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　　Incubator : An entity designed to nurture business concepts or new technologies to the point that they become attractive to venture capitalists. An incubator typically provides both physical space and some or all of the services-legal, managerial, and/or technical-needed for a business concept to be developed. Incubators often are backed by venture firms, which use them to generate early-stage investment opportunities.

　　Information Rights: Rights granting access to company's information, i.e. inspecting the company books and receiving financial statements, budgets and executive summaries.

　　Initial Public Offering (IPO): The sale or distribution of a stock of a portfolio company to the public for the first time. IPOs are often an opportunity for the existing investors (often venture capitalists) to receive significant returns on their original investment. During periods of market downturns or corrections the opposite is true.

　　Institutional Investors: Organizations that professionally invest, including insurance companies, depository institutions, pension funds, investment companies, mutual funds, and endowment funds.

　　Intellectual property : A venture's intangible assets, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, and brand name.

　　Investment Bankers : Representatives of financial institutions engaged in the issue of new securities, including management and underwriting of issues as well as securities trading and distribution.

　　Investment Company Act of 1940: Investment Company Act shall mean the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, including the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

　　Investment Letter: A letter signed by an investor purchasing unregistered long securities under Regulation D, in which the investor attests to the long-term investment nature of the purchase. These securities must be held for a minimum of 1 year before they can be sold.

　　IRA Rollover: The reinvestment of assets received as a lump-sum distribution from a qualified tax-deferred retirement plan. Reinvestment may be the entire lump sum or a portion thereof. If reinvestment is done within 60 days, there are no tax consequences.

　　IRR: Internal Rate of Return. A typical measure of how VC Funds measure performance. IRR is a technically a discount rate: the rate at which the present value of a series of investments is equal to the present value of the returns on those investments.

　　ISO: Incentive Stock Option. Plan which qualifying options are free of tax at the date of grant and the date of exercise. Profits on shares sold after being held at least 2 years from the date of grant or 1 year from the date of exercise are subject to favorable capital gains tax rate. Click here for detail from the VC Encyclopedia……

　　Issue Price : The price per share deemed to have been paid for a series of Preferred Stock. This number is important because Cumulative Dividends, the Liquidation Preference and Conversion Ratios are all based on Issue Price. In some cases, it is not the actual price paid. The most common example is where a company does a bridge financing (a common way for investors to provide capital without having to value the Company as a whole) and sells debt that is convertible into the next series of Preferred Stock sold by the Company at a discount to the Issue Price.

　　Issued Shares: The amount of common shares that a corporation has sold (issued).

　　Issuer: Refers to the organization issuing or proposing to issue a security.