In 1972 Doriot merged ARDC with Textron after having invested in over 150 companies.


title: Venture capital

text: John Hay Whitney (1904–1982) and his partner Benno Schmidt (1913–1999) founded J.H. Whitney & Company in 1946. Whitney had been investing since the 1930s, founding Pioneer Pictures in 1933 and acquiring a 15% interest in Technicolor Corporation with his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. Florida Foods Corporation proved Whitney's most famous investment. The company developed an innovative method for delivering nutrition to American soldiers, later known as Minute Maid orange juice and was sold to The Coca-Cola Company in 1960. J.H. Whitney & Company continued to make investments in leveraged buyout transactions and raised $750 million for its sixth institutional private-equity fund in 2005.


title: Venture capital

text: One of the first steps toward a professionally managed venture capital industry was the passage of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. The 1958 Act officially allowed the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to license private "Small Business Investment Companies" (SBICs) to help the financing and management of the small entrepreneurial businesses in the United States. The Small Business Investment Act of 1958 provided tax breaks that helped contribute to the rise of private-equity firms.


title: Venture capital

text: During the 1950s, putting a venture capital deal together may have required the help of two or three other organizations to complete the transaction. It was a business that was growing very rapidly, and as the business grew, the transactions grew exponentially.


title: Venture capital

text: During the 1960s and 1970s, venture capital firms focused their investment activity primarily on starting and expanding companies. More often than not, these companies were exploiting breakthroughs in electronic, medical, or data-processing technology. As a result, venture capital came to be almost synonymous with technology finance. An early West Coast venture capital company was Draper and Johnson Investment Company, formed in 1962 by William Henry Draper III and Franklin P. Johnson, Jr. In 1965, Sutter Hill Ventures acquired the portfolio of Draper and Johnson as a founding action. Bill Draper and Paul Wythes were the founders, and Pitch Johnson formed Asset Management Company at that time.


title: Venture capital

text: It was also in the 1960s that the common form of private-equity fund, still in use today, emerged. Private-equity firms organized limited partnerships to hold investments in which the investment professionals served as general partner and the investors, who were passive limited partners, put up the capital. The compensation structure, still in use today, also emerged with limited partners paying an annual management fee of 1.0–2.5% and a carried interest typically representing up to 20% of the profits of the partnership.


title: Venture capital

text: The growth of the venture capital industry was fueled by the emergence of the independent investment firms on Sand Hill Road, beginning with Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital in 1972. Located in Menlo Park, CA, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia and later venture capital firms would have access to the many semiconductor companies based in the Santa Clara Valley as well as early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies.


title: Venture capital

text: Throughout the 1970s, a group of private-equity firms, focused primarily on venture capital investments, would be founded that would become the model for later leveraged buyout and venture capital investment firms. In 1973, with the number of new venture capital firms increasing, leading venture capitalists formed the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The NVCA was to serve as the industry trade group for the venture capital industry. Venture capital firms suffered a temporary downturn in 1974, when the stock market crashed and investors were naturally wary of this new kind of investment fund.


title: Venture capital

text: It was not until 1978 that venture capital experienced its first major fundraising year, as the industry raised approximately $750 million. With the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974, corporate pension funds were prohibited from holding certain risky investments including many investments in privately held companies. In 1978, the US Labor Department relaxed certain restrictions of the ERISA, under the "prudent man rule", thus allowing corporate pension funds to invest in the asset class and providing a major source of capital available to venture capitalists.


title: Venture capital

text: The public successes of the venture capital industry in the 1970s and early 1980s (e.g., Digital Equipment Corporation, Apple Inc., Genentech) gave rise to a major proliferation of venture capital investment firms. From just a few dozen firms at the start of the decade, there were over 650 firms by the end of the 1980s, each searching for the next major "home run". The number of firms multiplied, and the capital managed by these firms increased from $3 billion to $31 billion over the course of the decade.


title: Venture capital

text: The growth of the industry was hampered by sharply declining returns, and certain venture firms began posting losses for the first time. In addition to the increased competition among firms, several other factors affected returns. The market for initial public offerings cooled in the mid-1980s before collapsing after the stock market crash in 1987, and foreign corporations, particularly from Japan and Korea, flooded early-stage companies with capital.


title: Venture capital

text: In response to the changing conditions, corporations that had sponsored in-house venture investment arms, including General Electric and Paine Webber either sold off or closed these venture capital units. Additionally, venture capital units within Chemical Bank and Continental Illinois National Bank, among others, began shifting their focus from funding early stage companies toward investments in more mature companies. Even industry founders J.H. Whitney & Company and Warburg Pincus began to transition toward leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments.


title: Venture capital

text: By the end of the 1980s, venture capital returns were relatively low, particularly in comparison with their emerging leveraged buyout cousins, due in part to the competition for hot startups, excess supply of IPOs and the inexperience of many venture capital fund managers. Growth in the venture capital industry remained limited throughout the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, increasing from $3 billion in 1983 to just over $4 billion more than a decade later in 1994.


title: Venture capital

text: The advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s reinvigorated venture capital as investors saw companies with huge potential being formed. Netscape and Amazon (company) were founded in 1994, and Yahoo! in 1995. All were funded by venture capital. Internet IPOs—AOL in 1992; Netcom in 1994; UUNet, Spyglass and Netscape in 1995; Lycos, Excite, Yahoo!, CompuServe, Infoseek, C/NET, and E*Trade in 1996; and Amazon, ONSALE, Go2Net, N2K, NextLink, and SportsLine in 1997—generated enormous returns for their venture capital investors. These returns, and the performance of the companies post-IPO, caused a rush of money into venture capital, increasing the number of venture capital funds raised from about 40 in 1991 to more than 400 in 2000, and the amount of money committed to the sector from $1.5 billion in 1991 to more than $90 billion in 2000.


title: Venture capital

text: The bursting of the Dot-com bubble in 2000 caused many venture capital firms to fail and financial results in the sector to decline.


title: Venture capital

text: The Nasdaq crash and technology slump that started in March 2000 shook virtually the entire venture capital industry as valuations for startup technology companies collapsed. Over the next two years, many venture firms had been forced to write-off large proportions of their investments, and many funds were significantly "under water" (the values of the fund's investments were below the amount of capital invested). Venture capital investors sought to reduce the size of commitments they had made to venture capital funds, and, in numerous instances, investors sought to unload existing commitments for cents on the dollar in the secondary market. By mid-2003, the venture capital industry had shriveled to about half its 2001 capacity. Nevertheless, PricewaterhouseCoopers' MoneyTree Survey shows that total venture capital investments held steady at 2003 levels through the second quarter of 2005.


title: Venture capital

text: Although the post-boom years represent just a small fraction of the peak levels of venture investment reached in 2000, they still represent an increase over the levels of investment from 1980 through 1995. As a percentage of GDP, venture investment was 0.058% in 1994, peaked at 1.087% (nearly 19 times the 1994 level) in 2000 and ranged from 0.164% to 0.182% in 2003 and 2004. The revival of an Internet-driven environment in 2004 through 2007 helped to revive the venture capital environment. However, as a percentage of the overall private-equity market, venture capital has still not reached its mid-1990s level, let alone its peak in 2000.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital funds, which were responsible for much of the fundraising volume in 2000 (the height of the dot-com bubble), raised only $25.1 billion in 2006, a 2% decline from 2005 and a significant decline from its peak. The decline continued till their fortunes started to turn around in 2010 with $21.8 billion invested (not raised). The industry continued to show phenomenal growth and in 2020 hit $80 billion in fresh capital.


title: Venture capital

text: Obtaining venture capital is substantially different from raising debt or a loan. Lenders have a legal right to interest on a loan and repayment of the capital irrespective of the success or failure of a business. Venture capital is invested in exchange for an equity stake in the business. The return of the venture capitalist as a shareholder depends on the growth and profitability of the business. This return is generally earned when the venture capitalist "exits" by selling its shareholdings when the business is sold to another owner.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capitalists are typically very selective in deciding what to invest in, with a Stanford survey of venture capitalists revealing that 100 companies were considered for every company receiving financing. Ventures receiving financing must demonstrate an excellent management team, a large potential market, and most importantly high growth potential, as only such opportunities are likely capable of providing financial returns and a successful exit within the required time frame (typically 3–7 years) that venture capitalists expect.


title: Venture capital

text: Because investments are illiquid and require the extended time frame to harvest, venture capitalists are expected to carry out detailed due diligence prior to investment. Venture capitalists also are expected to nurture the companies in which they invest, in order to increase the likelihood of reaching an IPO stage when valuations are favourable. Venture capitalists typically assist at four stages in the company's development:


title: Venture capital

text: Because there are no public exchanges listing their securities, private companies meet venture capital firms and other private-equity investors in several ways, including warm referrals from the investors' trusted sources and other business contacts; investor conferences and symposia; and summits where companies pitch directly to investor groups in face-to-face meetings, including a variant known as "Speed Venturing", which is akin to speed-dating for capital, where the investor decides within 10 minutes whether he wants a follow-up meeting. In addition, some new private online networks are emerging to provide additional opportunities for meeting investors.


title: Venture capital

text: This need for high returns makes venture funding an expensive capital source for companies, and most suitable for businesses having large up-front capital requirements, which cannot be financed by cheaper alternatives such as debt. That is most commonly the case for intangible assets such as software, and other intellectual property, whose value is unproven. In turn, this explains why venture capital is most prevalent in the fast-growing technology and life sciences or biotechnology fields.


title: Venture capital

text: If a company does have the qualities venture capitalists seek including a solid business plan, a good management team, investment and passion from the founders, a good potential to exit the investment before the end of their funding cycle, and target minimum returns in excess of 40% per year, it will find it easier to raise venture capital.


title: Venture capital

text: There are typically six stages of venture round financing offered in venture capital, that roughly correspond to these stages of a company's development.


title: Venture capital

text: Between the first round and the fourth round, venture-backed companies may also seek to take venture debt.


title: Venture capital

text: A venture capitalist or sometimes simply capitalist, is a person who makes capital investments in companies in exchange for an equity stake. The venture capitalist is often expected to bring managerial and technical expertise, as well as capital, to their investments. A venture capital fund refers to a pooled investment vehicle (in the United States, often an LP or LLC) that primarily invests the financial capital of third-party investors in enterprises that are too risky for the standard capital markets or bank loans. These funds are typically managed by a venture capital firm, which often employs individuals with technology backgrounds (scientists, researchers), business training and/or deep industry experience.


title: Venture capital

text: A core skill within VC is the ability to identify novel or disruptive technologies that have the potential to generate high commercial returns at an early stage. By definition, VCs also take a role in managing entrepreneurial companies at an early stage, thus adding skills as well as capital, thereby differentiating VC from buy-out private equity, which typically invest in companies with proven revenue, and thereby potentially realizing much higher rates of returns. Inherent in realizing abnormally high rates of returns is the risk of losing all of one's investment in a given startup company. As a consequence, most venture capital investments are done in a pool format, where several investors combine their investments into one large fund that invests in many different startup companies. By investing in the pool format, the investors are spreading out their risk to many different investments instead of taking the chance of putting all of their money in one start up firm.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital firms are typically structured as partnerships, the general partners of which serve as the managers of the firm and will serve as investment advisors to the venture capital funds raised. Venture capital firms in the United States may also be structured as limited liability companies, in which case the firm's managers are known as managing members. Investors in venture capital funds are known as limited partners. This constituency comprises both high-net-worth individuals and institutions with large amounts of available capital, such as state and private pension funds, university financial endowments, foundations, insurance companies, and pooled investment vehicles, called funds of funds.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capitalist firms differ in their motivations and approaches. There are multiple factors, and each firm is different.


title: Venture capital

text: Within the venture capital industry, the general partners and other investment professionals of the venture capital firm are often referred to as "venture capitalists" or "VCs". Typical career backgrounds vary, but, broadly speaking, venture capitalists come from either an operational or a finance background. Venture capitalists with an operational background (operating partner) tend to be former founders or executives of companies similar to those which the partnership finances or will have served as management consultants. Venture capitalists with finance backgrounds tend to have investment banking or other corporate finance experience.


title: Venture capital

text: Although the titles are not entirely uniform from firm to firm, other positions at venture capital firms include:


title: Venture capital

text: Most venture capital funds have a fixed life of 10 years, with the possibility of a few years of extensions to allow for private companies still seeking liquidity. The investing cycle for most funds is generally three to five years, after which the focus is managing and making follow-on investments in an existing portfolio. This model was pioneered by successful funds in Silicon Valley through the 1980s to invest in technological trends broadly but only during their period of ascendance, and to cut exposure to management and marketing risks of any individual firm or its product.


title: Venture capital

text: In such a fund, the investors have a fixed commitment to the fund that is initially unfunded and subsequently "called down" by the venture capital fund over time as the fund makes its investments. There are substantial penalties for a limited partner (or investor) that fails to participate in a capital call.


title: Venture capital

text: It can take anywhere from a month to several years for venture capitalists to raise money from limited partners for their fund. At the time when all of the money has been raised, the fund is said to be closed and the 10-year lifetime begins. Some funds have partial closes when one half (or some other amount) of the fund has been raised. The vintage year generally refers to the year in which the fund was closed and may serve as a means to stratify VC funds for comparison.


title: Venture capital

text: From an investor's point of view, funds can be: (1) traditional—where all the investors invest with equal terms; or (2) asymmetric—where different investors have different terms. Typically asymmetry is seen in cases where investors have opposing interests, such as the need to not have unrelated business taxable income in the case of public tax-exempt investors.


title: Venture capital

text: The decision process to fund a company is elusive. One study report in the Harvard Business Review states that VCs rarely use standard financial analytics. First, VCs engage in a process known as "generating deal flow," where they reach out to their network to source potential investments. The study also reported that few VCs use any type of financial analytics when they assess deals; VCs are primarily concerned about the cash returned from the deal as a multiple of the cash invested. According to 95% of the VC firms surveyed, VCs cite the founder or founding team as the most important factor in their investment decision. Other factors are also considered, including intellectual property rights and the state of the economy. Some argue that the most important thing a VC looks for in a company is high-growth.


title: Venture capital

text: The funding decision process has spawned bias in the form of a large disparity between the funding men and minority groups, such as women and people of color. In 2021, female founders only received 2% of VC funding in the United States. Some research studies have found that VCs evaluate women differently and are less likely to fund female founders.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capitalists are compensated through a combination of management fees and carried interest (often referred to as a "two and 20" arrangement):


title: Venture capital

text: Because a fund may run out of capital prior to the end of its life, larger venture capital firms usually have several overlapping funds at the same time; doing so lets the larger firm keep specialists in all stages of the development of firms almost constantly engaged. Smaller firms tend to thrive or fail with their initial industry contacts; by the time the fund cashes out, an entirely new generation of technologies and people is ascending, whom the general partners may not know well, and so it is prudent to reassess and shift industries or personnel rather than attempt to simply invest more in the industry or people the partners already know.


title: Venture capital

text: Because of the strict requirements venture capitalists have for potential investments, many entrepreneurs seek seed funding from angel investors, who may be more willing to invest in highly speculative opportunities, or may have a prior relationship with the entrepreneur. Additionally, entrepreneurs may seek alternative financing, such as revenue-based financing, to avoid giving up equity ownership in the business. For entrepreneurs seeking more than just funding, startup studios can be an appealing alternative to venture capitalists, as they provide operational support and an experienced team.


title: Venture capital

text: Furthermore, many venture capital firms will only seriously evaluate an investment in a start-up company otherwise unknown to them if the company can prove at least some of its claims about the technology and/or market potential for its product or services. To achieve this, or even just to avoid the dilutive effects of receiving funding before such claims are proven, many start-ups seek to self-finance sweat equity until they reach a point where they can credibly approach outside capital providers such as venture capitalists or angel investors. This practice is called "bootstrapping".


title: Venture capital

text: Equity crowdfunding is emerging as an alternative to traditional venture capital. Traditional crowdfunding is an approach to raising the capital required for a new project or enterprise by appealing to large numbers of ordinary people for small donations. While such an approach has long precedents in the sphere of charity, it is receiving renewed attention from entrepreneurs, now that social media and online communities make it possible to reach out to a group of potentially interested supporters at very low cost. Some equity crowdfunding models are also being applied specifically for startup funding, such as those listed at Comparison of crowd funding services. One of the reasons to look for alternatives to venture capital is the problem of the traditional VC model. The traditional VCs are shifting their focus to later-stage investments, and return on investment of many VC funds have been low or negative.


title: Venture capital

text: In Europe and India, Media for equity is a partial alternative to venture capital funding. Media for equity investors are able to supply start-ups with often significant advertising campaigns in return for equity. In Europe, an investment advisory firm offers young ventures the option to exchange equity for services investment; their aim is to guide ventures through the development stage to arrive at a significant funding, mergers and acquisition, or other exit strategy.


title: Venture capital

text: In industries where assets can be securitized effectively because they reliably generate future revenue streams or have a good potential for resale in case of foreclosure, businesses may more cheaply be able to raise debt to finance their growth. Good examples would include asset-intensive extractive industries such as mining, or manufacturing industries. Offshore funding is provided via specialist venture capital trusts, which seek to use securitization in structuring hybrid multi-market transactions via an SPV (special purpose vehicle): a corporate entity that is designed solely for the purpose of the financing.


title: Venture capital

text: In addition to traditional venture capital and angel networks, groups have emerged, which allow groups of small investors or entrepreneurs themselves to compete in a privatized business plan competition where the group itself serves as the investor through a democratic process.


title: Venture capital

text: Law firms are also increasingly acting as an intermediary between clients seeking venture capital and the firms providing it.


title: Venture capital

text: Other forms include venture resources that seek to provide non-monetary support to launch a new venture.


title: Venture capital

text: Every year, there are nearly 2 million businesses created in the US, but only 600–800 get venture capital funding. According to the National Venture Capital Association, 11% of private sector jobs come from venture-backed companies and venture-backed revenue accounts for 21% of US GDP.


title: Venture capital

text: In 2020 female founded companies raised only 2.8% of capital investment from venture capital, the highest amount recorded.


title: Venture capital

text: Babson College's Diana Report found that the number of women partners in VC firms decreased from 10% in 1999 to 6% in 2014. The report also found that 97% of VC-funded businesses had male chief executives, and that businesses with all-male teams were more than four times as likely to receive VC funding compared to teams with at least one woman.


title: Venture capital

text: Currently, about 3 percent of all venture capital is going to woman-led companies. More than 75% of VC firms in the US did not have any female venture capitalists at the time they were surveyed. It was found that a greater fraction of VC firms had never had a woman represent them on the board of one of their portfolio companies. In 2017 only 2.2% of all VC funding went to female founders.


title: Venture capital

text: For comparison, a UC Davis study focusing on large public companies in California found 49.5% with at least one female board seat. When the latter results were published, some "San Jose Mercury News" readers dismissed the possibility that sexism was a cause. In a follow-up "Newsweek" article, Nina Burleigh asked "Where were all these offended people when women like Heidi Roizen published accounts of having a venture capitalist stick her hand in his pants under a table while a deal was being discussed?"


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital, as an industry, originated in the United States, and American firms have traditionally been the largest participants in venture deals with the bulk of venture capital being deployed in American companies. However, increasingly, non-US venture investment is growing, and the number and size of non-US venture capitalists have been expanding.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capital has been used as a tool for economic development in a variety of developing regions. In many of these regions, with less developed financial sectors, venture capital plays a role in facilitating access to finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which in most cases would not qualify for receiving bank loans.


title: Venture capital

text: In the year of 2008, while VC funding were still majorly dominated by U.S. money ($28.8 billion invested in over 2550 deals in 2008), compared to international fund investments ($13.4 billion invested elsewhere), there has been an average 5% growth in the venture capital deals outside the US, mainly in China and Europe. Geographical differences can be significant. For instance, in the UK, 4% of British investment goes to venture capital, compared to about 33% in the U.S.


title: Venture capital

text: VC funding has been shown to be positively related to a country's individualistic culture. According to economist Jeffrey Funk however more than 90% of US startups valued over $1 billion lost money between 2019–2020 and return on investment from VC barely exceed return from public stock markets over the last 25 years.


title: Venture capital

text: Venture capitalists invested some $29.1 billion in 3,752 deals in the U.S. through the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a report by the National Venture Capital Association. The same numbers for all of 2010 were $23.4 billion in 3,496 deals.


title: Venture capital

text: According to a report by Dow Jones VentureSource, venture capital funding fell to $6.4 billion in the US in the first quarter of 2013, an 11.8% drop from the first quarter of 2012, and a 20.8% decline from 2011. Venture firms have added $4.2 billion into their funds this year, down from $6.3 billion in the first quarter of 2013, but up from $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.


title: Venture capital

text: In Australia and New Zealand, there are more than one hundred active VC funds, syndicates, or angel investors making VC-style investments.


title: Venture capital

text: The State of Startup Funding report found that in 2021, over AUD $10 billion AUD was invested into Australian and New Zealand startups across 682 deals. This represents a 3x increase from the $3.1 billion that was invested in 2020.


title: Venture capital

text: Some notable Australian and New Zealand startup success stories include graphic design company Canva, financial services provider Airwallex, New Zealand payments provider Vend (acquired by Lightspeed), rent-to-buy company OwnHome, and direct-to-consumer propositions such as Eucalyptus (a house of direct-to-consumer telehealth brands), and Lyka (a pet wellness company).


title: Venture capital

text: In 2022, the largest Australian funds are Blackbird Ventures,Square Peg Capital, and Airtree Ventures. These three funds have more than $1 billion AUD under management across multiple funds. These funds have funding from institutional capital, including AustralianSuper and Hostplus, family offices, and sophisticated individual high-net-wealth investors.


title: Venture capital

text: Outside of the 'Big 3', other notable institutional funds include AfterWork Ventures, Artesian, Folklore Ventures, Equity Venture Partners, Our Innovation Fund, Investible, Main Sequence Ventures (the VC arm of the CSIRO), and Tenacious Ventures.


title: Venture capital

text: As the number of capital providers in the Australian and New Zealand ecosystem has grown, funds have started to specialise and innovate to differentiate themselves. For example, Tenacious Ventures is a $35 million specialised agritech fund, while AfterWork Ventures is a 'community-powered fund' that has coalesced a group of 120 experienced operators from across Australia's startups and tech companies. Its community is invested in its fund, and lean into assist with sourcing and evaluating deal opportunities, as well as supporting companies post-investment.


title: Venture capital

text: Several Australian corporates have corporate VC arms, including NAB Ventures, Reinventure (associated with Westpac), IAG Firemark Ventures, and Telstra Ventures.


title: Venture capital

text: The Bulgarian venture capital industry has been growing rapidly in the past decade. As of the beginning of 2021, there are 18 VC and growth equity firms on the local market, with the total funding available for technology startups exceeding €200M. According to BVCA – Bulgarian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, 59 transactions of total value of €29.4 million took place in 2020. Most of the venture capital investments in Bulgaria are concentrated in the seed and Series A stages. Sofia-based LAUNCHub Ventures recently launched one of the biggest funds in the region, with a target size of €70 million.


title: Venture capital

text: The Venture Capital industry in Mexico is a fast-growing sector in the country that, with the support of institutions and private funds, is estimated to reach US$100 billion invested by 2018.


title: Venture capital

text: In Israel, high-tech entrepreneurship and venture capital have flourished well beyond the country's relative size. As it has very little natural resources and, historically has been forced to build its economy on knowledge-based industries, its VC industry has rapidly developed, and nowadays has about 70 active venture capital funds, of which 14 international VCs with Israeli offices, and additional 220 international funds which actively invest in Israel. In addition, as of 2010, Israel led the world in venture capital invested per capita. Israel attracted $170 per person compared to $75 in the USA. About two thirds of the funds invested were from foreign sources, and the rest domestic. In 2013, Wix.com joined 62 other Israeli firms on the Nasdaq.


title: Venture capital

text: Canadian technology companies have attracted interest from the global venture capital community partially as a result of generous tax incentive through the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) investment tax credit program. The basic incentive available to any Canadian corporation performing R&D is a refundable tax credit that is equal to 20% of "qualifying" R&D expenditures (labour, material, R&D contracts, and R&D equipment). An enhanced 35% refundable tax credit of available to certain (i.e. small) Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs). Because the CCPC rules require a minimum of 50% Canadian ownership in the company performing R&D, foreign investors who would like to benefit from the larger 35% tax credit must accept minority position in the company, which might not be desirable. The SR&ED program does not restrict the export of any technology or intellectual property that may have been developed with the benefit of SR&ED tax incentives.


title: Venture capital

text: Canada also has a fairly unusual form of venture capital generation in its labour-sponsored venture capital corporations (LSVCC). These funds, also known as Retail Venture Capital or Labour Sponsored Investment Funds (LSIF), are generally sponsored by labor unions and offer tax breaks from government to encourage retail investors to purchase the funds. Generally, these Retail Venture Capital funds only invest in companies where the majority of employees are in Canada. However, innovative structures have been developed to permit LSVCCs to direct in Canadian subsidiaries of corporations incorporated in jurisdictions outside of Canada.


title: Venture capital

text: Many Swiss start-ups are university spin-offs, in particular from its federal institutes of technology in Lausanne and Zurich.


title: Venture capital

text: According to a study by the London School of Economics analysing 130 ETH Zurich spin-offs over 10 years, about 90% of these start-ups survived the first five critical years, resulting in an average annual IRR of more than 43%.


title: Venture capital

text: Switzerland's most active early-stage investors are The Zurich Cantonal Bank, investiere.ch, Swiss Founders Fund, as well as a number of angel investor clubs.


title: Venture capital

text: Leading early-stage venture capital investors in Europe include Mark Tluszcz of Mangrove Capital Partners and Danny Rimer of Index Ventures, both of whom were named on "Forbes" Magazine's Midas List of the world's top dealmakers in technology venture capital in 2007. In 2020, the first Italian Venture capital Fund named Primo Space was launched by Primomiglio SGR. This fund first closed €58 million out a target €80 million and is focused on Space investing.


title: Venture capital

text: Recent years have seen a revival of the Nordic venture scene with more than €3 billion raised by VC funds in the Nordic region over the last five years. Over the past five years, a total of €2.7 billion has been invested into Nordic startups. Known Nordic early-stage venture capital funds include NorthZone (Sweden), Maki.vc (Finland) and ByFounders (Copenhagen).


title: Venture capital

text: As of March 2019, there are 130 active VC firms in Poland which have invested locally in over 750 companies, an average of 9 companies per portfolio. Since 2016, new legal institutions have been established for entities implementing investments in enterprises in the seed or startup phase. In 2018, venture capital funds invested in Polish startups (0.033% of GDP). As of March 2019, total assets managed by VC companies operating in Poland are estimated at . The total value of investments of the Polish VC market is worth .


title: Venture capital

text: India is catching up with the West in the field of venture capital and a number of venture capital funds have a presence in the country (IVCA). In 2006, the total amount of private equity and venture capital in India reached $7.5 billion across 299 deals. In the Indian market, venture capital consists of investing in equity, quasi-equity, or conditional loans in order to promote unlisted, high-risk, or high-tech firms driven by technically or professionally qualified entrepreneurs. It is also used to refer to investors "providing seed", "start-up and first-stage financing", or financing companies that have demonstrated extraordinary business potential. Venture capital refers to capital investment; equity and debt ;both of which carry indubitable risk. The anticipated risk is very high. The venture capital industry follows the concept of "high risk, high return", innovative entrepreneurship, knowledge-based ideas and human capital intensive enterprises have become common as venture capitalists invest in risky finance to encourage innovation.


title: Venture capital

text: Vietnam is experiencing its first foreign venture capitals, including IDG Venture Vietnam ($100 million) and DFJ Vinacapital ($35 million)


title: Venture capital

text: Singapore is widely recognized and featured as one of the hottest places to both start up and invest, mainly due to its healthy ecosystem, its strategic location and connectedness to foreign markets. With 100 deals valued at US$3.5 billion, Singapore saw a record value of PE and VC investments in 2016. The number of PE and VC investments increased substantially over the last 5 years: In 2015, Singapore recorded 81 investments with an aggregate value of US$2.2 billion while in 2014 and 2013, PE and VC deal values came to US$2.4 billion and US$0.9 billion respectively. With 53 percent, tech investments account for the majority of deal volume. Moreover, Singapore is home to two of South-East Asia's largest unicorns. Garena is reportedly the highest-valued unicorn in the region with a US$3.5 billion price tag, while Grab is the highest-funded, having raised a total of US$1.43 billion since its incorporation in 2012.


title: Venture capital

text: Start-ups and small businesses in Singapore receive support from policymakers and the local government fosters the role VCs play to support entrepreneurship in Singapore and the region. For instance, in 2016, Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF) has given out grants up to around $30 million to four large local enterprises for investments in startups in the city-state. This first of its kind partnership NRF has entered into is designed to encourage these enterprises to source for new technologies and innovative business models.


title: Venture capital

text: Currently, the rules governing VC firms are being reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to make it easier to set up funds and increase funding opportunities for start-ups. This mainly includes simplifying and shortening the authorization process for new venture capital managers and to study whether existing incentives that have attracted traditional asset managers here will be suitable for the VC sector. A public consultation on the proposals was held in January 2017 with changes expected to be introduced by July.


title: Venture capital

text: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) venture capital industry is an early stage of development but growing. According to "H1 2019 MENA Venture Investment Report" by MAGNiTT, 238 startup investment deals have taken place in the region in the first half of 2019, totaling in $471 million in investments. Compared to 2018’s H1 report, this represents an increase of 66% in total funding and 28% in number of deals.


title: Venture capital

text: According to the report, the UAE is the most active ecosystem in the region with 26% of the deals made in H1, followed by Egypt at 21%, and Lebanon at 13%. In terms of deals by sector, fintech remains the most active industry with 17% of the deals made, followed by e-commerce at 12%, and delivery and transport at 8%.


title: Venture capital

text: The report also notes that a total of 130 institutions invested in MENA-based startups in H1 2019, 30% of which were headquartered outside the MENA, demonstrating international appetite for investments in the region. 15 startup exits have been recorded in H1 2019, with Careem’s $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber being the first unicorn exit in the region. Other notable exits include Souq.com exit to Amazon in 2017 for $650 million.


title: Venture capital

text: The Southern African venture capital industry is developing. The South African Government and Revenue Service is following the international trend of using tax-efficient vehicles to propel economic growth and job creation through venture capital. Section 12 J of the "Income Tax Act" was updated to include venture capital. Companies are allowed to use a tax-efficient structure similar to VCTs in the UK. Despite the above structure, the government needs to adjust its regulation around intellectual property, exchange control and other legislation to ensure that Venture capital succeeds.


title: Venture capital

text: Currently, there are not many venture capital funds in operation and it is a small community; however, the number of venture funds are steadily increasing with new incentives slowly coming in from government. Funds are difficult to come by and due to the limited funding, companies are more likely to receive funding if they can demonstrate initial sales or traction and the potential for significant growth. The majority of the venture capital in Sub-Saharan Africa is centered on South Africa and Kenya.


title: Venture capital

text: Entrepreneurship is a key to growth. Governments will need to ensure business friendly regulatory environments in order to help foster innovation. In 2019, venture capital startup funding grew to 1.3 billion dollars, increasing rapidly. The causes are as of yet unclear, but education is certainly a factor.


title: Venture capital

text: Unlike public companies, information regarding an entrepreneur's business is typically confidential and proprietary. As part of the due diligence process, most venture capitalists will require significant detail with respect to a company's business plan. Entrepreneurs must remain vigilant about sharing information with venture capitalists that are investors in their competitors. Most venture capitalists treat information confidentially, but as a matter of business practice, they do not typically enter into Non Disclosure Agreements because of the potential liability issues those agreements entail. Entrepreneurs are typically well advised to protect truly proprietary intellectual property.


title: Venture capital

text: Limited partners of venture capital firms typically have access only to limited amounts of information with respect to the individual portfolio companies in which they are invested and are typically bound by confidentiality provisions in the fund's limited partnership agreement.


title: Venture capital

text: There are several strict guidelines regulating those that deal in venture capital. Namely, they are not allowed to advertise or solicit business in any form as per the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines.


title: Linda Hunt

text: She made her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in "Popeye" (1980). Hunt portrayed the male character Billy Kwan in "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first person to win an Oscar for portraying a character of the opposite sex. Hunt has also appeared in films such as "Dune" (1984), "Silverado" (1985), "Kindergarten Cop" (1990), "Pocahontas" (1995), "" (1998), and "Stranger Than Fiction" (2006).


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt has had a successful career on television and in voice-over work, notably being the narrator for the Ancient Greek mythology themed "God of War" video game series. From 1997 to 2002, she played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on "The Practice" and played Commander Chennault on the sci-fi series "Space Rangers". Beginning in 2009, she has portrayed on the CBS television series "", a role for which she has received two Teen Choice Awards.


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt was born on April 2, 1945, in Morristown, New Jersey. Her father, Raymond Davy Hunt (1902–1985), was vice president of Harper Fuel Oil. Her mother, Elsie Doying Hunt (1903 – c. 1994), was a piano teacher who taught at the Westport School of Music, and performed with the Saugatuck Congregational Church Choir in Westport, Connecticut, the town where Hunt would be raised. She has one sibling, an older sister named Marcia (born 1940). Hunt attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and graduated from the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University).


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt was a well-known live-stage actress before she entered film and television. She made her Broadway debut in a 1975 production of "Ah, Wilderness". She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in the 1984 play "End of the World". She also received two ensemble Obie Awards for her work Off-Broadway in "Top Girls" and "A Metamorphosis in Miniature".


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt created the role of Aunt Dan in Wallace Shawn's play "Aunt Dan and Lemon". She was a member of the Long Wharf Theatre Company in Connecticut, where she performed the Player Queen in a production of "Hamlet", amongst other roles. She portrayed Sister Aloysius in the Pasadena Playhouse production of John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt". Hunt was praised for her performance as the title character in Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children". She also appeared as Pope Joan in Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls" when London's Royal Court Theatre's production was staged at the Public Theater in New York.


title: Linda Hunt

text: In an interview with writer Craig Gholson and actor Vincent Caristi, Hunt said: "Acting onstage is like an explosion each night. And what comes in at you all the time as you are trying to . . . create something which is a tremendous act of organization and concentration."


title: Linda Hunt

text: Known for her small stature, Hunt made her film debut in 1980 in Robert Altman's musical comedy "Popeye".


title: Linda Hunt

text: Two years later, Hunt co-starred as Billy Kwan in "The Year of Living Dangerously", Peter Weir's film adaptation of the novel of the same name. For her work in this film, Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983, becoming the first person to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex. In her screen test, Hunt wore a hairpiece, a fake moustache, and "paste-on pieces above her eyes to [appear] Asian." To play the role, Hunt had her hair dyed and cut short, had her eyebrows shaved, wore padding and makeup, and wore something in her shirt pocket. In her 1986 interview with the "Bomb" magazine, Hunt remarked that Billy Kwan "is supra-personal [with] layers of sexual ambiguity[.]"


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt also played the Shadout Mapes in "Dune" (1984 film), a nurse in "She-Devil" (1989), the austere school principal Miss Schlowski opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Kindergarten Cop" (1990), and assassin Ilsa Grunt in "If Looks Could Kill" (1991).


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt's television appearances include recurring roles as Judge Zoey Hiller on David E. Kelley's series "The Practice" and as Dr. Claire Bryson on "Without a Trace". She has narrated several installments of "The American Experience" on PBS. Since 2009, she has co-starred as Operations Manager on the CBS show "". Her co-stars on that show have included Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Daniela Ruah, Eric Christian Olsen, Miguel Ferrer and Barrett Foa. Hunt has won two Teen Choice Awards for her work on "NCIS: Los Angeles".


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt is known for her husky voice. She has narrated numerous documentaries, cartoons, and commercials. She is the on-air host for "City Arts & Lectures", a radio program recorded by KQED public radio at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco. Hunt voiced the role of Grandmother Willow in the animated musical film "Pocahontas" (1995) and its direct-to-video sequel "" (1998).


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt narrated the National Geographic documentary "The Great Indian Railway" (1995). In 1998, she narrated the Discovery Channel documentary "Titanic: Untold Stories." Hunt's voice work also includes the character of Management in "Carnivàle" (2003, 2005) and the narrator for "God of War" video game series. She narrated a PBS Nature special entitled "Christmas in Yellowstone" (2006).


title: Linda Hunt

text: Hunt has been in a relationship with psychotherapist Karen Kline since 1978. The two were married in 2008.


title: Linda Hunt

text: In July 2018, "People" magazine reported that she was involved in a multicar accident in Los Angeles. The accident resulted in Hunt taking most of a year off from "".


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The Life Insurance Corporation of India was established on 1 September 1956, when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act, nationalizing the insurance industry in India. Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged together.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: LIC reported 290 million policyholders as of 2019, a total life fund of ₹28.3 trillion and a total value of sold policies in the year 2018–19 of ₹21.4 million. The company also reported to have settled 26 million claims in 2018–19. It ranked 98th on the 2022 Fortune Global 500 list with a revenue of and a profit of .


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first company in India offering life insurance coverage, was established in Kolkata in 1818. Its primary target market was the population of Europeans in India, and it charged Indians heftier premiums.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: Surendranath Tagore had founded Hindustan Insurance Society, which later became Life Insurance Corporation.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society, formed in 1870, was the first native insurance provider. Other insurance companies established in the pre-independence era include:


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: These companies were established when India was marked mostly by turbulent economic and political conditions including the Indian rebellion of 1857, World War I and World War II. The effect of these events led to a high liquidation rate of life insurance companies in India and adversely affected the faith of the general public in the value of obtaining life insurance.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: In 1956, parliamentarian Feroze Gandhi raised the matter of insurance fraud via owners of private insurance agencies. In the ensuing investigations, one of India's wealthiest businessmen, "Times of India" owner Sachin Devkekar, was sent to prison for two years.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a proposal to conduct an initial public offering for LIC in the 2021 Union Budget. The IPO is expected to occur in 2022, and the Government of India will remain the majority shareholder after the public listing. Ten percent of shares are proposed to be allotted to existing LIC policyholders. In year 2021, the government of India had proposed to significantly enhance the authorised capital of the LIC of India, to to facilitate its public listing scheduled for the next fiscal year which will begin on 1 April.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: Due to the scale of the offering and the LIC's ownership structure, the deal has been referred to as "India's Aramco moment" in reference to the comparable 2019 IPO of Saudi Aramco.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The LIC announced it would open its IPO to the public on 4 May 2022, and the process would be concluded on May 9. Through this IPO, the Government of India is now aiming to raise ₹21,000 crore, as opposed to raising between ₹65,000 crore to ₹70,000 crore by diluting the 5% equity earlier. As per the IPO price band for 3.5% stakes for ₹21,000 crore, the valuation comes to around ₹6 lakh crore.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The Central Office of LIC is based out of Mumbai. There are a total of 8 zonal offices, located in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Bhopal and Patna.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: In August 2000, the Indian Government embarked on a program to liberalise the insurance sector and opened it up to the private sector. The LIC benefited from this process and in 2013 reported the first year premium compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 24.53% while total life premium CAGR was 19.28% matching the growth of the life insurance industry and outperforming general economic growth.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The Economic Times Brand Equity Survey 2012 rated LIC as the 6th Most Trusted Service Brand of India. The LIC was also voted India's Most Trusted brand in the BFSI category according to the Brand Trust Report from 2011 to 2014.


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The LIC Golden Jubilee Foundation was established in 2006 as a charity organization. The entity has the aim of promoting education, alleviating poverty, and providing better living conditions for the underprivileged. The Golden Jubilee Scholarship award is one of the best known parts of the foundation. Each year, this award is given to the meritorious students in the 12th standard who wish to continue their studies, and have a parental income less than .


title: Life Insurance Corporation

text: The LIC invests in sectors such as banks, cement, chemicals and fertilizers, electricity and transmission, electrical and electronics, engineering, construction and infrastructure, fast-moving consumer goods, finance and investments, healthcare, hotels, information technology, metals and mining, motor vehicles, and ancillaries, oil and natural resources, retail, textiles, transportation, and logistics.


title: Tribadism

text: Tribadism ( ) or tribbing, commonly known by its scissoring position, is a lesbian sexual practice in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for sexual stimulation, especially for stimulation of the clitoris. This may involve vulva-to-vulva contact or rubbing the vulva against the partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or other body part (excluding the mouth). A variety of sex positions are practiced, including the missionary position.


title: Tribadism

text: The term "tribadism" originally encompassed societal beliefs about women's capability of being penetrative sexual partners. Women accused of having been penetrative during sexual activity were subject to ridicule or punishment. In modern times, the term typically refers to various forms of non-penetrative sex between women. It may also involve vaginal penetration by use of the fingers, a dildo or double penetration dildo.


title: Tribadism

text: The term "tribadism" derives from the Greek word τριβάς ("tribas"), which in turn comes from the verb τρίβω ("tribō"), "rub". In ancient Greek and Roman sexuality, a tribas, or tribade (IPA:), was a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through use of the clitoris or a dildo. The term "tribade" did not begin to refer exclusively to eroticism between women until Late Antiquity. Because penetration was viewed as "male-defined" sexuality, a tribas was considered the most vulgar lesbian. The Greeks and Romans recognized same-sex attraction, but as any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be "phallic" and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus. This appears in Greek and Latin satires as early as the late first century.


title: Tribadism

text: In English texts, "tribade" is recorded as early as 1601, in Ben Jonson's "Praeludium" (Poem X in "The Forest"), to as late as the mid-nineteenth century; it was the most common lesbian term in European texts, through the proliferation of classical literature, anatomies, midwiferies, sexual advice manuals, and pornography. It also came to refer to lesbian sexual practices in general, though anatomical investigation in the mid-eighteenth century led to skepticism about stories of enlarged clitorises and anatomists and doctors argued for a more precise distinction between clitoral hypertrophy and hermaphroditism.


title: Tribadism

text: Author Bonnie Zimmerman stated, "More often, however, [European] writers avoided the term, instead euphemistically invoking 'unnatural vice,' 'lewd behavior,' 'crimes against nature,' 'using an instrument,' and 'taking the part of a man.' In the eighteenth century, where the term saw one of its most popular uses, it was employed in several pornographic libels against Marie Antoinette, who was "tried and roundly convicted in the press" as being a tribade. "[Her] rumored tribadism had historically specific political implications," stated author Dena Goodman. "Consider her final (fictive) testimony in "The Confession of Marie-Antoinette": 'People!' she protests, 'because I ceded to the sweet impressions of nature, and in imitating the charming weakness of all the women of the court of France, I surrendered to the sweet impulsion of love...you hold me, as it were, captive within your walls?'" Goodman elaborated that in one libel, Marie-Antoinette is described as generously providing details of her husband's "incapacity in the venereal act" and that her lust resulted in her taking an aristocratic beauty Yolande de Polastron, the Duchess of Polignac (1749-1793), "into [her] service" and later specifying that what makes sex with a woman so appealing is "Adroit in the art of stimulating the clitoris"; Marie-Antoinette is described as having stated that La Polignac's attentions produced "one of those rare pleasures that cannot be used up because it can be repeated as many times as one likes".


title: Tribadism

text: By the time the Victorian era arrived, cited Zimmerman, "tribadism tended to be constructed as a lower class and non-Western phenomenon and often was associated with the supposed degeneration of prostitutes and criminals". By the twentieth century, ""tribade" had been supplanted" by the terms "sapphist", "lesbian", "invert", and "homosexual", as "tribade" had become too archaic to use. "Fricatrice", a synonym for "tribade" that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English texts as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson's "Volpone"). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than "tribade". Variants include the Latinized "confricatrice" and English "rubster".


title: Tribadism

text: Tribadism is a common sexual practice among women who have sex with women (WSW). Although the term "tribadism" is often applied to the act of vulva-to-vulva stimulation, it encompasses a variety of sexual activity. In addition to the scissoring position, which involves the partners interlocking their legs in a position similar to the shape of scissors and pressing their vulvas together, tribadism may involve a missionary position, a woman on top position, a doggy style position or others, or simple movement of the woman's vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or another body part. Vaginal penetration by use of the fingers or by use of a dildo may be accompanied, and so sometimes "mutuality and reciprocation tend not to be the main objective, although satisfaction for both partners through different means most definitely is its aim". Women who enjoy or prefer tribadism report finding pleasure from its allowance of whole-body contact, the experience of timing hip movement and feeling their partner's motions without manual stimulation, which is considered exciting, erotic and a much easier way to achieve orgasm due to ample clitoral stimulation.


title: Tribadism

text: Some lesbian and bisexual women do not engage in the scissoring position because they find or think it would be physically uncomfortable. They may also think it is a misconception that lesbians engage in the act and is therefore not representative of lesbian sexual practices, attributing it more so to the male fantasies of the heterosexual porn industry. By contrast, some sources, including Shere Hite's 1976 and 1981 research, indicate that women may enjoy performing the scissoring position with other women because it is a variation of vulva-to-vulva contact or can allow for maximum such contact and therefore an elevated level of intimacy.


title: Tribadism

text: "Scissoring" is commonly used as an umbrella term for all forms of tribadism, and many lesbian and bisexual women are unaware that some of the sexual acts they include in their lovemaking are aspects of and are formally labeled "tribadism", as tribadism is commonly omitted from mainstream sex research. Scholar Judith Halberstam, stated, "If we trace the use of the term forward into present, we find that tribadism is one of those rarely discussed but often practiced sexual activities, and the silence that surrounds it now is as puzzling as the discourse it produced in earlier centuries." Halberstam added that Sigmund Freud "had nothing to say" with regard to the topic, "and few contemporary lesbian sex books even discuss it".


title: Tribadism

text: According to older studies, "approximately one-third of lesbian women used tribadism, or body contact, as a means of achieving orgasm (Saghir & Robins, 1973; Jay & Young, 1977)". Masters and Johnson's 1979 study on lesbian sexual practices found that lesbians tend to do more overall genital stimulation than direct clitoral stimulation, which is also often the case for heterosexual relationships. Vaginal or anal penetration with dildos or other sex toys is less commonly practiced among lesbians and other WSW. In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) "was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado" and "[w]hen asked what techniques they used in their last 10 lovemaking sessions, 100% were for kissing, sucking on nipples, and manual stimulation of the clitoris; more than 90% reported French kissing, oral sex, and fingers inserted into the vagina; and 80% reported tribadism".


title: Tribadism

text: In 2003, Julia V Bailey and her research team published data based on a sample from the United Kingdom of 803 lesbian and bisexual women attending two London lesbian sexual health clinics and 415 WSW from a community sample; the study reported that 85% of the women engaged in tribadism (which included genital-to-genital contact or rubbing genitals against another part of a partner's body). 50% engaged in the genital-genital form. Like older studies, vaginal penetration with dildos, or with other sex toys, among the women was rare.


title: Tribadism

text: As with any exchange of body fluids during sexual activities, genital-to-genital tribadism is a high-risk sexual practice because it may transfer sexually transmitted infections (STIs) if those are present in one or more of the partners. Genital-genital and genital-body contact (including tribadism) can spread STIs such as human papillomavirus (HPV), pubic lice (crabs) and herpes.


title: Tribadism

text: Safe sex options, such as using a dental dam or a cut-open condom, may be practiced. However, there "is no good evidence" that using a dental dam reduces STI transmission risks between women who have sex with women; studies show that using a dental dam as a protection barrier is rarely practiced, and that, among [women who have sex with women], this may be because the individuals have "limited knowledge about the possibilities of STI transmission or [feel] less vulnerable to STIs [such as HIV]".


title: Tribadism

text: In terms of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), sexual behaviors between women such as tribadism are neglected.


title: Tribadism

text: Tribadism has been referenced in various aspects of popular culture. The glam pop band Scissor Sisters derived their name from the scissoring position. Jake Shears of the group stated that while many of their songs have gay themes, they do not want to be labeled a gay band; they "are first and foremost a pop band". Other bands named after tribadism include lesbian punk band Tribe 8 and all-male group Scissorfight.


title: Tribadism

text: Genital–genital tribadism was depicted three times during the "D-Yikes!" episode of the cartoon "South Park", referred to in the episode as "scissoring". The episode is credited with having brought more recognition to the act of scissoring. The term additionally received mainstream recognition after the episode "Duets" of the television series "Glee" had characters Santana Lopez and Brittany S. Pierce reference scissoring while making out. The scene received some criticism for possibly being inappropriate for children.


title: Tribadism

text: In 2010, in response to California State University, Long Beach refusing to advertise the play "The Night of the Tribades" on the Seventh Street marquee because of the word "tribades" in its title, approximately 24 theater arts majors protested in front of Brotman Hall by simulating tribadism (including scissoring). "When you put tribade into a Google search image, apparently it comes up with the word tribadism, which is a sex act and they decided it was inappropriate," stated one student.


title: Tribadism

text: Tribadism and other lesbian sex scenes are featured in the 2013 film "Blue Is the Warmest Colour." The scenes were the subject of debate among lesbians and critics, with the depiction of scissoring being one of the acts that were criticized; in an interview surveying a small panel of lesbian women, one of the women, who was skeptical that lesbian sexual activity included scissoring at all, seemed more open to the idea of a reverse cowgirl position of scissoring; another woman had engaged in the reverse cowgirl position of scissoring. Smith et al. argued that while the portrayal of scissoring in "Blue Is the Warmest Colour" may be considered "entirely lesbian" and "expunging men" because it is non-penetrative sex between women, "the positions chosen seem based more on their ease to photograph/film in a way that provides maximum exposure of both female bodies, as well as an inability to imagine, or depict within heterosexual representational norms, fulfilling sex "without" direct genital-on-genital contact."


title: Tribadism

text: The 2016 film "Blood of the Tribades" is a lesbian-themed vampire story examining gender politics and bigotry.


title: Tribadism

text: Female-female genital sex is not exclusive to humans. Females of the bonobo species, found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also engage in this act, usually referred to by primatologists as "GG rubbing" (genital-to-genital). "Perhaps the bonobo's most typical sexual pattern, undocumented in any other primate, is genito-genital rubbing (or GG rubbing) between adult females," stated primatologist Frans de Waal. "One female facing another clings with arms and legs to a partner that, standing on both hands and feet, lifts her off the ground."


title: Tribadism

text: In bonobos, the clitoris is larger and more externalized than in most mammals. Ethologist Jonathan Balcombe states that bonobos rub their clitorises together rapidly for ten to twenty seconds, and this behavior, "which may be repeated in rapid succession, is usually accompanied by grinding, shrieking, and clitoral engorgement"; on average, female bonobos engage in genital–genital rubbing "about once every two hours".


title: Solanaceae

text: The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids, and some are highly toxic, but many—including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell and chili peppers—are used as food. The family belongs to the order Solanales, in the asterid group and class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons). The Solanaceae consists of about 98 genera and some 2,700 species, with a great diversity of habitats, morphology and ecology.


title: Solanaceae

text: The name Solanaceae derives from the genus "Solanum". The etymology of the Latin word is unclear. The name may come from a perceived resemblance of certain solanaceous flowers to the sun and its rays. At least one species of "Solanum" is known as the "sunberry". Alternatively, the name could originate from the Latin verb "solare", meaning "to soothe", presumably referring to the soothing pharmacological properties of some of the psychoactive species of the family.


title: Solanaceae

text: This family has a worldwide distribution, being present on all continents except Antarctica. The greatest diversity in species is found in South America and Central America. In 2017, scientists reported on their discovery and analysis of a fossil species belonging to the living genus "Physalis", "Physalis infinemundi", found in the Patagonian region of Argentina, dated to 52 million years ago. The finding has pushed back the earliest appearance of the plant family Solanaceae.


title: Solanaceae

text: The Solanaceae family includes a number of commonly collected or cultivated species. The most economically important genus of the family is "Solanum", which contains the potato ("S. tuberosum", in fact, another common name of the family is the "potato family"), the tomato ("S. lycopersicum"), and the eggplant or aubergine ("S. melongena"). Another important genus, "Capsicum", produces both chili peppers and bell peppers.


title: Solanaceae

text: The genus "Physalis" produces the so-called groundcherries, as well as the tomatillo ("Physalis philadelphica"), "Physalis peruviana" (Cape gooseberry) and "Physalis alkekengi" (Chinese lantern). The genus "Lycium" contains the boxthorns and the goji berry, "Lycium barbarum". "Nicotiana" contains, among other species, tobacco.


title: Solanaceae

text: Some other important members of Solanaceae include a number of ornamental plants such as "Petunia", "Browallia", and "Lycianthes", and sources of psychoactive alkaloids, "Datura", "Mandragora" (mandrake), and "Atropa belladonna" (deadly nightshade). Certain species are widely known for their medicinal uses, their psychotropic effects, or for being poisonous.


title: Solanaceae

text: Most of the economically important genera are contained in the subfamily Solanoideae, with the exceptions of tobacco ("Nicotiana tabacum", Nicotianoideae) and petunia ("Petunia" × "hybrida", Petunioideae).


title: Solanaceae

text: Many of the Solanaceae, such as tobacco and petunia, are used as model organisms in the investigation of fundamental biological questions at the cellular, molecular, and genetic levels.


title: Solanaceae

text: The name "Solanaceae" () comes to international scientific vocabulary from New Latin, from "Solanum", the type genus, + "-aceae", a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word "solanum", referring to nightshades (especially "Solanum nigrum"), "probably from sol, 'sun', + "-anum", neuter of "-anus"."


title: Solanaceae

text: Plants in the Solanaceae can take the form of herbs, shrubs, trees, vines and lianas, and sometimes epiphytes. They can be annuals, biennials, or perennials, upright or decumbent. Some have subterranean tubers. They do not have laticifers, nor latex, nor coloured saps.


title: Solanaceae

text: They can have a basal or terminal group of leaves or neither of these types. The leaves are generally alternate or alternate to opposed (that is, alternate at the base of the plant and opposed towards the inflorescence). The leaves can be herbaceous, leathery, or transformed into spines. The leaves are generally petiolate or subsessile, rarely sessile. They are frequently inodorous, but some are aromatic or fetid. The foliar lamina can be either simple or compound, and the latter can be either pinnatifid or ternate. The leaves have reticulated venation and lack a basal meristem. The laminae are generally dorsiventral and lack secretory cavities. The stomata are generally confined to one of a leaf's two sides; they are rarely found on both sides.


title: Solanaceae

text: The flowers are generally hermaphrodites, although some are monoecious, andromonoecious, or dioecious species (such as some "Solanum" or "Symonanthus"). Pollination is entomophilous. The flowers can be solitary or grouped into terminal, cymose, or axillary inflorescences. The flowers are medium-sized, fragrant ("Nicotiana"), fetid ("Anthocercis"), or inodorous. The flowers are usually actinomorphic, slightly zygomorphic, or markedly zygomorphic (for example, in flowers with a bilabial corolla in "Schizanthus" species). The irregularities in symmetry can be due to the androecium, to the perianth, or both at the same time. In the great majority of species, the flowers have a differentiated perianth with a calyx and corolla (with five sepals and five petals, respectively) an androecium with five stamens and two carpels forming a gynoecium with a superior ovary (they are therefore referred to as pentamers and tetracyclic). The stamens are epipetalous and are typically present in multiples of four or five, most commonly four or eight. They usually have a hypogynous disk. The calyx is gamosepalous (as the sepals are joined forming a tube), with the (4)5(6) segments equal, it has five lobes, with the lobes shorter than the tube, it is persistent and often accrescent. The corolla usually has five petals that are also joined forming a tube. Flower shapes are typically rotate (wheel-shaped, spreading in one plane, with a short tube) or tubular (elongated cylindrical tube), campanulated or funnel-shaped.


title: Solanaceae

text: The androecium has (2)(4)5(6) free stamens within it opposite sepals (they alternate with the petals). They are usually fertile or, in some cases (for example in Salpiglossideae) they have staminodes. In the latter case, there is usually either one staminode ("Salpiglossis") or three ("Schizanthus"). The anthers touch on their upper end forming a ring, or they are completely free, dorsifixed, or basifixed with poricide dehiscence or through small longitudinal cracks. The stamen's filament can be filliform or flat. The stamens can be inserted inside the coralline tube or exserted. The plants demonstrate simultaneous microsporogenesis, the microspores are tetrad, tetrahedral, or isobilateral. The pollen grains are bicellular at the moment of dehiscence, usually open and angular.


title: Solanaceae

text: The gynoecium is bicarpelar (rarely three- or five-locular) with a superior ovary and two locules, which may be secondarily divided by false septa, as is the case for Nicandreae and Datureae. The gynoecium is located in an oblique position relative to the flower's median plane. They have one style and one stigma; the latter is simple or bilobate. Each locule has one to 50 ovules that are anatropous or hemianatropous with axillar placentation. The development of the embryo sack can be the same as for "Polygonum" or "Allium" species. The embryo sack's nuclear poles become fused before fertilization. The three antipodes are usually ephemeral or persistent as in the case of "Atropa". The fruit can be a berry as in the case of the tomato or wolfberry a dehiscent capsule as in "Datura", or a drupe. The fruit has axial placentation. The capsules are normally septicidal or rarely loculicidal or valvate. The seeds are usually endospermic, oily (rarely starchy), and without obvious hairs. The seeds of most Solanaceae are round and flat, about in diameter. The embryo can be straight or curved, and has two cotyledons. Most species in the Solanaceae have 2n=24 chromosomes, but the number may be a higher multiple of 12 due to polyploidy. Wild potatoes, of which there are about 200, are predominantly diploid (2 × 12 = 24 chromosomes), but triploid (3 × 12 = 36 chromosomes), tetraploid (4 × 12 = 48 chromosomes), pentaploid (5 × 12 = 60) and even hexaploid (6 × 12 = 72 chromosome) species or populations exist. The cultivated species "Solanum tuberosum" has 4 × 12 = 48 chromosomes. Some "Capsicum" species have 2 × 12 = 24 chromosomes, while others have 26 chromosomes.


title: Solanaceae

text: Despite the previous description, the Solanaceae exhibit a large morphological variability, even in their reproductive characteristics. Examples of this diversity include:


title: Solanaceae

text: In general, the Solanaceae have a gynoecium (the female part of the flower) formed of two carpels. However, "Melananthus" has a monocarpelar gynoecium, there are three or four carpels in "Capsicum", three to five in "Nicandra", some species of "Jaborosa" and "Trianaea" and four carpels in "Iochroma umbellatum".


title: Solanaceae

text: The number of locules in the ovary is usually the same as the number of carpels. However, some species occur in which the numbers are not the same due to the existence of false septa (internal walls that subdivide each locule), such as in "Datura" and some members of the Lycieae (the genera "Grabowskia" and "Vassobia").