The determinants of Public Grants and Venture Capital financing: Evidence from Europe

This analysis compares the characteristics of firms supported by public and private sources in early-stage financing to investigate funding patterns for innovative companies. It examines whether the two sources of funding target similar firms in the period 2008-2017 using a portfolio approach on EU-based firms raising either Venture Capital financing, public grants under the Horizon 2020 ‘SME Instrument’ scheme, or both. The findings show that venture capitalists finance more innovative and younger firms, whereas public investors focus on smaller companies. This pattern is supported by robustness checks and expansions that address multiple dimensions of heterogeneity behaviours in the interaction of private and public funding.