Annalisa Croce’s research while affiliated with Politecnico di Milano and other places

This study examines how venture capital (VC) firms have modified their short-term investment practices in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We categorise VCs’ investment practices according to their level of visibility to external parties and hypothesise that unobservable investment practices are more likely modified than observable ones, since VC firms must comply with the objectives stated in their contracts with limited partners (LPs), and deviations may be viewed negatively by investors. Changing investment practices may have a negative impact on a VC firm’s reputation, but this potential reputational damage could vary along with the reputational capital already possessed by the VC firm and its degree of exposure in a VCs’ network. An empirical analysis based on a global survey of VC firms confirms these theoretical presumptions, shedding light on how the industry operates and responds to unique crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, younger and smaller VC firms are found to be more reluctant than larger and older ones to modify observable investment practices. Similarly, VC firms that are more central in a network of investors are also found to be more hesitant to modify observable investment practices.

We investigate how bank-affiliated VCs (BVCs) change their investment strategy in fintech startups relative to independent VCs (IVCs) after the global financial crisis (GFC). To this end, we use the concept of mimetic isomorphism as a theoretical lens. We measure the innovation level of invested ventures by resorting to patent and patent quality data and several proxies deriving from text mining and semantic network analysis. We look at the selection dynamics of VCs based on the innovation level of their target ventures. We analyze data on VC investments in 6711 fintech ventures worldwide from 1995 to 2019. Our findings show that BVCs have changed, compared to IVCs, their patterns of investments after the exogenous shock provided by the GFC. While BVCs selected less innovative ventures compared to IVCs before the crisis, they aligned with IVCs by choosing more innovative ventures after the crisis.

The paper examines the impact of venture capital (VC) financing on the growth of cleantech companies, using newly available data and a more comprehensive perspective on the sector. The analysis is conducted on a sample of 24,538 European cleantech companies identified using machine learning techniques, 401 of which received a first VC investment between 1988 and 2023. To adequately control for selection bias, we applied a matching procedure that allowed the creation of two control groups: one consisting of non-VC-backed cleantech companies and another of non-cleantech VC-backed companies. Our analysis reveals that, in terms of selection, investors discount the inherent risk of the sector by investing in fast-growing cleantech companies. Regarding the impact of VC on invested cleantech companies, when the differences at selection are neutralised, our results suggest that VC effectively supports the growth of invested cleantech companies, with a more pronounced effect in the short term.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have significantly attracted the attention of institutional investors over the last decade. However, previous literature has not deeply explored the characteristics of venture capital (VC) investments in AI ventures. In this study, we explore whether and to what extent investments in AI ventures differ from those in similar non-AI ventures, and whether they are moderated by venture-level, country-level, and investor-level factors. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 5235 investments in 2689 AI ventures and 9215 investments in 4373 non-AI ventures belonging to the Industry 4.0 domain, observed from 2000 to 2019. We find that the amount invested in AI ventures is significantly lower than non-AI ones: this negative relationship is, however, moderated by a venture’s development stage, VC investor’s experience and the AI development level of the country in which the invested venture operates.

In this paper, we rely on the information asymmetries framework and relationship lending theory to study how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’s access to bank credit improves after the issuance of a Minibond. Minibonds are fixed-income securities issued by SMEs aimed at supporting growth projects and refinancing operations. They were introduced by different European countries only recently, in response to the European sovereign debt crisis, which considerably constrained bank credit for SMEs. Using a representative sample of Italian companies that issued Minibonds in the 2012–2020 period, we find support to our hypotheses. Issuing Minibonds helps SMEs access higher amounts of debt and improves credit conditions in terms of cost of debt and debt maturity, but with some caveats: only Minibonds issued with lower interest rates and longer maturities lead to better access to credit. Moreover, we find that some companies more exposed to information asymmetries (i.e. younger), with better access to transaction lending (depending on their location) and with larger amounts of collateral available (i.e., tangible assets) benefit more from Minibond issuance.

The EIF Private Equity Mid-Market Survey and the EIF Venture Capital Survey (the largest combined regular survey exercises among General Partners on a pan-European level) provide an opportunity to retrieve unique market insights. This publication is based on the results of the 2023 EIF Private Equity Mid-Market Survey, conducted by the EIF. The paper focuses on the market sentiment, as well as on issues related to scale-up financing and human capital. The study looks at the current situation, developments in the recent past and expectations for the future. It highlights substantial challenges, but also opportunities as perceived by survey participants. The main results are summarised and compared over time. The publication provides a valuable picture of the developments in the PE mid-market sector in 2023, as well as an outlook for the near future.

The EIF VC Survey and the EIF Private Equity Mid-Market Survey (the largest combined regular survey exercises among General Partners on a pan-European level) provide an opportunity to retrieve unique market insights. This publication is based on the results of the 2023 VC Survey, conducted by the EIF with the support of Invest Europe. The paper focuses on the market sentiment as well as on issues related to scale-up financing and EU strategic autonomy. The study looks at the current situation, developments in the recent past and expectations for the future. It highlights substantial challenges, but also opportunities as perceived by survey participants. The main results are summarised and compared over time. The publication provides a valuable picture of the developments in the VC market in 2023 as well as an outlook for the near future.