Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) have motivated significant attention from researchers over the past thirty years. Using an in-depth analysis of 2,386 research articles, we map the intellectual framework and rising topics in this area. Combining bibliometric network analysis, including co-citation, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling, with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling, provides a data-driven, complementary overview of the research landscape. Our analysis identifies and interprets five interdisciplinary themes: (1) Financial Performance and Market Economics, focusing on investment returns and economic impact; (2) Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, examining the role of VC in technology development and new venture creation; (3) Governance, Agency, and Organizational Control, addressing investor oversight and value creation mechanisms; (4) Relational Networks and Strategic Alliances, exploring syndication and social capital impact; and (5) Firm-Level Transformation and Human Capital, focusing on operational and strategic changes post-investment. The study quantifies the influence of key publications, authors and conceptual pillars, and examines the distribution of topics in different time periods. We derive critical future research directions from our results, which have implications for researchers, practitioners and policymakers, offering a robust foundation for strategic planning and further academic enquiry within the VC and PE landscape.