Capital investment is the procurement of money by a company in order to further its business goals and objectives. The term can also refer to a company's acquisition of long-term assets such as real estate, manufacturing plants and machinery.
In either case, the money for capital investment must come from somewhere. A new company might seek capital investment from any number of sources, including venture capital firms, angel investors and traditional financial institutions. The company uses the capital to further develop and market its products. When a new company goes public, it is acquiring capital investment on a large scale from many investors.
An established company might make a capital investment using its own cash reserves, or seek a loan from a bank. If it is a public company, it might issue a bond in order to finance capital investment.
There is no minimum or maximum capital investment. It can range from less than $100,000 in seed financing for a start-up, to hundreds of millions of dollars for massive projects undertaken by companies in capital-intensive sectors such as mining, utilities and infrastructure.