This paper reflects on the policy formation process in the burgeoning area of government’s involvement venture capital finance (VC) over the two decades 2000-2020. It looks at both why and how government VC funds (GVC) have evolved. The increasingly common vehicle of ‘hybrid’ co-investment...

The valuation of start-up firms is challenging, yet highly relevant for entrepreneurs and financiers alike. We reverse-engineer fair-value multiples by comparing the firm value at the time of financing with the firm value at the time of exit. Our framework produces reliable valuation multiples...

We examine the drivers of venture capital financing raised by eSports companies, using the CrunchBase database containing information on private and public companies receiving any type of venture capital funding worldwide. We find that companies located in Asia-Pacific and Americas attract more...

Business development companies (“BDCs”) offer retail investors the allure of becoming venture capitalists, funding emerging enterprises with the help of professional asset managers. BDCs are investment companies that finance businesses traditionally locked out of conventional capital...

This study analyzes the effects of the 2000-2001 dot-com crisis and the 2008-2009 financial crisis on venture capital syndication. Using propensity score matching analysis, we show that during the two crises, VCFs had a lower tendency to syndicate their investments, and the size of the...

Peer-to-business lending refers to online platforms facilitating loans from individuals to smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We conjecture that easy-to-understand risk ratings conveyed by the platform play a pronounced role in influencing the borrowing success of SMEs and that more...

It is still an open question what kind of smart capital relational investors actually supply. We divide smart capital into several components and conduct a survey among 85 German suppliers of start-up finance. The results show that the degree of "smartness" is determined by the financial product...