股权融资是指企业的股东愿意让出部分企业所有权，通过企业增资的方式引进新的股东的融资方式。股权融资所获得的资金，企业无须还本付息，但新股东将与老股东同样分享企业的赢利与增长。
按大类来分，企业的融资方式有两类，债权融资和股权融资。所谓股权融资是指企业的股东愿意让出部分企业所有权，通过企业增资的方式引进新的股东的融资方式。股权融资所获得的资金，企业无须还本付息，但新股东将与老股东同样分享企业的赢利与增长。股权融资的特点决定了其用途的广泛性，既可以充实企业的营运资金，也可以用于企业的投资活动;债权融资是指企业通过借钱的方式进行融资，债权融资所获得的资金，企业首先要承担资金的利息，另外在借款到期后要向债权人偿还资金的本金。债权融资的特点决定了其用途主要是解决企业营运资金短缺的问题，而不是用于资本项下的开支。
股权融资筹措的资金具有永久性，无到期日，不需归还。
企业采用股权融资勿须还本，投资人欲收回本金，需借助于流通市场。
股权融资没有固定的股利负担，股利的支付与否和支付多少视公司的经营需要而定。
股权融资按融资的渠道来划分，主要有两大类，公开市场发售和私募发售。所谓公开市场发售就是通过股票市场向公众投资者发行企业的股票来募集资金，包括我们常说的企业的上市、上市企业的增发和配股都是利用公开市场进行股权融资的具体形式。所谓私募发售，是指企业自行寻找特定的投资人，吸引其通过增资入股企业的融资方式。因为绝大多数股票市场对于申请发行股票的企业都有一定的条件要求，例如中国对公司上市除了要求连续3年赢利之外，还要企业有5000万的资产规模，因此对大多数中小企业来说，较难达到上市发行股票的门槛，私募成为民营中小企业进行股权融资的主要方式。
私募发售
私募发售在当前的环境下，是所有融资方式中，民营企业比国有企业占优势的融资方式。产权关系简单，无需进行国有资产评估，没有国有资产管理部门和上级主管部门的监管股权融资股权融资，大大降低了民营企业通过私募进行股权融资的交易成本，并且提高了融资效率。私募成为近几年来经济活动最活跃的领域。对于企业，私募融资不仅仅意味着获取资金，同时，新股东的进入也意味着新合作伙伴的进入。新股东能否成为一个理想的合作伙伴，对企业来说，无论是当前还是未来，其影响都是积极而深远的。在私募领域，不同类型的投资者对企业的影响是不同的，在中国有以下几类的投资者:个人投资者、风险投资机构、产业投资机构和上市公司。
个人投资者，虽然投资的金额不大，一般在几万元到几十万元之间，但在大多数民营企业的初创阶段起了至关重要的资金支持作用，这类投资人很复杂，有的人直接参与企业的日常经营管理，也有的人只是作为股东关注企业的重大经营决策。这类投资者往往与企业的创始人有密切的私人关系，随着企业的发展，在获得相应的回报后，一般会淡出对企业的影响。
风险投资机构，是90年代后期在中国发展最快的投资力量，其涉足的领域主要与高技术相关。在2000年互联网狂潮中，几乎每一家.COM公司都有风险投资资金的参与。国外如IDG、Softbank、ING等，国内如上海联创、北京科投、广州科投等都属于典型的风险投资机构。他们能为企业提供几百万乃至上千万的股权融资。风险投资机构追求资本增值的最大化，他们的最终目的是通过上市、转让或并购的方式，在资本市场退出，特别是通过企业上市退出是他们追求的最理想方式。
上述特点决定了选择风险投资机构对于民营企业的好处在于:⑴没有控股要求;⑵有强大的资金支持;⑶不参与企业的日常管理; ⑷能改善企业的股东背景，有利于企业进行二次融资;⑸可以帮助企业规划未来的再融资及寻找上市渠道。但同时，风险投资机构也有其不利之处，他们主要追逐企业在短期的资本增值，容易与企业的长期发展形成冲突，另外，风险投资机构缺少提升企业能力的管理资源和业务资源。
产业投资机构，又称策略投资者，他们的投资目的是希望被投资企业能与自身的主业的融合或互补，形成协同效应。该类投资者对民营企业融资的有利之处非常明显:⑴具备较强的资金实力和后续资金支持能力;⑵有品牌号召力;⑶业务的协同效应;⑷在企业文化、管理理念上与被投企业比较接近，容易相处;⑸可以向被投企业输入优秀的企业文化和管理理念。其不利之处在于:⑴可能会要求控股;⑵产业投资者若自身经营出现问题，对被投企业会产生资者进入，影响企业的后续融资。负面影响;⑶可能会对被投企业的业务发展领域进行限制;⑷可能会限制新投资者进入，影响企业的后续融资。
上市公司，作为私募融资的重要参与者，在中国有其特别的行为方式。特别是主营业务发展出现问题的上市公司，由于上市时募集了大量资金，参与私募大多是是利用资金优势为企业注入新概念或购买利润，伺机抬高股价，以达到维持上市资格或再次圈钱的目的。当然，也不乏一些有长远战略眼光的上市企业，因为看到了被投资企业广阔的市场前景和巨大发展空间，投资是为了其产业结构调整的需要。但不管是哪类上市企业，他们都会要求控股，以达到合并财务报表的需要。对这样的投资者，民营企业必须十分谨慎，一旦出让控股权，又无法与控股股东达成一致的观念，企业的发展就会面临巨大的危机。
以上各种投资者，民营企业可以根据自身业务特点或经营方向进行选择。
公开发售
通过公开市场发售的方式来进行融资是大多数民营企业梦寐以求的融资方式，企业上市一方面会为企业募集到巨额的资金，另一方面，资本市场将给企业一个市场化的定价，使民营企业的价值为市场所认可，为民营企业的股东带来巨额财富。
与其他融资方式相比，企业通过上市来募集资金有突出的优点，⑴募集资金的数量巨大;⑵原股东的股权和控制权稀释得较少;⑶有利于提高企业的知名度;⑷有利于利用资本市场进行后续的融资。但由于公开市场发售要求的门槛较高，只有发展到一定阶段，有了较大规模和较好赢利的民营企业才有可能考虑这种方式。
与银行贷款类似，民营企业上市在国内的资本市场上也面临不公正的对待，虽然在相关的法律和法规中找不到限制民营企业上市的规定，但在实际审批中，上市的机会绝大多数都给了国有企业，很多民营企业只能通过借壳上市或买壳上市的方式绕过直接上市的限制进入资本市场，期待通过未来的配股或增发来融资。
优势
股权融资在企业投资与经营方面具有以下优势:
⑴股权融资需要建立较为完善的公司法人治理结构。公司的法人治理结构一般由股东大会、董事会、监事会、高级经理组成，相互之间形成多重风险约束和权利制衡机制。降低了企业的经营风险。
⑵在现代金融理论中，证券市场又称公开市场，它指的是在比较广泛的制度化的交易场所，对标准化的金融产品进行买卖活动，是在一定的市场准入、信息披露、公平竞价交易、市场监督制度下规范进行的。与之相对应的贷款市场，又称协议市场，亦即在这个市场上，贷款者与借入者的融资活动通过直接协议。在金融交易中，人们更重视的是信息的公开性与可得性。所以证券市场在信息公开性和资金价格的竞争性两方面来讲优于贷款市场。
⑶如果借贷者在企业股权结构中占有较大份额，那么他运用企业借款从事高风险投资和产生道德风险的可能性就将大为减小。因为如果这样做，借款者自己也会蒙受巨大损失，所以借款者的资产净值越大，借款者按照贷款者的希望和意愿行事的动力就越大，银行债务拖欠和损失的可能性就越小。
风险缺陷
当企业在利用股权融资对外筹集资金时，企业的经营管理者就可能产生进行各种非生产性的消费，采取有利于自己而不利于股东的投资政策等道德风险行为，导致经营者和股东的利益冲突。Jensen & Mecking(1976)认为当融资活动被视为契约安排时，对于股权契约，由于存在委托(股东)――代理(经理人)关系，代理人的目标函数并不总是和委托人相一致，而产生代理成本。
代理人利用委托人的授权为增加自己的收益而损害和侵占委托人的利益时，就会产生严重的道德风险和逆向选择。对于解决经营者的这种道德风险，转换融资方式，企业投资所需的部分资金通过负债的方式来筹集被认为是比较有效的方法。经营管理者的道德风险主要源于管理者持股比例过低，只要提高管理者的持股比例就能有效地抑制其道德风险。因此，在管理者的持股比率不变的情况下，在企业的融资结构中，增加负债的利用额，使管理者的持股比率相对上升，就能有效地防止经营者的道德风险，缓解经营者与股东之间的利益冲突;
另一方面，由于负债的利息采用固定支付的方式，负债的利用有利于削减企业的闲余现金收益流量。在Jensen & Mecking的分析框架中，债务是通过提高经理的股权比例来降低股权的代理成本的。因此，对管理者几乎或根本不拥有股权的大型现代公司解释力不足。Grossman & Hart(1982)弥补了这个缺陷，在他们的研究中假定经营层在企业中持股比例为零或接近于零，这时债务可视为一种担保机制，从而降低代理成本。当企业利用负债融资时，如果企业经营不善，经营状况恶化、债权人有权对企业进行破产清算，这时，企业经营管理者将承担因企业破产而带来的企业控制权的丧失。因此债务融资可以被当作一种缓和股东和经理冲突的激励机制。
Equity financing refers to the way that the shareholders are willing to give up part of the ownership of the enterprise, and to introduce new shareholders by way of capital increase. Equity financing to obtain funds, companies do not have to repay the debt, but the new shareholders will also share with the old shareholders of the company's profits and growth.
According to the major categories, there are two types of corporate financing, debt financing and equity financing. The so-called equity financing refers to the shareholders of the company is willing to give up part of the ownership of enterprises, through the introduction of a new way of financing the company's shareholders. Equity financing to obtain funds, companies do not have to repay the debt, but the new shareholders will also share with the old shareholders of the company's profits and growth. Equity financing is decided by the characteristics of its wide use, can not only enrich the enterprise operating funds, can also be used for investment activities of enterprises; debt financing refers to enterprises to borrow money to finance by way of debt financing obtained funds, enterprises must bear interest on the funds, in addition to the borrower to repay the funds to expire the principal creditors. The characteristics of the creditor's rights financing determine that its main purpose is to solve the problem of the shortage of working capital, rather than the capital expenditure.
The financing of equity financing is permanent, no maturity date, no return.
Enterprises do not have to use equity financing debt, investors want to recover the principal, with the help of the circulation market.
Equity financing does not have a fixed dividend burden, the payment of dividends or not and how much to pay depends on the company's business needs.
Equity financing by financing channels to divide, there are two main categories, open market offering and private offering. The so-called open market sale is to the public investors to issue shares in companies to raise funds through the stock market, including we often say that the listed companies, listed companies and additional shares is the specific form of equity financing by the open market. The so-called private offering, refers to the enterprise to find their own specific investors, to attract their financing through the capital increase shares of enterprises. Because most of the stock market are required for certain conditions for the issuance of stock companies, such as Chinese of Listed Companies in addition to profit for 3 consecutive years, but also has 50 million enterprises of asset size, so for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is more difficult to achieve the stock issuance threshold, private equity has become the main way of small and medium-sized private enterprises equity financing.
Private offering
Private placement in the current environment, is the way in which all financing, private enterprises than state-owned enterprises dominant financing. Property relation is simple, without the need for assessment of state-owned assets, equity financing equity financing without supervision of state-owned assets management departments and the competent department, greatly reduce the private enterprise financing through private equity transaction costs, and improve the efficiency of financing. Private equity has become the most active area of economic activity in recent years. For enterprises, private equity financing means not only to get the same time, the entry of new shareholders also means that the entry of new partners. The new shareholders can become an ideal partner, for the enterprise, whether it is the present or the future, its impact is positive and far-reaching. In the private sector, the impact of different types of investors on the enterprise is different, there are several types of investors in China: individual investors, venture capital institutions, industrial investment institutions and listed companies.
Individual investors, although the investment amount is small, usually in a few million to several hundred thousand yuan, but played a crucial role in financial support in the start-up phase, the majority of private enterprises, the investor is very complex, some people directly involved in the daily management of the enterprise, but also some people are just as concerned about corporate shareholder decision-making. Such investors tend to have a close personal relationship with the founder of the enterprise, with the development of the enterprise, after obtaining the appropriate return, generally fade out the impact on the enterprise.
Venture capital institutions, is the fastest growing investment in China in the late 90s, the field of its involvement with high-tech related. In the 2000 Internet craze, almost every.COM company has the participation of venture capital funds. Foreign countries such as IDG, Softbank, ING, such as Shanghai LIAN, Beijing branch cast, Guangzhou branch investment are typical venture capital institutions. They can provide millions of millions of equity financing. The maximum risk investment institutions to pursue capital appreciation, their ultimate goal is through the listing, transfer or acquisition, exit in the capital market, especially the listed companies exit is the most ideal way they pursue.
These characteristics determine the choice of risk investment institutions for private enterprise benefit is that: 1 there is no holding requirements; it has strong financial support; it does not participate in the daily management of the enterprise; the enterprise can improve the shareholder background, is conducive to enterprise financing two times; it can help enterprises to plan future refinancing and seek listing channel. But at the same time, the risk investment institutions have their drawbacks, they mainly pursue enterprises in the short-term capital appreciation, easy formation of the conflict, and the long-term development of the enterprise and the lack of risk investment institutions to improve enterprise capability management resources and business resources.
Industrial investment institutions, also known as strategic investors, the purpose of their investment is to be able to invest in their own business with the main business of the integration or complementarity, the formation of synergies. The advantage of investors on the financing of private enterprises is very obvious: it has strong financial strength and ability to support the follow-up funds; the brand appeal; the synergistic effect in the enterprise business;