Private equity (PE) refers to investment funds organized as limited partnerships that invest in public and private firms using various strategies such as leveraged buyout, growth capital, mezzanine capital, venture capital etc Typical investors in PE are large institutional investors and wealthy individuals. Venture capital (VC) is a subcategory of PE concentrating on investments made in less mature, early stage companies. The PE market has grown significantly since 1980s and has become one of the most important financial markets globally. This course will introduce the methodologies used in PE finance and employ the case method to study PE deals. PE is a great lab to study important topics in finance such as capital structure, corporate governance, valuation, asset allocation, organizational restructuring. Throughout the course, PE market is going to be discussed from the perspective of different agents including entrepreneurs, PE fund managers, and the investors in PE funds. The course is going to start with early stage investments in VC market. The objective in this section is to analyze a VC opportunity from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Later, we will discuss private equity and leveraged buyout investments in large companies. In the last part of the course, we will study investments in PE funds and issues related to structuring PE funds.