What is private equity?

Private equity funds and investors get a lot of attention, but what are they, and why should you care?

Private equity
(Image credit: Getty)

Private equity companies invest in private businesses on behalf of their investors. 

When a company is listed on the stock market, it is described as being a public company, whereas interests in private companies are not publicly traded

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Jacob Wolinsky

Jacob is an entrepreneur, hedge-fund expert and the founder and CEO of ValueWalk. 

What started as a hobby in 2011 morphed into a well-known financial media empire focusing in particular on simplifying the opaque world of the hedge fund. 

Before devoting all his time to ValueWalk, Jacob worked as an equity analyst specialising in mid- and small-cap stocks. Jacob also worked in business development for hedge funds. 

He lives with his wife and five children in New Jersey. 

Jacob only invests in broad-based ETFs and mutual funds to avoid any conflict of interest that could arise from buying individual stocks.