Financing Innovation in Italy: An Analysis of Venture Capital and Private Equity Investments

34 Pages Posted: 25 Mar 2014

Date Written: October 25, 2013

Abstract

Using a unique data set, this paper describes the main features of the venture capital industry in Italy. Operations by Italian specialised venture capitalists are only in part devoted to small, young firms from advanced industries, have a rather short duration and are weakly focused on a few firms or sectors. Furthermore, young innovative firms receiving private-equity capital – from both ‘venture-capital’ funds and other private-equity funds – are usually also financed by banks, both at the start and the end of the investment, and the fund’s commitment tends to reduce the cost of credit to only a limited extent. Overall, an ‘equity-then-credit’ sequence does not clearly emerge in the financing strategies of young and high-tech Italian firms, suggesting that funds play a weak signalling or scouting role vis-à-vis the banking system.

Keywords: venture capital, SMEs, innovation financing

JEL Classification: G21, G23, G24

Suggested Citation

Vacca, Valerio Paolo, Financing Innovation in Italy: An Analysis of Venture Capital and Private Equity Investments (October 25, 2013). Bank of Italy Occasional Paper No. 209, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2413485 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2413485

Valerio Paolo Vacca (Contact Author)

Bank of Italy ( email )

Via Nazionale 91
Rome, 00184
Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
377
Abstract Views
14,889
Rank
144,516
PlumX Metrics