Deal Selection and Investor Value-Added in Entrepreneurial Equity Financing

This book presents empirical analyses which investigate entrepreneurial equity investors’ investment choices and value-added to portfolio companies. The results suggest that equity-crowdfunded companies’ subsequent performance is causally negatively affected compared to peers that use traditional entrepreneurial equity financing, since equity crowdfunders add less value to portfolio companies than venture capitalists and business angels. Additional analyses suggest that venture capital investors’ specialisation in certain branches of industry has opposite effects on their ability to select companies with high potential and add value to them. High levels of industry specialisation positively affect venture capitalists’ ability to select companies with high potential but are detrimental to investors’ value-added. These effects also have demonstrable implications for the formation and composition of investment syndicates.