The role of venture capital in financing innovations

Abstract

In hereby article the author discusses the problem of financing innovation, especially the disruptive (or breakthrough) innovation. This type of innovation has some special features that make them different than incremental ones. First of all disruptive innovations are the ones that have great – growth creating potential. They are new products or services that replace the existing ones. They break the present production cycle. They cause risk and uncertainty. And they provoke entrepreneur’s risk-averse behavior. Because if profits motivate entrepreneurship, uncertainty demotivates it. High uncertainty, high capital intensity and high profits prospects make investing in this sort of innovation aq potentially interesting issue. There is a common perception that Venture Capital has become an intermediary in financial markets, providing capital to firms that might otherwise have difficulty attracting financing. As these firms are thought to be small, young and innovative, plagued by the “liability of newness”, Venture Capital is expected to fulfill an important role in the economy – it is meant to be a tool of financing to novel and risky ventures and, hence, it is a drive of the technological and economic progress. The goal of the article is an attempt to answer the question if the venture capital is a risk-loving or risk-averse capital. Methods used are critical analysis of literature, data analysis. The goal of the article is to show the role VC plays in financing Europe’s innovations, and to answer the question if VC is a risk-loving capital.