1 The Venture Capital Investment Process In Greece: Some Evaluation Aspects M. Bakatsaki-Manoudaki, K. Kosmidou, G. Papadopoulos, C. Zopounidis Technical University of Crete Dept. of Production Engineering and Management Financial Engineering Laboratory University Campus 73100 Chania, Greece The term “Venture Capital” is quite new in Greece and in the beginning was referred only to the ventures of new innovative firms. Recently it has been expanded to include a wide range of financing, which already covers the existing developed firms. The Venture Capital was firstly appeared in U.S.A. in the early of 40’s and later in Europe in the early of 70’s. The foundation of venture capital firms was introduced with the laws No 1775/88 & No 2166/93, but due to their insufficient results the law No 2367/95 was instituted to reject the two previous in period of two years and to change the name of the venture capital firms. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of Venture Capital in Greece. The realization of this development was succeeded via a) a questionnaire, which was sent to all the venture capital firms of Greece and b) interviews, which were held to the managers of the venture capital firms. Consequently, the objective of this paper deals with the results of this research, which are: - The development and the investment policy of the venture capital firms (geographical division of the invested amounts, sectorial division, type of venture capital (seed capital, start-up financing, etc ) - The decision procedure, which is adopted by the venture capital firms (time-sharing of the venture capital process, evaluation criteria). Finally, the paper deals with the conclusions derived from this market research and the development perspectives of the venture capital firms in Greece. Keywords: Venture Capital, Investment policy, Evaluation criteria, Statistical Analysis 1. Introduction The Venture Capital (VC) was firstly appeared in the U.S.A. in the early of 40’s and since then it has been expanded worldwide. The VC finances new companies or start-ups especially those that develop new technologies and conquer new markets and helps them to grow and become profitable. At the same time, VC contributes to the development of business spirit. The profits from the use of VC as financing tool, according to the authors Ganetsou and Fronistas (1995), could be categorized in two levels: (1)in the economy of a country, and (2)in the firm. In the level of economy, the two authors report that VC facilitates the foundation of new enterprises and simultaneously supports the renewal and modernization of the already existing companies, contributing to the economic growth and the confrontation against the unemployment. For example in the U.S.A. the 4% from the developing companies which were financed from VC created the 70% of the new places of work. In France, the firms, that are financed by VC, contributed to an increase of 34% to the working places, 42% to the sales, 80% to the exportations as well as a duplicating of the investments in the period 1981-1991. Concerning the level of the firm, VC allows the firm to accomplish the necessary investments of growth and modernization without the imminent financial risk due to the loans. At the same Ε Βαα:  τ α τ σ, ΕΕ, Αα, 3-5 Ι 2006, Αα