Venture Capital Syndicate Networks -The Determinants of Interconnectedness

This paper examines the German venture capital (VC) syndicate networks and towhat extent certain characteristics of VC companies determine the investors’interconnectedness. The data used contains detailed information on 300 VCinvestments and their investors from the years 2004 and 2005. The analysis showsthat the age of the VC companies dichotomously influences the syndicatenetworks of the investors – a negative influence for young and very old VC firmsand a positive one for those firms in which are not very old. In contrast, the fact ofbeing privately held or under governmental influence does not affect the numberof network ties of the VC firms. The analysis reveals no indication for anygeographical or spatial influences on the number of syndication partners that a VCcompany has within its network...