How to distinguish crowdfunding, private placement, direct investment, venture capital and ipo?

Crowdfunding is translated from abroad, that is, public fund-raising or public fund-raising, which is translated as "public fund-raising" in Hongkong and "public fund-raising" in Taiwan Province Province. It consists of sponsors, investors and platforms. It has the characteristics of low threshold, diversity, relying on the strength of the masses and paying attention to creativity. It refers to an act of raising funds from the masses to support the initiated individuals or organizations.

Compared with public offering, private placement refers to the sale of shares by a small number of qualified investors (usually less than 35), which can avoid the registration procedure with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Investors should sign an investment statement, and the purpose of buying is to invest, not to sell again.

Direct investment refers to investing in the equity of a non-public offering company, and the investment income will be realized by selling the equity when the enterprise goes public or merges. Previously, brokers could only use their own funds for direct investment business, and the upper limit of their own funds was 15% of the net capital of securities companies. This regulation limits the registered capital of direct investment subsidiaries of most securities companies to 654.38 billion yuan, which objectively limits their business development.

Venture Capital (VC for short) is a conventional concept with specific connotation in China, but it is more appropriate to translate it into venture capital. Venture capital in a broad sense refers to all investments with high risks and high potential returns; In a narrow sense, venture capital refers to the investment in the production and operation of technology-intensive products based on high technology.

Initial public offering (IPO): refers to the first time that an enterprise or company (joint stock limited company) sells its shares to the public (IPO refers to the way that a joint stock company makes an initial public offering to the public).