Some venture capitalist will invest in companies that are looking for capital injections in the range of 500,000 to 1 million, while others will only invest 1 million and upwards. It all depends on the individual venture firm and their internal investment profile. Be sure to approach only the venture capital firms that will invest in your type of business and provide the type of financial requirements you have. In general, venture capital financing is costly. VCs will take a substantial part of your business in return for their investment and they will usually demand one or more seats on your board, making them part of the decision-making process.
Venture capitalists are in the world to make money.
So before they will invest, they must be convinced that your business shows great potential. The other important point to remember is that VCs are often expert in their chosen sectors, and have huge networks of invaluable contacts that can help your business along the way. It may also pay you to add an experienced entrepreneur with strong links to one or more firms of VCs to your management team, perhaps as a non-executive director. Then it's back to the valuation game, as you try to work out how much of your enterprise you must give away in return for the cash investment. The percentage of shares you give to a VC is not necessarily dependent on the amount of money you want to raise or the voting structure.